More than just a music collection

Digital music downloads and live streaming now account for the majority of all music purchased, so you’d be forgiven for presuming our home music collections were carefully curated libraries taking up no more room than a few megabytes on a hard drive. The reality is an altogether different matter, with millions of old records, CDs and tapes cluttering up our homes.

So why are we so reluctant to move with the times and ditch the dusty collection? Everyone knows that music evokes memories but why do we need the physical copies of our desert island discs to stir up those emotions of that last dance? Why won’t the mp3 version do?

The answer lies in that alluring mistress, nostalgia. Flicking through an old record, CD, or tape collection and suddenly you’re twelve years old, in Woolworth’s working out how to spend your hard earned pocket money, or flicking through a dog-eared CD case insert learning the words to Whitney. Mix tapes are the ultimate – a Spotify playlist just doesn’t cut the mustard when up against a painstakingly crafted TDK mixtape complete with handwritten inlay card (heart and star doodles optional).

It could be said that our record collections are the soundtracks to our lives, but what to do when they start taking over the front room? We will force our children to listen to and appreciate every one of those mixtapes, even if some of the stories that accompany will never be shared. Use self-storage to keep your collection safe until the next generation is ready to be educated.

Some top tips when storing music –

1. Always stack vinyls vertically, not on top of each other, as they can warp over time
2. Alphabetise music before you store it so your favourite track is always easy to find
3. Store vinyls at room temperature, with minimum exposure to direct light or heat
4. Your music collection weighs more than you think! Make sure you have sturdy shelves to ensure the whole lot doesn’t end up on the floor. Or use Shurgard extra strong boxes – with reinforced cardboard they can be stacked to save room

Shurgard has units of varying sizes, available as and when you need, meaning you can rest assured that your collection is in safe hands, whilst you can ponder more important things like who on earth it was that you shared that school disco last dance with.