So this post is either going to be a “wow, she is just now doing that?” or “wow, I need to do this!” type of post. I hope it will be a help to some who maybe didn’t realize this was an option or just hadn’t thought of doing this – it sure has been a help to me!
After I finished the makeover on the laundry room in January, I have been on a full-fledge mission to clear this house off all unneeded and unwanted things and clutter. The trash has been overflowing most weeks on pickup day, and the yard sale pile has now outgrown the garage and inhabiting a corner inside the house. Eeek! I think I am slowly becoming more minimalist and as life has gotten busier with a little one, I just don’t want to have spend so much time “managing stuff”. Plus now that we have lived here for a while I have been able to figure out what will and won’t work in this house and am just getting rid of all the excess. So I will have several organizing posts that I plan to share with you in the coming days.
I have been trying to do some major work in my office which has forced me to deal with lots of things. One of which was the baskets and bin of cd’s. We love to listen to music and all of ours is on cd’s still– yes maybe old school there a bit, I just haven’t had the time or space to get them all burned and saved online somehow. (Any suggestions on which cloud service or how you save music online, I’d love to know!)
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So I took this pile of cd’s (and more that cases had already broken, didn’t come with case, etc) and turned it into this!
I ordered the black binders off Amazon – I liked the reviews and the price of these particular ones but there are many other ones you can choose too. There are options for 300-400 cd’s (this case holds 400 cd’s!), but the one I chose to use is this 128 cd/dvd binder. I wanted something smaller that would fit on my cubicle shelf in my office and be more manageable.
How you set it up is all up to you. For now, I decided to keep the cd front jacket and then put the cd next to it. I just know the front of the cd jacket so thought this would be easier to find cd’s. But you don’t have to do that if you don’t want. Everything fit in there with no problem – I didn’t have to cut the papers at all.
I did kids cd’s and Christmas cd’s in one binder and then just general music in the other one. And I still have space to add more when we get more cd’s in the future. You can alphabetize if you want but I found that I didn’t know the title of the cd as much as I knew the group that produced/sang it – so I just grouped by genre and artist.
Storing cd’s in the car had always been a pain. I didn’t have much room in the console for all the cases so ended up not keeping many in the car to change out. But not now! I already had these small binders that at one time was used for computer cd’s. You can find something similar here. So now I can load them up with 8-10 cd’s, take to the car and it fits great in the console. Then when we are ready to listen to new cd’s, I can just bring the small binder back inside and change them out.
I am LOVING this new storage system! We have been listening to music that had been forgotten about in a box. And I’m loving how neat and organized it is too!
Now I am eyeing the DVD’s and Blu-rays 😉 These cases would work great for thos too! I just haven’t gotten the final ok from my husband to get rid of all the cases yet. 🙂
How do you organize your media – cd’s, DVD’s, Blu-rays?
I have a gazillion CDs/DVDs. They cover a wide variety, not just music/TV. I got several binders and had to order a bunch more. I separated my disks into categories. I have Music/TV/Craft videos/Audiobooks/Saved photos/Computer programs/etc. Each binder is specific to it’s topic. In many cases there are multiple binders for a specific topic. Mega reduction in amount of storage needed.
Such a good reminder! We do this with our cd’s and dvd’s and it’s so helpful! It helps us “rediscover” ones that might otherwise get buried, and I think it keeps them in better shape (regular cases seem to fall open and disks come out and get scratched otherwise) to say nothing of the saved space. I usually keep the cases in the attic for if/when we pass them on. And as you mention, it’s great for traveling!
I love CD cases but they do take up a lot of space. I did this to a bunch of old CDs I have, just to keep them safe.
WOW! I’m going to check these out. Thank you.
I have a big collection of songs, movies and drama series on DVDs and I have placed them in different baskets in my store. I have also saved them in my 4T external hard drive. Anyways thanks for your reminder.