In the Home VO Studio: Smaller Boxes Are a Gift

While moving through the aisles of Costco recently, a reasonably priced set of not-too-large storage containers called to me from one of the shelves . They had a latching lid, were sufficiently see-through, and seemed to hold a bit more than a large shoebox. However, these did not have a clear and specific purpose and therefore should have been ignored in favor of actual Items On The List.

If I had just kept moving, it might have been possible to ignore their siren call. In a moment of weakness, I picked them up and lost all ability to resist. Good size, compelling price… and breaking one of the First Rules of Preventing Excessive Costco Expenses, they joined the other items in my cart.

It turns out they had plans for me. Which was a good thing.

Somehow, the smaller containers knew that sitting quietly in the closet of my studio were a couple of larger, 30 gallon-ish storage crates which hadn’t really been fully emptied since my last in-person, pre-pandemic workshop. Those had turned into vague depositories for “stuff I might need when I do live classes again…”  Not my finest moment, I’ll admit.

Spurred onward by the new, smaller containers, I began a minor archeological dig into the crates, excavating a significant number of duplicated connectors, cables, and curiosities such as a rather complete array of video adapters – one of the hazards of continuing to use older Macs with non-standard outputs.

I learned a few things along the way. The first was that computers from the 2009 era had some significant outliers in terms of connector types. Also, the repetitive appearance of  “backup HDMI cables” in different strata made it clear that I probably didn’t need to purchase any more, any time soon. The “of no further use” pile was impressive, but did not overwhelm the larger selections of useful items.

Those usable groups fit curiously well into the new smaller containers. each box taking on a specific identity. The next time I go looking for a monitor connector or USB-C cable, I can simply open the particular container, rather than digging down through undifferentiated gear in the large crates.

The interesting thing was that this idea seems to work in other areas as well: creating a few new sub-folders to further organize one part of the computer, taking a moment to put similar gear together rather than have to recall that the longer XLR’s are in a different part of the house, finally admitting that I probably don’t need those old oddball connectors. All of that creating just a little less future flapping about.

Specificity. Feels kind of like a gift to my future self.

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