Name that tune (if you can find it)
My first step was to pull all the CD’s I could find out of hiding. They were piled everywhere -- in, on, inside our entertainment center and the CD player. There were loose CD’s, cases with nothing inside, and a lot of dust.
The dust was the easiest thing to take care of. But then I had to do something with all those piles.
My first realization was that I knew nothing about 90% of the CD’s. So I had to coerce my husband to go through them with me. We’ve now made an initial pass, dividing them into categories like classical, jazz, broadway, Jewish, mix, inherited from our children, get-rid-of, etc. I fear the get-rid-of pile isn’t nearly large enough.
I have further organized the classical piles -- some by composer, some by performer, some as “mix”. I’m not sure what happens next, other than the fact that we have to figure out some way to store them so we can find what we’re looking for.
But then it suddenly dawned on me that we seldom play music from CD’s any longer, instead using music that comes from iTunes and other sources. So what’s to become of the hundreds of CD’s we’ve amassed?
The other realization is we no longer need the carrying cases for cassette tapes and CD’s.
We haven’t even begun to deal with the movies on VHS, the cassettes, the vinyl records. I will be happy if we just get the CD’s organized.
The first great find of the morning was this disc from my friend KC’s set of Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories that was still in the CD player from when I was recuperating from my hip surgery. It can finally be returned.
The other great find of the morning was my favorite Arthur Rubenstein CD, which had been missing from its case for almost a decade. I kept telling myself it would eventually turn up and so it has.
The gym is looking inviting after dealing with this chaos!
posted by Barbara at 1:03 PM
10 Comments:
Hey Barbara - I'm on my DIL's computer - translate trish into pauline :)
I'm impressed with your progress but jeeze, all this cleaning and sorting and reorganizing has given me the itch to get back to my little cottage and get things in order!
As a haha funny aside, my word verification was dumpu!
Pauline -- The size of your cottage has probably forced you not to let things get so out of hand. Sometimes small is beautiful!
(And here I thought I had a new reader named Trish! :)
I've been desperate to do something with my DVDs - your efforts might just prove the kickstart I need. (Thanks for that.) It looks like you've been doing a great job!
We have boxes and boxes of CDs in storage. I sort of feel like downloading them all into iTunes or into an external hard drive or something and then getting rid of them. I feel like it but it remains to be seen whether or not I'll follow through.
Ack - what a job! I don't have too many CD's - but they are almost all classical. I am sad that I have tapes and nowhere to play them; not to mention 33's and 78's. I am such a Luddite - no iPod and I don't want to walk around plugged into my iPhone, either. I just use the Internet's myriad classical stations and listen on the computer (sans earphones). What a daunting job - better you than me! BOOKS are my nemesis - I cannot throw them out and hate to sell/give them away. Do I have hoarder's disease?
I'm a "Luddite" too -- still have LPs, audiocassettes, many hundreds of CDs, VHS tapes, etc. I dislike listening to music via the computer, but recognize the great convenience and accessibility benefits! In some ways I'm a very "tangible" sort of person -- like to touch, feel, and hold my books, photos, music, etc. Barbara, I love hearing about your episodic purges -- it's inspiring! And how great that you found those missing items.
F.
I converted most of my CDs to MP3s and discarded the CDs. I then burned the music back to CDs, but it allowed me to consolidate several albums onto every disc. (I could eliminate songs or pieces I didn't like.) I stored those in a big book and only kept about 100 of my favorites in their jewel cases with their covers. A lot of work, but much more compact!
Kristin -- I can only imagine how many CD's you have if you have that many cameras!
Cyndy -- Managing things like CD's on a regular basis is a lot of work. My efforts are more like a Band-aid.
Rayna -- I'm so much like you. I contributed only a small fraction to our CD collection. They are mostly classical.
Anon -- Since you are such a music person, I would be curious to know how you file your CD's. Does it vary with genre?
Steve -- Are you going to offer to do this "shrinking" thing for Dave as well? That really takes a lot of work! But knowing what a minimalist you are, it doesn't surprise me in the least.
I've been selling old cd's and dvd's on Amazon with success.
B
Yep, I do have genre categories, each with sub-categories: main groups include boogie-woogie, blues, New Orleans, jazz, Latin, "world" (I'm uncomfortable w/this US-centric pseudo-category! E.g., includes North Indian, African, Trinidadian, gamelan, etc.), roots Americana (banjo, country, etc.), singer/songwriter, rock, funk/disco/R&B, classical, meditation/spiritual, 20th-century stuff (Steve Reich, etc.), musicals/soundtracks, musical instruction/self-study materials, CDs my partner has burned for me, CDs I've played on, CDs by my friends & colleagues, Christmas/holiday, miscellaneous (cartoon music, Hallowe'en, burlesque...). I'm gradually inventorying them. :-)
F.
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