November 12, 2007
Painful parting
Posted by Stacy Chandler at November 12, 2007 2:04 PMOK folks, help me through this. As many of you know, I recently moved from Tokyo, Japan, to Raleigh, N.C. The movers (finally, FINALLY) came last week with all our stuff, and now we're in the strange place between happiness and hell that is unpacking.
My new apartment is larger than my old one, but has way less storage space. So as we're unpacking, we're also paring down. And today I opened a big 'ol box of quandary.
It's a HUGE box full of old magazines. You know how that goes. We've all been there. But these are Paste and No Depression. So, you know, they're IMPORTANT because they're music magazines, see. I had room for them in a closet at the old place. So they're lovingly organized, more or less by date, in plastic magazine rack thingys they make for weirdos like me.
But now I have less space.
And even though I probably could find a place for them, under the bed or deep, deep, deep inside a closet, I know I should throw them away. Recycle, that is.
Right? I should throw them away?
Tell me that's the right thing to do, will you? That I won't toss 'em and then be consumed by regret. Because I know I'll be OK about it, probably glad. But I can't bring myself to do it.
Help, please?
Oh whatever. You can buy all sorts of storage solutions these days. For starters, browsing Ikea comes to mind. Barring that, buying an inexpensive bookcase is the perfect way to store old mags.
Posted by: Carlton Swift at November 12, 2007 2:44 PMBuy a canary. Then you'll have a lifetime supply of paper for the bottom of his cage. By Grabthar's Hammer, what a savings!!
Posted by: Jim Pipkin at November 12, 2007 3:10 PMStacy, funny you should mention this, because I have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. Just this past Saturday I was unpacking books at the new house, and I've got this fairly small box of No Depression magazines. Most of these I never read in the first place, so why would I get around to reading them now?
I'm very anti-stuff, and I'm the opposite of a packrat. However, I'm having a bit of trouble letting these mags go. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them... and the postman just keeps bringing me more.
Posted by: larry at November 12, 2007 3:59 PMThey have a magazine exchange at the Wake Co. libraries
Posted by: Mark Phillips at November 12, 2007 6:30 PMI moved an extremely large pair of Boston Acoustic speakers from Houston to New York (paid for shipping) to Chapel Hill (entirely filled the trunk of the car) and then we sold them because our apartment was too damn small.
Posted by: Hal at November 12, 2007 9:02 PMI used to be the worst packrat ever, specifically with magazines, so I feel your pain. I'd spend hours going through each one, trying to determine whether or not I might miss one of these articles if I threw it out. So I started tearing pages out, saving the articles I thought I'd miss in a file folder.
Until I realized I had a file folder full of articles I hadn't read in five years.
My vote? PITCH.
Mark, I like the library idea -- I actually have a trip to my Wake Co. library on the to-do list today, so I'll ask about their magazine program. Thanks so much!
Also, thanks to Liz. That's exactly what I needed to hear!
NO thanks to Carlton, for enabling. ;P
Posted by: stacy at November 13, 2007 1:12 PMWhat? No canary????
Posted by: Jim Pipkin at November 13, 2007 3:02 PMGood luck - I know it's tough, but it's worth it, at least if you live in a wee tinder box like I do.
Posted by: Liz at November 13, 2007 3:33 PMI'm not an enabler!
That being said, since you regularly write for a music blog, and have an archive of magazines that more or less cover the genre of said music blog, you never know when you might need to reference an old magazine.
You should save every last one of them! Hold onto them for reference.
Posted by: Carlton Swift at November 13, 2007 8:53 PMTOO LATE. Wake County libraries wouldn't take 'em, after all, so they went into the recycling bin (which has been sitting unemptied outside my apartment building for a whole day, taunting me). It was painful, but I actually do feel better now. It's quite enjoyable to be able to see my apartment's floor again.
Posted by: stacy at November 15, 2007 10:51 PM
