Oh, I know that sounds like such a bad word, but hear me out.

To be honest, “today’s” challenge has really been going on for the past three days. When I dropped off my oldest at his middle school on Monday, I noticed a sign advertising an upcoming book fair. I asked our carpool companion twins (who are usually more up on these sorts of things) if the school was accepting donations, and they responded yes. Wonderful! Now I just had to figure out where to drop off stacks of books, and when.

And that’s when it got even easier.

As we pulled up into the carpool lane, a parent volunteer handed me a slip of paper, letting me know that the school was looking for donated books, and all I had to do was drop them off any morning during carpool, all week long.

“What about every morning?” I asked.

“We’ll take whatever you’ve got to give!”

So that’s what I’ve done for the past two mornings. Each night, I have wandered about the house from bookshelf to bookshelf, plucking off books that are relatively easy for me to shed. My goal–just two milk crates’ worth of books. That’s all I can fit in my trunk, along with three backpacks and a couple of musical instruments. And that’s about all I can manage in one sitting, without getting too bogged down in deciding what to keep and what to cull.

And that’s been today’s lesson. Or I guess that was Monday’s lesson, if you want to get technical, which has carried over into today–I need to take advantage of every opportunity to make minimizing easier…especially when what I get rid of will ultimately benefit someone else.

Now let’s hope some of those old books actually sell and raise some money for the school!