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Book It

In giving up our old coffee table, we lost some media storage space. We’d slap ourselves on the wrists, but we were blinded by going round and gaining those few extra inches of floor space.

So out with the old it was, and in with the new. And suddenly we had over two hundred DVDs with no place to live. Thinking this was the perfect opportunity to get those space eaters in to a more manageable media book, I convinced my man it would make for easier title browsing. (This is the part where I let him think it over for probably too long, then order a Case Logic from Amazon as soon as he gives the green light.)

But giving up all those cases was harder than I thought. As eager as I was to purge, I’ll admit that those pesky special edition covers had me thinking twice. Now this is where Scott could have been all I told you so, but lucky girl that I am, he bit his tongue and we compromised. We kept only the fancy schmancy cases (everything from those embossed graphics to the cheesy holograms) and recycled the rest. We tucked them in a storage bin and hid them away in our basement storage unit (probably only to toss ’em down the road, I’m sure).

This got us thinking. How does the rest of this great, big world store their non-digital media? Did we commit the ultimate collector’s sin? Or perhaps you agree with this space saving solution? Just please don’t tell us you still have VHS tapes under the bed – that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax, my friend.

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  • Loren2.11.11 - 8:09 AM

    For most of our storage we’ve got these guys on our bookshelves, I like them because they are pretty on the outside and are really easy to grab and then head to a friends house when we want to have a movie night.
    http://www.amazon.com/Bellagio-Italia-DVD-Storage-Binder-Burgundy/dp/B000YM06FI/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1297432567&sr=8-12

    But we’ve only got like 50 DVD’s in there.
    There are some ‘special collections’ or series that we kept the boxes for, those live in a drawer of our ‘media credenza’ (it holds our TV, consoles, and games). I had a hard time getting rid of some of the cases too, but once they were out of the house it felt SO much better.ReplyCancel

  • Annie2.11.11 - 8:26 AM

    That’s exactly what we’ve done with ours! One case to flip through and the cases in the basement (and a little case for our kiddos’ movies! We love how much space it saves!ReplyCancel

  • Jane @ The Borrowed Abode2.11.11 - 8:31 AM

    Yeah, it’s hard to give up those CD cases! I used to be so proud of my collection. But finally I caved, and moved all the CDs to one of those CaseLogic binders. It’s so much more efficient. I only saved about a handful of CD cases. The ones with the most meaning.ReplyCancel

  • katie2.11.11 - 8:43 AM

    we got lucky, all of our dvds fit into the drawers on the craigslist dresser we use for our tv: http://five2eight.blogspot.com/2009/10/furniture-find-modified.html

    i think the book of dvds is a great idea, if they are easy to access you are probably more likely to use them. we had our dvds a closet upstairs prior to putting them in the tv stand, and we almost never watched them because it was just annoying to try to find what you wanted. i would probably have a hard time throwing away the cases too :-)ReplyCancel

  • We haven’t moved our DVDs into binders yet but I had similarly hard time getting rid of book covers when I decided to take them off the spines of our books to reveal the pretty binding underneath:

    http://ktrefinishingschool.blogspot.com/2011/01/book-shelves.htmlReplyCancel

    • Kim2.11.11 - 9:30 AM

      KT, we are all about removing those book covers! The binding underneath is just too pretty to be covered up with those jackets.ReplyCancel

  • Andrea B2.11.11 - 9:45 AM

    The Devil Wears Prada next to Dawn of the Dead. Love it. :)

    We just keep selling the DVDs and CDs we rarely listen to and keep our collection small enough to fit in a basket or a drawer. My husband did, of his own accord, pull all his video games out of their space-consuming cases and put them all in a CD holder.ReplyCancel

  • Alichia2.11.11 - 9:57 AM

    When we redid our living room we put all our CDs in booklets like that (as we got rid of 3 tall ikea cd shelves) and then for our DVDs we put them in these clear boxes from the Container Store
    http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10022645&N=&Ntt=cd+storage

    We kept all the cases to dvds & cds and are lovingly storing them in my in-laws basement until we’ve got a bigger home to bring them back out.

