Organizing the Family Room (4) Home Families.com

Time to get through all that old media and the plethora of family games. Are you with me? Let’s get everything organized and ready for the new year.

Here is the list we have been working through for the family room:

Books
Magazines
Video tapes and DVDs
Cassettes, CDs and records
Games

If you have upgraded to new media, such as a DVD player instead of a VCR, if you never listen to all of the records you might still have, then consider giving your nostalgic collection away to someone who could appreciate it.

Cassettes, CDs and records: If you are a record aficionado and have a finely tuned ear that has an affinity of the scratch-scratch of a traditional record, then your records are valued, and you probably already have a great storage system for them. For the rest of us, why are we still holding on to records when they’ve come out with cassettes? Little joke there. Records, cassette tapes, even CDs are fast becoming things of the past. Store thousands of songs on your computer or MP3 player instead of in your family room cabinet.

We have a box of records (stored in the attic, actually, a very bad place for them), but no turntable to play them on. As much as I fantasize about putting on a record and relaxing the way I used to do before kids, the reality is that it will never happen. Fortunately, I have a childless friend with lots of free time, as well as a love of records. He can have first pick. If you really can’t part with a record album, consider framing it as decoration.

I can’t see any real reason to save cassette tapes. Even if you were a child of the 80s and made tons of compilation tapes, you can either burn them to a CD through a computer application (such as Toast) or recreate them in a play list for your MP3 player.

CDs are a bit harder to tackle, at least for me. I still love the album art and the feel of the CD in my hand. I do limit myself to the music I still listen to (those hip hop dance tracks are history), storing the few actual CDs on the bookshelf in the family room. Go through your CDs and separate them out into two piles: Love and Used to Love. Donate the Used to Love group.

Coming soon: The last line of defense. The leaning tower of family games.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

Organizing the Family Room (1)

Organizing the Family Room (2)

Organizing the Family Room (3)

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