When I was in college, I was an RA year-round so I moved in May, once more in the summer, then again in September. Got really tired of hauling all my stuff around by the armload. I won't let go of my books (except the guilty pleasures, like airline novels) but I did decide to consolidate my collection of several hundred CDs by putting them in binders. I removed the CD and insert from the jewel case and put them together in the binder pockets. I worked on this project in my dorm room with the metal trash can several feet away. I was on a long distance call with my DH (who was just a friend at the time). Every time I tossed a jewel case into the trash can, it made a loud metallic sound. Eventually DH said, "What's all that noise?" I said, "I'm throwing away my CD cases." He was absolutely appalled. We argued about it for awhile and he finally had to hang up because he couldn't listen to the sound of me getting rid of the jewel cases! Of course, he also couldn't give me a good reason NOT to get rid of them. His argument was, "But they BELONG in the jewel cases!" So needless to say, I married a packrat. We are somewhat ashamed owners of several hundred DVDs. It took me awhile to understand the DVD obesession, but now I'm just as bad. Here's the reasoning: -DVDs can usually be had for about $15 - the cost of two movie tickets not including soda and popcorn -DVDs are now released so quickly following the theater releases that by the time we realize we're interested in seeing a movie, it's already out on DVD -We can watch them on our own schedule without worrying about waiting in line or arriving before tickets sell out -We have a very large, fancy TV with a fancy sound system and a very comfortable living room, so that watching DVDs at home is not dissimilar from seeing films at the theater. And he spent all this money on his fancy TV; I don't even like the idea of spending time/money to go to the theater when we already spent the money for a home theater -We do watch many DVDs repeatedly - though admittedly, only a small percentage (maybe 20%) of our total collection gets watched more than once. We do get rid of movies we really hated (like "Random Hearts"...ugh!) by passing them off on unsuspecting friends, but that doesn't happen very often -Our future child will have a fine collection of children's movies since our tastes seem to run to the...well, juvenile. We don't have kids yet but Finding Nemo gets watched so frequently that we just keep it next to the DVD player instead of in the storage shelves. So anyway...that's how it's easy to justify being a DVD junkie. Now...if only I can convince DH to get rid of the birthday cards from his 14th birthday, we'd be closer to a happy equilibrium. :) By the way, although I love having the DVDs, I don't like having them exposed. We purchased the cabinets I linked to below. Only we paid $17.99 each on clearance at our local Target - I can't believe Target.com is selling them for $90! Pottery Barn has a lovely cabinet of similar design (but better quality) for around $250 this season. Here is a link that might be useful: Our DVD storage

well, some of my CDs have other functional pieces of paper--the lyrics, for example. I have a frustration with people always saying "get it on the Internet." I think this is often specious. My husband tossed his clips from his old publication, because he figured he could always get them off the company's website--nope, they purged. Someone once suggested I could save money by reading the newspaper on the Internet--yeah, sure, I can do that on the train, and can tell SO quickly (not) that a story is not interesting to me. W/ print, I can skim an ENTIRE PAGE of 4 stories (I read a tabloid-size) in about 3 seconds. Not true if I have to download them story by story. Headlines aren't often enough to tell whether I want to read them. And when I'm wondering if this is the same backup singer, or who it was that wrote the song this artist is covering, I don't want to have to go INTO the bedroom, and turn on the computer, and wait for it to boot up, and then call up a website, and search through several layers until I find the information I want on that song. Folks at my last publication wanted us to put the style book on the intranet. Sure, so I'd have to do lots more work w/ technology I'm not comfortable with, just to update it. And I have to switch from the window I'm working IN, to some OTHER window, and then back--I wouldn't be able to have them both open at the same time. And it would probably be longer--certainly not faster--than grabbing the paper, which is always in the same spot on my desk, and flipping to the fourth page. Phone lists, too--I use a printout here. I don't have to leave Quark for IE, clip on the menu, scroll down to the phone list, type in the name, hit enter, and wait for the search. There are times the intranet phone list is useful, but lots of times it's slower. And, we have dial-up, and it takes a while. Even if we had DSL or cable, or even a T-1 line with instant access--I don't keep my computer on all the time, and I don't want to go to TWO places to get stuff. That's why I won't ditch all my recipes "because I can get them again on the Internet." I'll ditch the ones I'm pretty sure I won't ever use, but I'm keeping America's Cookie Chips in paper version, because I may not be *able* to find them on the Internet in a year when I decide to make them again. And, I'll keep them in paper, because it's less work than going to the computer in a year, booting up (tap, tap, tap, tap...), opening of the folder, then the file (and Word, tap, tap, tap...), then printing it out. i figure, if I only keep the recipes I actually think I'll try, they won't take more space than the stuff I often use. I get frustrated when people act as though storing something on the computer is automatically more wonderful than storing it in real space, real time, the analog world. I'm sorry if I took it out on you, blazedog. And Marie26, we're not helping you w/ much practical advice or product-finding, are we? All I can do is commiserate, and to suggest againt that you give a serious look at the idea of trimming the edges off those sheets so they'd fit--you might be surprised to see how little you need to cut off. I figure, if you did resell them, you're selling them used, surely the buyer won't care much?

