CD Storage - How do you store your CD collection...

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How do you store your CD collection???

I know that many of you reading this post will have at some stage faced the CD storage dilema. This dilema occurs when your CD collection becomes far too large to fit inside your home.

So what do you do??? Install shelving?? Buy more CD racks/cases?? Sell some CD's?? Get a bigger home??

One option that I'm really seriously looking into at the moment is the use of plastic sleeves to store my CD's in. I know many of you will be turning your noses up at the idea as did I at first...but there are some really well manufactured products out there which have been designed for long term CD storage/archival which will look after your CD collection much better that those big chunky jewel cases.

One such product that I'm looking at is called the JewelSleeve - basically it is a plastic sleeve that has a paded compartment for one or two CD's as well as compartments for the front booklet and tray insert. The key feature here is that there is an appropriately sized section for the tray card inserts - most products on the market are designed for the CD and front insert only. Some people actually throw the tray card inserts away...crazy! The sleeves are made from a really high quality material that gives total protection to the CD and inserts.

Check out JewelSleeves here. There's a short demonstration video to show you what they're like.
http://www.jewelsleeve.com/cgi-bin/mivavm?../mm5/merchant.mvc+Screen=PROD&Store_Code=jewelsleeve&Product_Code=101&Category_Code=C001

The advantage of plastic sleeves for CD storage is that they can reduce the amount of space taken up by your jewel cases by up to 75% while still allowing your CD's to be well organised, presented and accessible.

This disadvantages of plastic sleeves is that in general you cannot view the spine as you can with a jewel case and they can be quite expensive.

The argument that plastic sleeves are too flimsy doesn't hold up with me...if you look after your CD collection and store your CD's in an appropriate way, you shouldn't have a problem. And let's face it - jewel cases can be very easily cracked, and when those little black teeth break off from time to time they can cause quite a bit of damage to the CD's data surface.

Here we have 2000 empty jewel cases, the contents of which have been removed and stored in JewelSleeves which are organised into those 6 drawers you can see.

This is the same cabinet as in the picture above. These 3 drawers can hold 1000 CD's. Look how organised it is.

I'm very curious to know what your CD storage solution is and do you have any other ideas/suggestions/questions on this issue. I'm particularly keen to hear what you think about storing CD's in plastic sleeves...

I use a shelf unit similar to a book shelf with glass doors on the front.You can add shelves to add more cds.right now I have around 400 cds in it

I have a bookcase (app. 800) and a cd rack (app. 300) which are both filling up. I'm gonna have to start another one soon.

Guest

Thrasher73 would you ever consider storing your CD's in plastic sleeves? I guess at 400 CD's it probably isn't as big a deal as someone with say 1000+ CD's, but that's still a sizeable collection which I'm sure you planing on making bigger...

Moderator Age : 21 Joined : 22 Jan 2007 Posts : 1619

Shelves.

And I would have never ever got myself something like this JewelSleeve.
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Heart of Metal Age : 32 Joined : 22 Jan 2007 Posts : 1996

Mine are everywhere in my room, plenty of Boxes holding around 1800 CDs , 1 self unit (not wall mounted) holds 840 CDs, a chest which holds 631 CDs,

The womans father is hand at carpentry and he's making 2 more units which will hold 1200 each so that should free up some space whenever he bothers his ass to do 'em

i'm not as organized as the rest of you. i keep mine in boxes down in the basement. over the years, i've made mp3 copies of almost all of it, because i can never find the disc i want when i look for it. so i rarely play an actual cd anymore. only when i first buy them really.
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Heart of Metal Age : 50 Joined : 06 Feb 2007 Posts : 1844

I keep the cases for the stuff I have in rotation in towers. This works for me because I have them programmed into my cd jukebox changers (where the actual cd's are stored) by genere. The genres are usually in multiples of 25 (25 to 150 per genre); which works well becuase the towers are also usually set up to hold multiples of 25 or 50 per side. I usually pick a genre and play randomly within it.
The rest of it that is out of rotation (the stuff I don't listen to much) are on shelving in closets. I guess a librarian would call these the "stacks".
The non-keeper cd's are in boxes in closets. I really should get rid of that crap.
But the plastic sleve method, I've seen a lot of retail shops use that method or similar, and it seems like a good idea; it's just not the way I'm set up right now.

Metal master Age : 23 Joined : 13 Feb 2007 Posts : 682

i kinda voted for all because i have them scattered around everywhere
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Metal student Age : 20 Joined : 04 Feb 2007 Posts : 113

I have a cd bookcase style thing that holds around 500 cd's. It's almost full.
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Heart of Metal Age : 19 Joined : 23 Jan 2007 Posts : 1484

Something about that JewelSleeve system seems highly unappetising to me.
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Moderator Age : 30 Joined : 08 Jan 2007 Posts : 2166

I have 3 different kinds of racks, towers, shelves. One is this case that has doors that CDs go in, and shelves in the middle of it. Holds are 275.

I've also got a 3 ft. tall bookcase type thing. Holds around 250 or so.

Then I have this metal rack that holds around 150 or so.

All 3 are full, and I'm in need of more storage space. I've thought about getting one of those large bookcase type ones that can hold 1000.
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Heart of Metal Age : 49 Joined : 24 Jan 2007 Posts : 1546

Here is how all mine are stored with the exception of mp3's that are stored in spindles.

Below are pics!

Wargod48
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Holy cow! That is one impressive set-up, Wargod! Your collection makes me feel very, very... small. Sad

Metal graduate Age : 41 Joined : 11 Mar 2007 Posts : 442

mine are everywhere, my cd's that are in my MP3 player are scattered on a pony wall, and the rest are either on my cumputer desk, on the floor or on a couple tables. I need to organize........

Metal graduate Age : 35 Joined : 01 Feb 2007 Posts : 402

The cases are boxed up in my air-conditioned shop & the cd's are in binders, I'll have over 1000 pretty soon. Collecting can be pretty addictive.

Heart of Metal Age : 49 Joined : 24 Jan 2007 Posts : 1546

Heart of Metal Age : 21 Joined : 20 Apr 2007 Posts : 1240

I have a majority of them on the shelf, but I also chicked other because I have my favourite bands showing on the wall (cover art facing forward).