A Lot of Important Thoughts From a Simple Music CD

In order to make room for the newly inherited and organized photo albums, I had to clean out a cupboard that we rarely use.  It's a cute little cupboard/built-in but it is out of the way to store anything that is frequently useful. It is in the hallway, next to the office and common folk bathroom.  It is perfect to store DVD's, games, and CD's though.  As always, it didn't occur to me to take a photo beforehand so you'll have to trust me. But this is what it looks like on the outside:

The top section was filled with movies.  DVD's, VHS  tapes, and box sets.  I  had even gone as far as to have a section for Christmas movies and books.  (I have issues, I know. Totally aware)  The bottom section was filled with CD's.  I had them stored in miniature apple crates in our old house and somehow they fit perfectly into this cupboard. 

I've talked before about what to do with the hundreds of CD's we have.  Most of the music Kevin wants is loaded onto a SD card in his phone, which is fantastic until the SD card goes away as they sometimes do.  I need to look into online storage for him but it is a lot of data to upload.

I have some music on my phone from CD's but mostly I use Amazon Prime Music or Sirius.  What is on my phone is the Go-To Music, the can't live without stuff. U2, 54/40, Barenaked Ladies (Could I be more Canadian?) 

It boils down to an anxiety thing.  I don't want to let the CD's go because What-If.  Yet, there are so many of them.  Although I do listen to them occasionally.  One would think that with Sirius radio and a billion stations to listen to, I wouldn't get trapped in Radio Hell but I still do.  Radio Hell is when there simply isn't good music playing, or more accurately perhaps, music you're in the mood to hear.  In that case, I have a lone Jack Johnson CD in the truck.  It used to be Bon Jovi, so clearly I've grown.

Here is what I finally did, or am in the process of doing.  I started going through the boxes and taking out CD's that I know I will probably never listen to again.  CD's that were bought on a whim, gifts, or just musical tastes have changed. That act culled a few but not as many as I had hoped.  Then I gave it a few days and went through them again.  I may have taken a few more out but not many.

It is strange how musical tastes change.  Or maybe not taste per se but just plain tired of hearing a song or band.  Especially now that I am at an age that popular music from my youth is being used in commercials and played in grocery stores.  There were a few CD's that I used to love that I was all "Ugh, I'll be happy to never hear that again."

Then I went through again and took out the CD's that I can't live without. The aforementioned bands, Tom Petty, Glee soundtracks, anything from Eminem to Dixie Chicks.  This leaves me with 60 CD's that I am keeping and need to find a home for. Still a lot.

post-culling, waiting for their fate to be decided by Kevin

Now Kevin is next.  I'm going to have him do the same thing I did: take out the music he'll never listen to and then choose the stuff he can't live without if his phone gets lost or whatever.  He is not looking forward to this at all.  I can't blame him.  It's taken me weeks to get this far.  Then I will do a final cull and off to Goodwill they go.

I already had him go through the movies and he took out about ten DVD's and mocked my keeping any VHS tapes. It's not like there are a bunch of them and it's mostly racing stuff, some footage of him racing.   I took out about only the same amount of DVD's so there will be no judging on either of our behalf.

At least with the DVD's, the format hasn't changed for a few years.  It was VHS/Beta, then it was laser disc and then it was DVD's and Blueray.   Now it's streaming video and DVR's and while I use that too, it's nice to have the movies in my physical possession.  I think it's the same with these CD's.  The formats will change probably but I have these for now.

One thought I had  about the movies was "Will I watch these once I retire or in a home?"  (I know, I went a little dark there in my considerations)  Certainly the technology will have changed by then again but we're in the What-If category again.  One would think that would prompt me to keep them more but I thought about it and actually became a little more ruthless.

This leaves one shelf that holds games.  Monopoly, cribbage, an authentic 1970's Newlywed Game, and games that have just accumulated over time.  We don't play them anymore but I just know that someday we will.  The kids will be over, or we'll be retired with nothing else to do, or whatever.  They live on the bottom shelf so it's not like it's valuable real estate being taken up. I have chosen to ignore that shelf entirely for now.  Even though I still have to find a home to store the CD's we are keeping.  We will come to that standoff eventually.

So...the point...hmmm...there are a few: stop keeping crap you don't use. Music is a reflection of our own history.  What's important to others might not be to you.  What was important then isn't necessarily going to be important forever.  Plan ahead.  Break a big task into littler tasks. (somewhere my mom is muttering "littler" is not a word)