Our house is very small... and we have SO much stuff. I was seriously thinking of getting rid of all of our VHS tapes and DVDs, as well as the VHS player and DVD player. I literally have 3 pieces of furniture holding movies, as well as 2 boxes in our closet and a huge moving box of movies in the basement. It is just taking up too much space. I figure, we rent movies on demand through our cable company, and if push ever came to shove, we could get netflix and play them from the xbox. Not only could I probably make a little $ selling this stuff on craigslist, the free space would be PRICELESS. My BF is veryyy materialistic and isn't too thrilled by the idea... but more than 95% of all these movies are MINE. What would you do? Is there any reason to hang on to this stuff? Is netflix a pretty decent compromise (we love netflix, we've had it in the past when we didn't have cable)... I would save a few kid DVDs for car rides, and that's it. Honestly, we watch very little TV anyway, I don't see what the big deal is here. Has anyone else done this with positive/negative results?
I'm so glad no one else seems sentimentally attached to their movies ;) I am going to talk to my BF again and tell him that if he's dead set on keeping HIS movies, then find your 8 movies and I'm getting rid of mine! I think I'm going to sell them by the box on craigsist, $5 for the box or whatever, then donate whatever is left after a week. I'd love to give the kids movies to a church or to someone who needs it. I have a really positive feeling about this! AND, to give my arguement more power, I'm going to get my BF a subscription to Netflix for Christmas, so he sees how serious I am... being proactive might take the sting out for that big baby ;)
we still have a VHS player and tons of tapes but i'm wondering the same thing. some of the stuff is family movies, or movies i'm afraid i can't find in another venue, but the stuff is so old and dusty at this point i'm thinking i'd rather have the space.
i'll bet you never miss it.
post how it works out if you do it! maybe you'll inspire me!
:) khairete
S.
My take is that if you don't use them and love them, don't keep them. I do have DVDs and even some VHSs (of movies that have not been put on DVD), but they're not the run-of-the-mill movies that you can easily rent either (I'm an oldies fan). Even of those, I keep only what I enjoy watching more than once.
You might be able to get a little money for your DVDs, depending on what they are. I don't know if you'll get anything for VHS tapes - even at thrift stores they seem to be a glut on the market.
When my children were at home, I had a specific place for movies. This was back in big-bulky-VHS-land, but the movies could not overrun that space. When they did, I would ask everyone to participate in sorting time. One child would look through all the movies and put aside his "can't live without" ones; the next would go through the remaining stack and set aside the ones she had to keep - and on down the line. My husband and I would do it, too. We ended up keeping only the movies someone had a declared liking for, and I disposed of the rest.
However, the main issue is how to work it out with your BF so that your action is a team one. Your children are watching you to learn how adults make decisions together.
I, myself, am a PITCH it out kind of gal. Consider contacting your local library (most still lend movies) or a church with a children's area that could use some childrens movies. (I donated BAGS of movies to a new church setting up their kid's area.)
So, while I'm all for streamlining YOUR space, remember that there are places that would be very willing to get your castoffs. (Maybe your BF would be more willing to part with the stuff if he knows it's going to a good home?)
Do you watch the movies? If you don't watch them, get rid of them. If you want to keep them, get a CD case and just put the DVD's in there. I did that with all my daughter's movies. I cut the picture out of the jacket (she's only 3 and can't read, so she goes by pictures). I put that in the part where the CD goes and then the DVD goes behind that. Does that even make sense?LOL! I know what I'm trying to say...
We have Netflix and my husband and I love it. We rarely watch the same movie twice, so buying DVDs is a waste of money for us. If I want to watch it again, I just add it to my Netflix list. They have a lot of movies you can watch instantly too. We do buy my kids movies because they watch them over and over again. I don't mind doing that because they get the use out of them.
Bottom line is: It's your stuff...get rid of it if you want.
I'm all for getting rid of junk and killing the amount of TV watched.
You can definitely sell the DVDs on Craigslist - as for the VHS - you might get a buck a piece if you're lucky. You might just consider donating them to a day care or a church who might sell the whole lot for $5. No one really uses VHS anymore. Although I had so many Disney VHS tapes that I bought at a church sale that we still use them today.
We got rid of all but a few. One thing that cuts down on space is removing the DVDs from their boxes and putting them in a cd folder. Then just rent or get HBO.
I didn't buy DVD's 5 ysr ago but now i'll buy at least 5 in a yr. for Christmas Birthday or just when I have a coupon for a good movie from Disney, 3 kids later..I have a bunch of VHS movies that will be gone i'm giving them to my MIL for their camper they are all kids movies she doesn't mind as long as the kids like them still...My VHS is going into the trash..
I wouldn't be gettin rid of all of it just the outdated items the DVD player & movies is a keep for me or at least half of them would be.You could make some money off on craiglsit but I doubt it many people are too much into technology & have a library of movies themselves not only that but the Redboxes are every where,Netflix,cable/internet/cellphones/computer they will have a way to watch movies other than buying them I don't like used so that will be an issue to keep me from buying.
Just think about what you want to do don't let us moms here tell you otherwise just gave my thoughts....
We keep our DVD's in the big CD cases...we get rid of the hard cases, or save some for my husband because he makes DVD's for people with pictures and all and it's nice to have the case for that, but not many. I agree. It takes up WAY too much room!! We got rid of all of our VHS YEARS ago. I worry when we eventually get a Blu-Ray that we will have to start all over!
We have VHS tapes but the only ones my daughter watches are the cartoons because we do not have a DVD player in the basement. I figure we'll keep the tapes until we get rid of the tape player!! If it's taking up space and they have no sentimental value, I'd say to get rid of them!
This is oh to familiar. Here's what I did. First I bought a case from Walmart - they hold 86 or 120 CD/DVDs, then I bought 2 smaller ones (hold 24 CD/DVD). I put all my/family movies in thebig one and threw away the cases. One of the smaller ones holds kid movies and the other holds Wii and playstation games. The rest of the movies I sold or donated. As far as VHS, I picked 12 - donated/sold the rest. In my 5 yr olds room I put our old TV/VHS combo - she has a storage chest and one part of it holds 12 movies. We put the play station in my 12 yr olds room and the Wii/small VCR in the family room. Everything else we got rid of (VCR, DVD players). It's a lot less cumbersome and looks a lot neater and I don't get an anxiety attack when I look at it- haha
For DVD's we just got a couple big DVD wallets (holds a couple hundred), and recycled all the cases. Kiddo has his own, & we have a school wallet (for documentaries and such) and I have my own. .
If they are movies on VHS, I would get rid of them, along with the VHS player. For the DVD's, if you can play them on the xbox, you can get rid of the player too. If he has trouble getting rid of the DVDs (I am a clutter person, and am just learning about the memories attached to everything, so I understand him), get some of those DVD holder pages that you can put in a 3-ring binder. You don't have to keep them all! But it would be a good compromise for those that you do keep. You can also see if he will agree to look at them in another 6 months to see if you have watched any of them, and purge some more.
You may need to store some of the covers for the purge in 6 months.
