Massive media collections and media collection endgames

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

I agree, I don't like the empty wall space either, but it is getting very difficult now a days to find proper shelving for media it seems. It almost like you've got to make the shelving yourself or have it custom made. Book shelves are still some what available, but not so good for the sizes of things like CDs and tapes. I definitely like the idea of having stuff on display and also agree it would be a better experience, instead of scrolling or searching via screens for something, as opposed to looking on shelf. I'd imagine with such large collection would be certainly beneficial to have some sort of alphabetical order or one could go crazy scanning through ones own collection to find something, haha. I do that now with my unorganized DVD collection, I'll sit and look for something forever and then finally it will jump out at me, so now I'm wondering do peoples collections have a sequence or specific order for easy spotting?

I've actually managed to find some pretty good and large shelving units on Wayfair of all places. Just do a search on "large shelving for CDs" for instance. Of course, you still need a room with enough walls and length for them, but it beats spinning towers or just having them in boxes or whatever.

My CDs, vinyls, and tapes are all arranged alphabetically (comps before A), and then for each band in chronological order of release, at least as best as possible (especially with acts that put out a ton of stuff and the discogs info is sketchy, it can be hard to find EXACT order of everything).

Was quite the endeavor doing it originally, but once you do it, it makes everything so much easier. Have made several moves in that time, and keeping the organization intact wasn't the easiest, but I managed without too many mishaps. CDs and tapes (at least in J-cards) its typically pretty easy to notice if something is out of place with the spines. Vinyls not so much. I thought I had lost an MSBR record in one move and couldn't find it for months. Finally, I found it randomly in a bunch of Ps.

[Cranial Blast]

I agree, I don't like the empty wall space either, but it is getting very difficult now a days to find proper shelving for media it seems. It almost like you've got to make the shelving yourself or have it custom made. Book shelves are still some what available, but not so good for the sizes of things like CDs and tapes. I definitely like the idea of having stuff on display and also agree it would be a better experience, instead of scrolling or searching via screens for something, as opposed to looking on shelf. I'd imagine with such large collection would be certainly beneficial to have some sort of alphabetical order or one could go crazy scanning through ones own collection to find something, haha. I do that now with my unorganized DVD collection, I'll sit and look for something forever and then finally it will jump out at me, so now I'm wondering do peoples collections have a sequence or specific order for easy spotting?

I've actually managed to find some pretty good and large shelving units on Wayfair of all places. Just do a search on "large shelving for CDs" for instance. Of course, you still need a room with enough walls and length for them, but it beats spinning towers or just having them in boxes or whatever.

My CDs, vinyls, and tapes are all arranged alphabetically (comps before A), and then for each band in chronological order of release, at least as best as possible (especially with acts that put out a ton of stuff and the discogs info is sketchy, it can be hard to find EXACT order of everything).

Was quite the endeavor doing it originally, but once you do it, it makes everything so much easier. Have made several moves in that time, and keeping the organization intact wasn't the easiest, but I managed without too many mishaps. CDs and tapes (at least in J-cards) its typically pretty easy to notice if something is out of place with the spines. Vinyls not so much. I thought I had lost an MSBR record in one move and couldn't find it for months. Finally, I found it randomly in a bunch of Ps.

Thanks for the interesting tip and insight. I can't say that I've ever checked out Wayfair before, but perhaps I should. I've gone to IKEA in search for this type of shelving years ago, but often times it's just more of the book shelf solution, rather than CD/media shelf. I'll definitely look into the search on Wayfair though. The CD tower spinners are the absolute worst, those are okay for a small collection that maybe doesn't have plans for expansion.

Alphabetically sounds like the way to go. Perhaps there should be a section for weird packaged items to, that can't necessarily sit amongst normal CD cases and tapes cases. I've got a lot weird packaging stuff in collection and I've designated specific boxes for those anomalies, but yeah Discogs can be good and bad I think. I started to catalog my collection late in that game, so it's hard to know what I've missed from the time I started. It's an interesting way to keep track of things you have, but it's not a perfect system either. It's kind of a scattered mess of sorts.

That sounds reassuring and pretty liberating with how you described in third paragraph. I think that notion of having things more organized would be a massive weight lifted instead of having this big mess of media that feels like...where do I even begin!?

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

Alphabetically sounds like the way to go. Perhaps there should be a section for weird packaged items to, that can't necessarily sit amongst normal CD cases and tapes cases. I've got a lot weird packaging stuff in collection and I've designated specific boxes for those anomalies, but yeah Discogs can be good and bad I think. I started to catalog my collection late in that game, so it's hard to know what I've missed from the time I started. It's an interesting way to keep track of things you have, but it's not a perfect system either. It's kind of a scattered mess of sorts.
[/quote]

Special packaging can be a dilemma. A few of the things that fit, I'll put on shelves. At least with CDs, though, unless its holding the CD in something equivalent to a spindle, I remove it from the packaging and put it in a blank jewel case so it doesn't get damaged. I try to place all those "special packaging discs" on the shelves at their proper place in my system, but that's where I do have to be careful, especially if there's no real identifying info on the disc itself. Its easy to put them out of place. But again, if everything else is organized, you can track down the "rogue" items fairly easily usually.

The packaging itself I have several storage bins where I've put all that. No real organization or cataloging there. I figure if I ever have to pull any of it out for a sale or whatever, I'll just have to dig a bit. At least I have a general idea of where it is. I never throw anything out, so I know its there.

Yeah, the chronological ordering is certainly not ironclad by any means. I mean, if I've got 8 Merzbow CDs from the 95-97 period, it really doesn't matter if they're all in the exact order they were released. But I know exactly where to go on the shelves to find mid-90s Merzbow CDs with how I've set things up.

[Minus1]

Lol.

I have a fuckton of CDs, books, and films, and none of it is alphabetical. It's all random. Searching for a particular item then becomes a treasure hunt, and along the way I see things that make me go "Fuck! I forgot all about that one!"

I knew things were getting bad when I began to re-buy something that I forgot that I already had. I worried about my memory / age / braincells when that happened. But this thread reassures me that I am not alone in this regard. 😂