On the Accumulation of Artifacts

Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

When I read that on Brad Delong's site, it reminded me that Katxena's household has an "if-one-book-is-acquired, one-book-must-go" policy (if memory serves).

...

I don't really have a point, there... we're not really prepared (or equipped) to be that strict at this point.

But, it's notably different, and admirable, and probably what one has to do to avoid becoming one's own janitor.

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I prefer to think of myself as a curator rather than a janitor. Our policy is both more and less stringent than the one you recall. After several massive book purges, we agreed that we wouldn't buy any books *except* for those that fall into defined categories that are of special interest to one or the other of us. But anything in those categories is fair game -- it's not about numbers. We also agreed to get rid of books that we don't have any special attachment to after they have been read. As a result, the total number of books in our household is still increasing, just much more slowly than before.
      ...posted by Katxena on March 9, 2006 1:17 PM

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