October 23, 2014

Totally Hot House Cleaning

The time had come. I had amassed so many CDs, that it was time to be brutal and donate those I really wasn't listening to any longer.   The space for storing discs had run dry, so the pressure I placed on myself was something to act on. 

It was clear that I was storing hundreds of discs but never listening to them. A pattern of not enough time and no longer not enough money either to keep building my collection. The books would be next, but this was a good first step.

In the 80's and 90's, I had become kind of a completest when it came to my favorite artists. Or even one hit wonders- mainly artists discovered on American Idol and such. (Here's looking at you, Elliott Yamin.)

Starting slowly with one box, I picked out discs no longer listened to by America, Gloria Estefan, George Benson, Amy Grant, Michael BublĂ©  Doobie Brothers, the Eagles, Olivia Newton-John, and more. So many more. Sure, I kept many Greatest Hits packages and every disc by Karen and Richard Carpenter, of course. But for every one I kept, I offloaded seldom listened to discs by Sting, Ambrosia, Neil Diamond, Michael Jackson, various soundtracks and compilations...even some Beatles.  I am sure among the 160 or so discs I donated, there are some gems serious collectors will be wanting.

The aftermath was a sense of release, a bit of sadness for letting go some of my history (isn't it amazing that we music fans associate so much of pieces of our life- good and bad- to our favorite songs?) and ultimately, more space in my life. 

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