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Cashing Out the CDs

In an effort to slowly "purge" before we move - a date has not been set but 2011 may be the year to buy - I set aside a couple hours this past weekend to rid myself of the hundreds of CD cases that were taking up room in my closet.

At my old apartment, I had all of my CDs in a tower unit that didn't make the cut in the new place. I was convinced I'd come up with a new way of storing them - either using a "back of closet door" elfa system like my sister has or maybe making room on some bookshelves for the stacks. The idea never came so for a year and a half they have been piled up in our guest room closet, making two of my storage bins helpless to other uses. Deciding to move towards a CD-case free life was a hard decision for me. I shook my head at the move to digital music and the idea of the cloud for a long time because I love going to the store and sifting through the racks to find some gems - would I have ever bought the soundtrack to "The Saint," the '90s movie starring Val Kilmer which I still haven't seen, if I hadn't checked out the back and been won over by the inclusion of Duncan Sheik, Sneaker Pimps and Duran Duran?

However, I had to face facts. Most of my music was already digitized - on the computer so in turn it was on my iPod. And I haven't bought a new CD in over a year. Okay, guess its time to de-case.

My music definitely dates me - a slew of mid-90s soundtracks from Clueless to Empire Records to Honeymoon in Vegas. I definitely went through a soundtrack phase, I think they make up a third of my collection! I can also tell what years I was in the Columbia House or BMG music clubs. Quite a few random discs that must have been that tenth or twelfth free one you just settle for to place the initial order. PS. At one time I was in BMG, Columbia House and Columbia House VHS club. That is A LOT of mid-90s pop culture! Speaking of, is anyone looking to buy VHS tapes? I've got a binful! I picked up a no-frills CD book from Target for about $25. It holds 208 which ended up being almost the exact right amount. I had a bit of an overage so decided to save my Harry Connick Jr. collection for its own display somewhere. I can see these being thrown on a shelf in my future craft room/craft nook/craft table shoved in a corner. The whole process took longer than I thought - about an hour and a half later I was all done. The aftermath: If they fit in the slots I saved the inserts, but I had to let a few oversized booklets go - mainly from "Greatest Hits" collections. So there we go - the space taken up by my CDs has decreased tenfold. And the cats have two new bins to jump into and play in until I come up with a use for them!
Posted by Lydia at 5:17 PM Labels: apartment, organization