I purged out a lot of my video stuff. I'm down to like 7 VHS tapes and that's stuff that I was involved in the production of. I was part of the tech crew on a local PBS production that is no longer in production. There are also a couple of other VHS that are not available in DVD... But pretty much all the VHSs I had are gone. And since I purged my old VHS player and never felt compelled (yet?) to replace it, I really would love to get what I do have on VHS onto DVDs and then I can actually watch them :) I also have (but it's in offsite storage and about to be purged in this next 30 days) a complete full set of pre-recorded VHSes of the Red Dwarf series. I'm giving these to a friend who really wants them and is a huge Red Dwarf fan. I've started to get them on DVD as they become available from the BBC. For DVDs, while I love movies, I'm not really good at re-watching a lot of movies. So unless it's a huge favorite, I find that I'll just rent them through my Freedom Pass thing at Blockbuster. But I own about 7 DVDs. When my ex and I split up in December, he took the lion's share of the DVDs that we had gotten together. He's much more of a movie watcher and also some of the titles were family or kids stuff that are for his kid or we watched as a family. For storage, I have a simple 5 shelf media rack that holds CDs, DVDs, and VHSes. It's not the best. But it's simple wood, with open slanted shelves. Stuff sometimes doesn't "sit" it in very well. But it seems to fit my needs. I've taken to putting those small "crate" looking like wood things on the shelves for cd storage specifically. This totally avoids stuff on the ends (cds) from sliding off (and falling) sideways through the bottom of a shelf. Most of what I have are CDs (music CDs). I have software CDs as well but those are stored in my home office and there's not many of them (under 20). Most have tar images online and often it's only install media that was burned just for a specific install. Which means I should purge them :) But music CDs, I do really need to purge. Between what I have in my office at work and what I have at home, some 200+ If I brought what I have at work home, I would be overflowing that rack. Time to purge. I also find my music tastes vary over time and season and moods, etc. So something that I'm not into this month, I've love the month after. I have started to rip and burn my own music. I have a subscription to Rhapsody.com. I just haven't mastered the whole process and often find that I simply love some of my favorite albums (on CD) that are bought as-is from the usual outlets. And many, many were bought YEARS ago. All the way back to the 80s :) I do play MP3s on my PDA. But nothing beats cranking up my old fashioned stereo at home. At work the speakers on my computer are "okay" but I listen often with headphones anyways. I eventually see that I will have a basic MP3 player plugged into my home stereo system. I'm in no rush though. It will happen when that time comes that I'm doing more rip'ing (to MP3) only and not as much burning to CD. Right now when I do rip something off a music streaming service, I tend to burn it onto CD as well. Well basically my media storage is a simple open rack. I too have a TiVo (in fact 3, including retired ones that I need to purge) and that is most of my TV viewing. I have all my shows set up and what doesn't get watched gets replaced automatically by newer incoming content. It is a wonderful way to go. Cheers, --jans

I have been guilty of the same thing I love pixel of ink. Plus I also have a ton of ebooks in epub format too. I have no idea how I will read them all. So many great free books I don't know why I would need to buy any.