    But it feels amazing to not have that clutter out!! Though I won’t lie, I’m still hanging on to like 3 VHS tapes….. :/ReplyCancel

  • Amanda2.11.11 - 10:00 AM

    I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. The one thing that’s stopping me is how it’s not very expandable, as in to keep it in alphabetical order. I love how Nicole and Brandon organized their collection — http://makingitlovely.com/2010/04/26/cd-storage-and-organization/ReplyCancel

  • Kim2.11.11 - 10:08 AM

    Hey Amanda,

    To avoid the whole out-of-order nonsense if we get a new DVD, we left 3-4 slots open for each letter to allow for growth. Knowing we would do this, we ordered a 280-slot Case Logic, even though we only have 200 DVs currently. But we agree – MIL had a great idea, too!ReplyCancel

  • Katie2.11.11 - 10:12 AM

    We still have the cases, which we are able to store in a record cabinet that our (old) TV sits on:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiecanavan/4352891796/in/set-72157623900419925/

    In fact, our TV is so old that it has a built-in VHS player! That means, indeed, we still have some VHS tapes. Sometimes a girl’s gotta watch “Clueless” or “Anne of Green Gables” on VHS!ReplyCancel

  • Brittney2.11.11 - 10:25 AM

    We just did this and am so happy we did! I totally hesitated with getting rid of the cases too. Now that we’ve done it I’m so glad to have all of the extra storage space back!ReplyCancel

  • We do the same thing. We did keep Ben’s extended version Lord of the Rings cases, but other than that, we pitched them all. It’s so much better!! We had a similar storage case, but its ugly, so I took the pages out and popped them in a pretty (and large) 3 ring binder. Now I don’t mind if it sits out.ReplyCancel

  • Kim2.11.11 - 11:27 AM

    Amanda, that’s a great idea to use a pretty 3-ring binder! But because 3-rings don’t have zippers, do the pages flop when you pick it up? This is something I could keep in the mind for the future – if we ever downsize our collection though! Thanks for the tip.ReplyCancel

  • RocketGirl2.11.11 - 11:47 AM

    We have all of ours in regular ol’ binders, and we have ALL of our DVD cases (and CD cases) in storage. At first we kept a few out, but then we realized that browsing the decorated DVDs were just as easy in binders as on the wall.

    I like using the regular binders because I found that the Case Logic binders tended to be too difficult to expand. They’re all organized by genre, so it makes life easy!

    http://rocketcitydigs.com/2010/09/04/clearing-the-shelves-phase-i-dvds-in-binders/ReplyCancel

  • emily @ the happy home2.11.11 - 12:46 PM

    we thankfully have a lot of space, but our DVDs hide in dark cabinets. the BF loves having the special cases, but if they’re hidden away, i just don’t understand!

    i’d soooo much rather have your media book!ReplyCancel

  • Sara @ House Bella2.11.11 - 12:49 PM

    We keep our CD’s in a book just like you have. Our DVD’s go in the credenza. Not that they couldn’t go in a book – we just haven’t done it!ReplyCancel

  • Renee2.11.11 - 3:28 PM

    Ahh, do you know how long I’ve been looking for those cases??! Why in the world did I not peek my head over our computer wall and ask Ms. Wiz across from me?? I wonder? This went on my to-do list Jan.1st for all my boxed CD’s. Guess who’s placing an order once her “letter” is finally done. Oh, how I love distractions… Thanks as usual Vargo(s)!ReplyCancel

    • Kim2.11.11 - 3:55 PM

      Renee, you kill me! Amazon has the best deals; good luck!ReplyCancel

  • Cait @ Hernando House2.13.11 - 6:30 PM

    We keep our DVDs in baskets on our tv console, two small baskets for movies and a large basket for seasons of tv shows. (You can kind of see it here: http://hernandohouse.com/2010/08/25/more-on-the-living-room-remix/) We’re working on weeding on out DVDs and moving to mostly electronic files, though.ReplyCancel

  • Daniel2.14.11 - 11:38 PM

    This way storing media is okay. Hmmmm, I’ve done this procedure but for my game DVD’s. I’ve stocked my movie DVD’s in a towering case beside the LCD so that it would look nice. I guess it depends in the size of your collection. I have about 80 DVD’s and a lot and I mean a lot of CD’s. Good work on the storage bin idea. I’ve always loved those suckers.. =)ReplyCancel

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