Waking up late on a Sunday morning, you brew coffee, grab the paper from the front door, and head for your fluffy couch. But first you need the perfect music--ah, maybe the gently energizing, velvety voice of Norah Jones. You open the CD case and ... it's empty. Where on earth is that disc? Still in the changer? In your car? In the wrong case?
CDs, DVDs, and tapes gone AWOL are the bane of home entertainment. This month's project is to tame your multimedia mess in three simple steps.
Choose one--and only one--storage system. Pick a single style that holds a variety of media and leaves room for your collection to grow. Your options:
- Shelf systems, which put music and movies on display, provide a visual overview for you and a conversation starter for guests. I recommend horizontal shelves rather than towers (where removing one tape shifts everything out of place) or wire slot stands (often cutely shaped like guitars or waves but a nightmare to maintain).
- Drawers, either built into your entertainment unit or freestanding (for instance, storage boxes), are a dust-and clutter-free alternative.
- CD binders are great space savers. If you have a lot of discs and limited room, this system is for you--keep the paper inserts, toss the jewel cases. Wall-mounted CD pockets (a concept similar to shoe caddies that hang on the closet door) are a fun new option. CD wallets are ideal for travel.
Organize your storage device by the way you think, e.g., by genre (jazz, classical, R & B) or artist (alphabetically). I divide my collection by mood: The top three drawers are for revving up, the bottom three for winding down.
Unload what's old. Advances in technology and your own changing taste can wreak havoc on your organizational efforts. You really don't need archives.
If you haven't listened to something in a year, let it go. Keep track by sticking a red adhesive dot on the spine of any CD you play; after 12 months, give everything you haven't touched to friends, charities, or hospitals.
Anytime you upgrade your technology, convert what you love (i.e., copy VHS tapes to DVDs, cassettes to CDs) and seriously consider saying goodbye to the rest.
The exception is vintage vinyl records. Old collections (circa 1920 to 1950), especially LPs that have never been remastered as CDs, are the most valuable. Store them apart from your everyday collection. If you're itching to sell, go to a local dealer for an appraisal, or log on to www.jerryosborne.com, where you can get a value estimate by mail.
Put it back where you found it. Leaving discs here, there, and everywhere results in damage and frustration.
Bite the bullet--spread out all your discs and cases on the floor, and play the matching game. If you're diligent, you'll never have to do this again.
Whenever you listen to an album, jut the empty case out a little from the shelf. This makes it lightning fast to return things to their proper home.
Never travel with more than five discs. Create a road collection that lives in your car, periodically trading out CDs.
Next time you're tempted to leave out a loose stack of music or movies (or worse, shove everything into the nearest empty cases), stop. Remember you're not just putting things away--you're positioning them for future use. It's a little gift you're giving yourself for the next Sunday morning you're hankering for Norah, or Ella, or Quincy, or Bach.
