It is time to be ruthless

Monday, January 2nd, 2006 at 08:56pm

On the last day of my break before I return to work I decided that I should get started on sorting out my computer collection. The first step was to at least move the empty boxes and other junk that had accumulated on the floor … which didn’t get completed…

However it was a productive afternoon as I now have four piles in the area outside my room:

  • Empty boxes. These are boxes that are from items that I purchased from eBay (some contain packing materials) or boxes from hardware (eg motherboard boxes) that items could be stored in. This is the biggest pile in overall volume.
  • Stuff to throw away. This is probably the biggest pile in mass so far. This includes items that I kept on the off chance that I would find a use for them such as old hard drives (I kept a couple but the smallest is now 20GB, not 200MB) and even old power supply harnesses (maybe I thought I could reuse the molex connectors?)
  • Items to list on eBay (or failing that throw away). This pile isn’t very big at the moment but I expect this to grow significantly.
  • Items to keep. These items will eventually make their way to locations currently occupied by future members of the throw away or eBay piles. Also due to the existance of the empy boxes pile around half of these items are now in boxes of a more appropriate size.

What I realised the other day is that I need to be ruthless. The old power supply harnesses I mentioned above filled up most of a shoebox and have done so for at least three years. Although I haven’t reached them yet I know there is a box filled with old ISA and PCI video cards. Why do I keep them? Who knows. What will I use them in? Nothing. So why keep them? Good question…

However my relevation was that I need to be ruthless with my actual collection, not just the computer parts I have accumulated over the years. As my collection is focused on Apple computers and peripherals do I really need to have a complete IBM PC and an IBM PC XT? I am simply not as interested in these items so should I even bother keeping them?

I shall see how I go over the next few days…

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