Storage

[mavrach]

I'm looking for some ideas of how to store my overwhelming DVD collection while keeping it presentable. I'm married now, and it looks like we're going to buy a condo soon. My wife is going to clamp down on storing 1300+ DVD's in the living room from now on. As you can see from the picture below of the current setup, I can't blame her. The whole thing is along the living room wall, in fairly cheap black wooden shelves.

What solutions have you all done for larger collections? I refuse to put these all into CD binders, and there isn't a basement or such where I could hide them all. Is there any furniture out there for DVD storage that looks more adult, aside from buying a straight out bookshelf that is usually too big for DVD's?

We all saw Steve's setup, but would anybody else be willing to volunteer pictues to give some ideas?

Thanks.

My current collection

[cdouglas]

Do you have a medium-to-large-sized closet you could use? I've got shelves put up along all three walls of the closet, so my DVDs are hidden away without cluttering up the living room but also easily accessible.

[Stubblecat]

My advice is the unpopular one: Sell all that stuff. Keep a handful of titles that you will absolutely and definitely rewatch multiple times. Cash out while some of those discs still have a little bit of value to second-hand places.

Within 5 years most of those discs will be in a landfill. Sell everything and take your wife on a week down south to an all-inclusive resort. Eat, drink, make love, see the sights and come home with indelible memories that you can carry to your grave.

That is the only thing worth collecting. Do it and you will thank me.

[Steve T Power]

I gotta disagree with Stubbie there.

It works well for me because i've got my home theater in a dedicated room.

If you're looking at a place with more than one bedroom, why not put a computer desk in the second room and use it as an office/computer room/movie library? Of course when you start having tykes it becomes a problem (unless you've got three bedrooms).

Worse comes to absolute worse - box up your cases, stick them in a closet in some stackable tupperware containers and go the binders route. You can get some very classy looking binders that would look totally boss on a bookshelf in the living room.

[mavrach]

The condo we're eyeing has a den, so that will probably become my "library" as Steve suggests. I had the same thought about kids, they'll boot out the DVD's. This place does have a deep closet too so we could get creative if we needed to.

Selling is probably the right thing to do, but I couldn't part with them all. We culled about 20 discs the other day, which doesn't even make a dent here.

Thanks all.

[Steve T Power]

The condo we're eyeing has a den, so that will probably become my "library" as Steve suggests. I had the same thought about kids, they'll boot out the DVD's. This place does have a deep closet too so we could get creative if we needed to.

Selling is probably the right thing to do, but I couldn't part with them all. We culled about 20 discs the other day, which doesn't even make a dent here.

Thanks all.

Selling is NEVER, EVER the right thing to do.

[Stubblecat]

I sort of thought I'd get a little crucified for my 'sell it all' stance.

After a divorce and a couple of near-death scenarios over the last year, I've taken stock of my both my life and my possessions. This is just me speaking here, so I cast no judgement on anyone else.
I just had to ask myself if I owned my possessions, or if they owned me. Shortly thereafter I sold almost my entire movie collection and about half of my CDs.

I now try to live without too much attachment to my stuff. But again, that's just me.

[BrettCullum]

Stubblecat -
I am right there with ya' even though I have not gone through a divorce or anything close to what you have been through in the last couple of years. My fear is I'm sitting on a huge pile of discs that will eventually be obsolete like my VHS collection. And then they'll be garage sale material where I might get lucky to sell each for a quarter. I'm honestly thinking about doing one big "heave ho" on eBay with both my DVDs and CDs. So you're not alone there, buddy.
Brett

[Steve T Power]

Stubblecat -
I am right there with ya' even though I have not gone through a divorce or anything close to what you have been through in the last couple of years. My fear is I'm sitting on a huge pile of discs that will eventually be obsolete like my VHS collection. And then they'll be garage sale material where I might get lucky to sell each for a quarter. I'm honestly thinking about doing one big "heave ho" on eBay with both my DVDs and CDs. So you're not alone there, buddy.
Brett

For me it's not a financial investment. I'm also the sort of person who typically doesn't buy on impulse. My collection is just that, Mine. I could honestly care less about dollar value or maximizing profits. It's not about people ooh-ing or ahh-ing over the shelves, it's all about getting some enjoyment out of my movies. I'm not saying you guys have the wrong approach, but it's certainly not my approach.

Storytime: I have a friend who would HAVE to purchase a few discs every week, he just HAD to have new DVD's on his shelf constantly. His collection would skyrocket, and every six months he'd get frustrated and start culling. If that's how you build a collection, then, no, i can't say i blame you at all for selling huge chunks. Then i recall someone here (might have been Butcher) saying he kept only what he really wanted to keep, and sold everything else, consisting of more than half of what he owned. The moral? Control what you buy, and you won't want to sell. The last time i went through my collection looking for sell-off bait, i managed a meager 5-6 titles (out of about 1100). Sure, you can look at my collection and say "Why the hell does Steve own Wing Commander? or *choke* Battlefield Earth?!!!", but i own em because i genuinely enjoy watching em, and because i'm insane.

[BrettCullum]

Oh, I definitely did not invest in the format as a financial move. And I can't imagine ever buying a film I would not enjoy or want to be part of the collection. I think my motivations are similar to yours in a lot of respects. I would be hard pressed to cull down the collection at over 1500 discs and holding. But what I fear is now I am not collecting as much, and it feels like the format wars will have a new one emerge sooner rather than later. I just don't want to be left with all of these DVDs and nowhere to offload them once that happens officially. But I certainly never bought a title just for the sake of buying something... and I doubt Stubblecat did either. That would make no sense. The only way I could see that was if you are a Criterion completist and just bought titles to have their whole library.

