Despite all evidence to the contrary, Rocks In My Dryer is not going to become an organizing blog. Plenty of other bloggers are doing that a lot better than I could. (Especially since they're all organized and I'm, you know, not.) But so many of you have asked about the Great DVD Case Debate of '08, I thought I should give you an update.
In short, they are gone. I had one tiny moment of panic as I carried the box to the curb, but it passed, and oh, my friends, life without DVD cases is sweet indeed.
I'll refresh your memory. This was the "before" picture:
We completely emptied every DVD case (taking out both the DVD and the paper label). We put the DVDs in a regular travel CD case, and I stacked all the papers into one Ziploc bag:
Remarkably, this is how many empty DVD cases we had (demonstration aided by my six-year-old son):
Do you see how much space that was using? It was like getting rid of a six year old! (Now that I think of it, the DVD cases didn't eat or talk back nearly as much. But they weren't nearly as cuddly, and their burping skills were much less impressive. We'll keep the six year old.)
I posted to Freecycle about our empty cases; much to my surprise, there were FIVE takers. I didn't have to haul all that stuff off, and it's being used by someone who actually wanted it (someone who must, incidentally, have more storage space than Martha Stewart.)
Now for the moment of truth. Here's the cabinet with the DVD cases gone:
That plastic drawer that used to store our cassettes (also purged) now holds our camcorder accessories and an assortment of miscellaneous wires. (My husband, God bless him, is unable to throw away miscellaneous wires. He lives for miscellaneous wires. I'm convinced he could wrap the globe three times.)
And that beautiful, almost-empty top shelf is all that's left of our DVD collection. They all fit in that case, with the Ziploc bags of papers stacked neatly on top. At some point, I'll containerize that space and try to use it up more efficiently. But not until I've had a few weeks into breathe in its beautiful emptiness. Tonight, as a family, we're going to join hands and dance in circles around this cabinet, while doing rhythmic gymnastics with all the miscellaneous wires.
