Simple Tip #4

Simple Tip #4: Donating, Sharing and Enjoying Entertainment

Now, L.A. essentially is one of the largest capitals of entertainment in the world. There are bookstores around every corner, hundreds of movie theatres, and famous music stores (Amoeba Records anyone?).

If you're like me, then you probably love books, movies, music and other entertainment. If you're also like me, you have an emotional attachment to all of them (especially books).

Well, the sad thing is, you can't always keep all your books unless you intend on reading all of them over and over again or you have a giant library (lucky git, but you should still go through it once and a while). Same goes for movies and music.

So, first off donating. Donating your sources of entertainment is a lot like cleaning out clutter and your clothes. Its the same basic steps: what you need, what you can donate/sell, and what you can throw away.

What you need (or hold most precious is another way of putting it) are going to be the sources of entertainment that you love the most. For me, its Harry Potter, Twilight, the Royal Diaries, and Nancy Drew. These are books that I would never give away, but I will go through my others and willingly pick out books I've never read more than once. The same for music and movies. I would give away a mixtape I got at a concert, but never give away my Panic! CDs. I'd give away Stuart Little, which I've never watched more than once, but not The Young Victoria because its one of my favorites.

The key is merely to decide which things are most important. And eventually you should be able to sort out those things that you lost interest in a long time ago. Those would go to donations so someone else can enjoy what you once did, or you can sell them, and hopefully it will be the same outcome.

What you should throw away are books that are mangled to the point that no one would want it (as much as that would hurt to through away), broken CDs and DVDs, and Videotapes that you can't watch anymore because you don't own a VCR (unless of course, you can donate those to a foundation that still uses VCRs, like schools).

Sharing your entertainment is an excellent option compared to going out and buying new items. Swap movies with friends. Make mixtapes or burn whole CDs. Swap books. Although, you should always make sure that you get your things back within a reasonable amount of time. If you don't want to donate something, see if your friends or family members (outside your immediate family preferably) want it.

Enjoying your entertainment is very important. Once all is said and done, researching events where you can enjoy the things you love is always a good thing.

For book lovers, there is always the UCLA Book Festival, Borders and Barnes and Noble always have author appearances (sometimes just to do book signings or otherwise discussions), or creating book clubs, among other options.

For music lovers, finding cheap concerts or even free ones in L.A. isn't very hard. There are many concerts that have tickets for as low as 10 dollars, Santa Monica Beach sometimes hosts free concerts (a recent one was Jack Johnson), and maybe you have a friend whose in a band; attend a garage concert (or real venue if they play in one) of theirs.

For movie lovers, it can get a bit tricky, especially with the skyrocketing prices of movie tickets these days. A good option is to buy AMC movie passes at Costco for about 40 dollars; these are always perfect gifts for movie lovers too. Century City has free movies in the food court playing all through summer. Culver Plaza Theatres has movies for five bucks.

You should never not enjoy what you love, and that's part of living a good, simple life: Enjoying the things that give you pleasure without going overboard. Donating always makes you feel good, and even in L.A. you don't need to spend tons of money to enjoy yourself.