CD Storage

A Bear

Recently, I have reached a critical point where keeping my CDs in a drawer just won't cut it any longer. Moving all of my stuff back into my small college apartment proved that I need a more permanent and practical solution to multimedia storage. My space is rather limited, so I'm trying to maximize what I have. All together I probably have somewhere between 50-80 CDs, and about 25 DVDs that could stand to be organized in some fashion (even just finding a good way to keep up with the 30 CDs I use most would be a boost). I've considered mounting something on a wall to hold them, and to me it seems like the best option as floorspace and deskspace are at a premium. I'd like my solution to be cheap, and if possible creative or at least interesting. I figure someone out there has found a clever way to display/store their collection, or at least has a positive review on an IKEA CD rack or something. Maybe that person is you?

i n c u b u s

I'm guessing by the way your telling your situation, you want to keep the cases they're in right? Otherwise I would suggest getting a rather large leather cd/dvd portfolio with a print out or online database of your collection to keep it organize. That would pretty much eliminate any space problem you'd come across.

If you'd like to keep the cases and want to take a trip to IKEA here is my advice: I used to work at IKEA for about 2 years and this is what I learned, never buy the lowest model anything. If there is something you want and it comes in like half the size or something for much cheaper its usually best to just get the better version of said item. That being said if your going to get a cd case from them, don't get the cheapest lil one there because it won't hold up as great as you'd like it to. Actually I wouldn't suggest any cd towers from them at all because I think the best way to do it is getting these shelves that stick out from the wall. They come in all kinds of colors and woods and are easy to set up. Then just treat your cds/dvds like books on a shelf which really looks good and it keeps it off the floor! I believe they come in 3 different sizes according to length so if you have more than buy the big one or you could divide them up up by maybe 3 of the smaller kind just at different elevations. Hope this helped.

EDIT: Heres the link

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> http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60103750

EggyToast

Why not buy a small iPod for holding & listening to your music, and chuck the CDs in a storage bin?

Conversely, that is not a large number of CDs/DVDs -- a shelf or two would easily hold them, or a small bookcase/shelving unit. IKEA has multi-media cabinets that hold CDs, DVDs, and can also hold other crap as well, depending on what other crap you want to throw in there.

I have about 400+ CDs and had a nook in my office space at home that I installed a bunch of shelves. All the CDs, video games, and even other crap fits easily, with no floor space used. It's the way to go if you don't have other options, but, of course, buying 3-4 shelves isn't that much cheaper than just buying an iPod for $150.

Dehumanized

Leave the Jewel cases at home, get a flipbook and store them. All my CDs go straight to my MP3 player, and the packagings go into storage. Any CD that I need more often than once usually ends up sharing space on a 8" tall spindle that I got with a large pack of CDRs.

A Bear

I've considered getting a large binder (and currently have 2 or 3 smaller ones floating around) but have never really liked them as a solution. Many of the CDs in question are for computer games, as most of my music is already on my iPod and what CDs I still have around I keep mostly to be able to lend out to friends, take over to a party, etc. basically situations where I'd like to move only a few CDs around and not bother with the rest. Unfortunately, even if I store my CDs outside their jewel cases I'll still have to store the cases somewhere, and the binder somewhere too. Granted, with budget in the forefront, a $30 binder seems like the most practical solution.

I like the shelf idea, and while I have much more vertical wallspace than horizontal, I could certainly move some things around. I've poked around the IKEA website, and it seems only about 10% of what they offer in-store is offered online, and the nearest store is hours away. Still, there seems to be good stuff to be had. I could get a little bookshelf and put my printer on top of it to store CDs below, but that really doesn't seem to be practical space wise, as the bookshelf would have to be almost exactly the size of the printer (as it is wedged between my wall and desk). With a wall shelf like the LACK I suppose I would have to find some clever bookends to make sure they don't all spill over.