[Stubblecat]

My collection certainly didn't number in the thousands, and I was a pretty discriminate buyer. But I now realize that I don't need to physically own a lot of movies for the simple sake of owning them.

At the same time, I feel that as I close in on 40 my money is better spent on intangible things that create lasting memories. Yeah, I'll still buy a few movies here and there. I just no longer feel the need to buy so damned many. If I want to re-watch a film a few years after I first watch it at home, it simply doesn't make sense to me to have to own a physical copy just for the sake of owning it.

Like I said, I'm not judging anyone here. This is after all a movie forum. Just consider my opinion to be a counterpoint.

[maintcoder]

I recently revamped my DVD shelves to gain approximately 1/3 more storage space. Since they were originally bookshelves and the DVDs were only taking up half the depth, I made some half depth shelves and staggered them as you can see in the pictures below. Is it an optimal storage option? Maybe not, but I was out of space to add another large bookshelf or two to handle the overflow. And I can't argue that the shelves themselves are nice and attractive in the dining room.

[Stubblecat]

I feel so oddly practical as I see some of these big collections. I see a huge investment that lost it's monetary value the scond the plastic wrapper came off.

Is there a support group for people like me? Some sort of Recovering Collectors Group?

Should I start a thread specifically designed to address the issues of the aging movie fan?

Wait... To late. I'm doing just that...

[mavrach]

Hey Maintcoder, thanks for posting those. My wife was suggesting something similar, to use actual bookshelves. So do you have the DVD's double-layered, with a row in front of another row? If so does that give you difficulty in finding stuff in the back row. Do you have other DVD's stacked on top of that back row too? Do you alphabetize at that point?

Since you have a corner behind those bookshelves too, maybe spread them a few inches apart? Then you could store tall, thin things behind there. I'm considering something like that.

[maintcoder]

Basically the full depth shelves are double stacked, with the DVDs behind raised about 12CM so you can see the title. Naturally, it is a bit more work to get something off the back shelf, especially if the shelf in front is quite full. I order my DVDs chronological, then alphabetical, so the top shelf of bookcase 1 has the beginning of film (1900's) and progresses down through the years on each shelf. I have TV shows, mini-series, sets, and other hard to classify stuff (sets based on an actor, etc) on the very bottom shelf of each bookcase and one full bookcase dedicated to Criterion Collection titles where they are ordered by spine number. The way it worked out (by design and plan), nothing is stored across the top as it wouldn't have fit the chrono/alpha scheme. But there is a space under the half shelf to put DVDs, sort of a hiding/overflow spot.

Here's a picture of how the staggered shelf looks like...

[Steve T Power]

I must say, that looks SHARP!

[Andrew Forbes]

Are those organized autobiographically?

[mavrach]

Maintcoder, I'm thinking more and more than I'm going to go with your route for storage. One more question - What did you use to elevate the back rows of DVD's?

Thanks again.

[Dan Mancini]

Are those organized autobiographically?

If he wants to watch Never Say Never Again, he has to remember that he bought it for someone in the Fall of 2003 pile, but didn't give it to them for personal reasons.

[maintcoder]

Maintcoder, I'm thinking more and more than I'm going to go with your route for storage. One more question - What did you use to elevate the back rows of DVD's?

Thanks again.

Hey Mavrach, I used a half depth shelf on standard shelf pins. Here is a picture of the half depth shelf exposed

[Neal Solon]

Maintcoder, I'm thinking more and more than I'm going to go with your route for storage. One more question - What did you use to elevate the back rows of DVD's?

Thanks again.

Hey Mavrach, I used a half depth shelf on standard shelf pins. Here is a picture of the half depth shelf exposed

Gotta say-- that's a pretty nice looking solution.

[mavrach]

Maintcoder, I'm thinking more and more than I'm going to go with your route for storage. One more question - What did you use to elevate the back rows of DVD's?

Thanks again.

Hey Mavrach, I used a half depth shelf on standard shelf pins. Here is a picture of the half depth shelf exposed

Nice! Sorry, another silly question. How did you get the second half-shelf? Don't those bookcases usually come with only a few full-sized shelves?

[maintcoder]

Nice! Sorry, another silly question. How did you get the second half-shelf? Don't those bookcases usually come with only a few full-sized shelves?

True, the original bookcase came with 4 shelves, so I had to make additional shelves just to convert it to hold the maximum number of DVD height shelves. I used 3/4" birch plywood (as it was similar in grain and color) to the alder the bookcases are made from, cut into shelf sizes. Once sanded smooth for finish, I add birch edge banding for the leading edge of the shelf and trim it as needed. Then I finish them to match the bookcases (I finished all the bookcases using Minwax WoodSheen in Rosewood), drill the necessary holes for the shelf pins and put it together. So the extras to the original bookcases are the plywood cut to size, sanding and finishing materials, edge banding, and shelf pins.

[richierich]

Hi peeps i know you dont want to store in a binder but you can get some automatic disc storage boxes just link them to your computer or laptop find a film in seconds you can list them get history on when you last watched them there called disc stakka they hold 100 discs and all link together but there is a make out there which you scan the bar code of the box and it finds it there in 3 seconds

[richierich]

And hello im new here nice to meet you all