Multimedia Collections and Clutter

Are you a multimedia connoisseur? DVD’s, CD’s, books, maybe even VHS tapes from yesteryear lining the towers of shelves throughout the rooms and walls of your abode? If you’re a movie or music collector like the writer of this blog, such a sight can be a proud display of your fondest titles and artists for all to gaze upon, especially when thoughtfully organized and exhibited. However, the “clutter” can very easily get out of hand and with the ongoing dichotomy of analog and digital it begs the question: Should I just go digital with (at least some of) my multimedia collection?

Clutter and Personal Multimedia Collections

If you were around to remember the days of Media Play, you may understand just how similar a collector’s home can start to resemble the store.

Weren’t those the glory days of multimedia collecting? I could spend hours in there perusing videos, music, books, and games in 1998. Flash forward about 20 years, and now my living room is like a microcosm of the defunct chain! Had I just been unwittingly building on nostalgia this entire time? Whatever the case, there are some benefits to consider in going digital to help soothe my hoarding soul.

Details and Benefits of Going Digital With Your Collection

Maybe it’s just a matter of being more selective in our hard-copy purchases. Anyhow, the benefits are pretty rewarding for the aesthetically-oriented mind of the collector:

1. Preserve quality – digital copies don’t scratch or wear with age
2. Organization – your cloud storage account is your best friend
3. Less maintenance – one less thing collecting dust
4. Less space needed
5. Less clutter, of course!

I’ve personally chosen to prioritize the music I buy and go digital with most of my movies and shows by going the route of popular streaming services such as Vudu, which also has the ability to transfer your DVD purchase to digital for a lower cost than the original purchase. The main downside is the loss of auxiliary benefits of the hard copy, like actually holding the physical item and enjoying visual artwork and extras that come along with it. But maybe that can be reserved for those albums that you do decide to purchase with your newly-found prioritization and selectivity!

Ways to Downsize While Remaining a Collector

We all know we can quickly purge with the popular route of second-hand store donation such as Goodwill. But if you’d like to secure some cash in the process to help fund your digital renaissance, you could either do so gradually with eBay, Amazon, or discogs.com. You can also see if your area has a record store or other second-hand boutique that will buy your items in bulk. With the growing popularity of vinyl, many albums also come with a digital download and that cloud storage account will always be there to transfer to your iTunes and music libraries on other devices.

 

With these forms of organization you’ll be reaping the rewards of decluttering in no time!

 

How do you manage your multimedia collection?

We’d love to hear it in the comments, below!