Our starting point. This isn't going to be pretty. We'll go through the junk in these boxes and divide them up into three categories: keep, trash, and give away.
It's time to dig in. It feels like we were just here two years ago...
Will I ever use this wind-up emergency radio? Probably not, but when the zombie apocalypse comes, do I really want to kick myself for tossing it?
Status: Keep
An original DJ Hero turntable controller. Will there ever be a DJ Hero 3? Who knows, but we'll give this a pass for now. We're not off to a very good start on this cleanup.
Status: Keep
A Disney-branded set of portable speakers.
Status: Give away
A Polaroid camera, circa 1997. I thought there was one shot left in it all these years, but alas, no--it was empty.
Status: Trash
Various audio cables. I'll keep at least one of each type (XLR, 1/4-inch to RCA, etc.)
Status: Keep
A classic GameCube wireless Wavebird controller. I have no idea what happened to the receiver.
Status: Trash
I got this ART guitar effects box back in college. It probably hasn't worked since then, either.
Status: Trash
A pile of old hard drives. Some day, I'll go through them for old photos and docs.
Status: Keep
A couple of Xbox 360 face plates (that naturally don't fit on the new "slim" version of the console).
Status: Give away
A classic Alesis SR-16 drum machine, circa 1996. I never use it, but it's a legendary piece of recording gear.
Status: Keep
A collection of old PlayStation memory cards. I bet I'm never going to go back and finish Resident Evil: Nemesis.
Status: Trash
Long before the Nintendo 3DS, there were handhelds such as the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance.
Status: Give away
A few recordable DVDs. I almost never use optical media anymore, but you never know when you'll have to burn something.
Status: Keep
I think this was a giveaway Skype phone.
Status: Trash
I clearly have not been playing enough downloadable classic games on my Wii, as this classic controller is still in its packaging.
Status: Give away
I'm not sure when or how I got this Monster RCA cable, but they're so pricey, there's no way I'm getting rid of it.
Status: Keep
A four-way headphone distribution amp. Like much of my old music gear, it's also nonfunctional. I'm sure I could fix it, but I prefer to save my tech support skills for things like plasma TVs.
Status: Trash
I originally used this old RF modulator to hook a DVD player up to one of my vintage JVC Videosphere TVs for a house party.
Status: Trash
I knew there'd be a floppy disc in here somewhere.
Status: Trash
Part of an international power adapter set. I'll hang on to this for my next Euro vacation.
Status: Keep
Pity the poor component cable: its lifespan is limited as HDMI and protected content paths take over.
Status: Trash
I'm sure I needed this for something at one point, although I never took it out of the original packaging.
Status: Trash
A handy hard-drive dock for both IDE and eSATA drives.
Status: Keep
A souvenir of my early dot-com 1.0 days at UGO.com, circa 2000.
Status: Keep
A good concept that never really worked out: the portable Rock Band drum kit.
Status: Give away
Here's our cleaned out wire and gadget boxes, pared down from four crates to two.
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