What to do with the boxes & containers for 3.5" diskettes & 5.25" floppies?

[Nords]

I know, I know, I've been putting off this project for a long time. We've had a two-foot stack of 3.5" diskettes in various 1990s-style storage containers and I'm just getting around to cleaning them out. We even have several 1980s-style 5.25" floppy containers that we store CDs & DVDs in. And I'm pretty sure that my spouse is hoarding a floppy or two just for sentimental reasons. I doubt they're readable anymore, not that I've seen a 5.25" drive this decade.

But I'm getting ready to move computers around and I no longer want to have to keep a 3.5" drive alive either.

Remember when hard drives had such limited storage and were so expensive that most of the programs and data stayed on diskettes/floppies to leave more room on the hard drive and improve its search speed? Remember when you could back up an entire hard drive to a few diskettes with PKZip? Now I'm going the other direction. I've finally transferred all the old media over to our hard drive and backed it up to an external drive. Someday I'll spring for a SSD and be out of the rotating-platter business entirely.

I've thrown out the 3.5" diskettes after learning that their data-fidelity limit appears to be about 20 years. Any suggestions on what to do with the storage boxes? I'm not planning to keep them for Antiques Roadshow but they don't seem to be the right size to store anything better than index cards. Not that we have index cards anymore, either.

There are probably better storage options for DVDs & CDs but I've just been stacking them on shelves. We have jewel boxes but I prefer the envelopes or the multi-platter cases. I don't have much faith in CD & DVD sublimated-dye media so those are also backed up to another hard drive.

Someday I'm going to go through our cassette tapes & LP albums, note the tracks that I actually care about, and buy them off iTunes…

[mbooth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Any suggestions on what to do with the storage boxes? …

Seperate the top from the bottom, drill a few holes in 'em and plant some 'herbs' in the mini-plots, for food garnishing purposes of course

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I've thrown out the 3.5" diskettes after learning that their data-fidelity limit appears to be about 20 years. Any suggestions on what to do with the storage boxes?

I always pined for those attractive storage boxes, but was too cheap frugal to buy them and kept putting that off. I kept my 3.5" diskettes in the thin cardboard/paper boxes that the new ones come in, and labeled the outside with post-its. I recently threw all of them out.

Could you place these storage boxes on their sides and use them for office supplies like rubber bands and paper clips? That's the best I can come up with. Really, that is kind of a dumb suggestion and you might have to just toss them out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords There are probably better storage options for DVDs & CDs but I've just been stacking them on shelves.

I have almost no music CD's.

Until Katrina I kept my software CD's in shoe boxes (minus the lid) on my computer desk. Your wife's shoes or daughter's shoes probably come in smaller shoe boxes than yours, and these small ones are a good width for CD's.

After Katrina I threw out the shoe boxes and bought a small "rolling file cabinet" (suitable for about 12" of hanging files, with a suitcase-like long expandable handle), and all of my CD's fit in it and are ready for the next evacuation. With most of my evacuation items in these, I don't have to lift and carry so much to load my car in a hurry for evacuations at these very stressful times. Evacuations are bad enough without throwing out one's back. After I move north, I can use it for files as it was intended.

I keep my DVD's on a bookshelf like you do, but I only have a half dozen or so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Someday I'm going to go through our cassette tapes & LP albums, note the tracks that I actually care about, and buy them off iTunes…

I got rid of all my cassette tapes and LP's around the turn of the century... I do plan to get my first iPod after I retire. Honestly, I do.

[freebird5825]

Plan A: If you have large pull out drawers in your shop or garage, use them as within-drawer compartments for nuts and bolts and washers and nails and staples, anything small and numerous. I use small to medium size plastic containers for stuff like this.
Plan B: Are you allowed to set things out at the curb in a clear bag with a FREE sign on them? One man's trash is another man's treasure. Things I set out rarely stay there for more than a day.
Plan C: Otherwise, toss 'em.

[Nords]

Well, we gave up. We already have other miscellaneous containers & scrap fulfilling other storage roles, so we're not going to use these boxes for that.

Best solution was Goodwill. Let them sort it out!