The Unbearable Heaviness of a Bazillion CDs

Image from The Telegraph UK.

Note: Yes, a bazillion. You expect me to count all these things?

Now that work’s last big event for the year is finished, as we’re spending most of the year’s remainder reorganizing and planning, it's time to seriously plan out my quickly approaching move. One of the biggest obstacles I face is the unholy load of general clutter that Nicole and I have collected over our life. For me, one of the leading contributors to this mess is my out of control cd and dvd collection.

I’m sure there are many young men of my age that have far larger collections, but what I do have takes up way too much space in our apartment, and spreads its tentacles across every other surface. I can’t go a day without knocking over some random pile of music or movies. I predominately listen to music on my computer or in my car on my iPod, but I refuse to get rid of the physical copies of everything.

Partly this is because I have no trust of digital files, and know that they can disappear in the instant it takes to spill a drink on a laptop. That ephemeral nature is not acceptable to a person who has in fact spilled liquids on his laptop, and may do it again some day. The other reason I am loathe to part with the cds is that I have this weird obsession with keeping them in their original cases, with all the original packaging (minus the annoying-never-comes-off plastic of doom).

It’s a barely explainable habit, and one that has needed changed for years. Now is the perfect time to make that change. Yesterday I purchased a massive cd case, cd sleeves, and 2 more albums (I have a problem), and am prepared to start the mass transfer. My goal is to have at least 75% of my collection removed from jewel cases and consolidated by the time we move. I’d also like to get half the dvds out of their boxes.

I’m actually somewhat excited by this. I’m going to be able to find things long thought lost (still can’t find that copy of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Don’t judge me.), re-discover things forgotten, and generally bring some more organization to my life.

Nicole is fully supportive of this decision, since she's more exasperated with the clutter than I am, though she now wonders what we’re going to do with the shelving units we’ve collected to hold all these dvds and cds. I simply turn and look at the overfilled boxes of books sitting around still. We have a long way to go before the end of December.

-----------Gabe