Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.
ANNE HERBERT
I am into books. I am into decluttering. Saying those two things together is like saying you are into eating steak and promoting animal rights. This is because books clutter your life. The same can be said for other forms of physical media and even digital media. These collections of media are libraries. I am making my peace with libraries.
Minimalists are notorious for not having libraries of physical media. They hide their media digitally on their Apple products and the iCloud. This seems wonderful until a hurricane knocks out your grid, or you forget your password. For myself, my personal libraries are both physical and digital. I have physical books, an ancient Kindle, and a hard drive with PDF files. On top of this, I have CDs, DVDs, and hoarded links to various articles, podcasts, and videos. My supply of content is diverse, redundant, and limitless. I doubt that there will ever come a time in my life when I will run out of this content even in adverse circumstances.
I don't own much stuff. I have an eclectic collection of tools, clothes, and supplies. I don't pursue hobbies which generates most clutter for men. The closest thing I have to a hobby is this blog which is a digital creation occupying no space in my life. My life is very spartan except for books. I have a decent supply of books on hand. My wife also has books.
I am not a book collector. I don't go chasing rare first editions or any of that. I am also not an audiophile or a cinephile. I don't have a collection so much as a supply. My library of content amounts to a pantry for the mind. That is my best definition of a library.
Libraries are storehouses for supplies for the mind. I do not declutter food unless it has gone to rot. Similarly, why should I feel shame for not decluttering books? If I were a minimalist, I could pare down to just food, water, shelter, and clothing. This is known as existing. This is not the same as living.
Libraries are for living. The life of the mind is second only to the life of the soul, and the two are intertwined. As a Roman Catholic, much of my reading material pertains to my faith. When I read these things, I am loving God with my mind. Consequently, books are indispensable to working out my salvation.
I do declutter books that I have read. I donate these books to the Friends of the Library or the Habitat for Humanity thrift store. I hang on to those volumes that I may need for future reference, but I tend to declutter the fiction once I reach the end.
I feel stress over my reading list as if it were a To Do list, but this is not accurate. I listened to a podcast recently that advised thinking of your reading list not as a bucket but as a river. You dip out what you need for the moment, but you don't try and drink the river. It should reassure us that our reading options will never be exhausted. There will always be more to read.
The best way to limit content consumption is not by supply but time. I tend to do my reading at night during the hours the TV networks call "prime time" which is 8 to 11 p.m. I watch very little television, so I read a chapter from a book and the news from the internet. 10 o'clock is my cutoff. It's not a hard cutoff, but I am tired by then. I cannot do the binge consumption of anything now. My damaged brain won't allow it.
The main point for me is to make peace with my libraries of content and to see them as a supply for the mind instead of clutter in my space. I am selective and restrictive in what I choose to consume, but the supply remains limitless and always will. I will now accept this and embrace this. I will leave decluttering for actual clutter and not for my supplies.
