DVD & BluRay Organisation

We have finally found the perfect solution on how to tackle DVD & BluRay Organisation!! 🙂 Wrestling our ever expanding DVD & Blu Rays into some semblance of organisation has long been the bane of my existence. We have tried a few different solutions over the years, some with better success than others. When my friend Jenn over at Wildflowers and Marbles shared that she had THE solution to DVD & Blu-Ray Organisation you better believe I paid attention. Jenn is the Queen of organisation, furthermore she had trialed this for months before sharing.  We’ve now had this method in place for a year, so I can verify this is the solution for our family too. I’m beyond thrilled to announce that we have finally have order, we are no longer drowning in our media collection.

Methods Tried

DVD Wallet Cases

In the beginning when our collection was a fraction of the size it is now we loved our DVD Wallet Cases.

• they held over 200 discs
• opened to a spread of 8 discs
• slotted tightly into the spine
• zippered up neatly
• had sturdy leather corners and external
• collection could be organised into genres

It was when our collection expanded and we needed more cases we ran into trouble. We bought look alikes but they were not of the same standard.  The vinyl newbies never had the same robustness of the leather corners, nor were the sleeves as sturdy in quality and they are only available as three ring binders. Needing more than three cases it was too cumbersome, it was time to search for another solution.

*I do still recommend this solution as our second favourite option and it should work well if you had a normal sized collection.

Aluminium Storage Cases

We next tried DVD aluminium storage cases,  advertised as capable of storing 1000 discs we bought two boxes, one for DVDs/Blue Rays, the other for music and computer CDs. Hoping it was the solution to all our troubles, it was a disaster.

• The four rows were organised into; adult, children, series etc so theoretically you could easily find a disc, organising wasn’t an issue but maintenance was. Our collection was being accessed by several people, of various ages and responsible attitudes regards returning discs to their correct slots.
• Visually it was impossible to see what was there, it wasn’t designed to browse through, you’d spend so much time looking and likely wouldn’t even find what you sought.
• Robustness wasn’t great, the aluminium tracks didn’t really hold 1000 discs and soon began to bow under the weight and use. The cute little plastic hangers didn’t sit snuggly in the tracks so the disc sleeves were forever falling onto the bottom of the case.

This system was a failure for us, we were deeply unhappy for a long time, seeking a new solution to no avail.

*A relative uses this method and says it works fine, but Mum, Dad and baby equals smaller collection and more importantly control over users 😉

Our Solution!

We kept hoping for THE solution with no success until the day Jenn’s post popped up in my feedly.  It really, really sounded like the solution!! Clear plastic sleeves nestled upright in clear bins!!

• discs are protected
• are easily portable
• collection is slim !!! Five slip cases with discs equals the thickness of one hard case
• completely visible with disc jackets at the front of each sleeve!!

Thankfully I had kept all of our disc jackets over the years despite giving away the cases.

The Materials

Sleeves

I eagerly began seeking the materials Jenn recommended and immediately ran into a snag. In Australia we don’t have the access to the same materials and Amazon won’t deliver to me. Undaunted I set out to find similar replications, though after a fruitless day I was demoralised, it looked like the solution was nixed before ‘leaving the starting gate’. Amazon America wouldn’t post to me and no store in Australia had the clear plastic slip sleeves with the disc sleeves inside, ebay did had the clear plastic slip sleeves but they didn’t include the disc sleeves.  Several nights later drifting off to sleep the solution came to me! All I needed was to ADD disc sleeves, and the aluminium cases I loathed had disc sleeves! By adding the disc sleeves to the slip sleeves I now had what I needed.

Bins

Sleeve crisis averted it was time to source the clear DVD bins. Wanting to utilise every bit of the space of our entertainment unit, I ascertained that I could just fit two bins side by side if they were of exact dimensions, as our unit was extra deep I needed narrow and long bins. The bins needed to be the correct width to fit the sleeves and tall enough to be able to easily flip through. Googling all the major chain stories I discovered that Kmart held my solution, in their kitchen section we found refrigerator storage bins that were the perfect size needed!

The bins had

• handles to easily carry
• wheels to slide in and out of unit
• dividers to break into sections
• extra depth, holds about 180 sleeves

They are no longer available but other storage bins may fit your entertainment unit. The clear plastic wasn’t as clear and pretty as Jenn’s, a ‘vision adjustment’ needed and we were ‘a goer’. Living in a country town without a Kmart, it was fortuitous that we were heading north to the ‘Big Smoke’ the next weekend, I rang all the stores north of us find 8 bins, the amount our unit could hold. As no store had 8, we purchased a couple from a store in the ‘Big Smoke’ and the remainder from a store on the road home.

Production Line

Materials in hand it was time to begin. Gathering the troops we began a production line with children;

• folding disc jackets
• adding disc sleeves to the clear plastic sleeve
• matching discs to their jackets

As we worked there were lots of discussions;

• greetings and reminisces to ‘old friends’
• plans were made to re-watch long forgotten and misplaced DVDs
• votes on which DVDs to cull, which wasn’t many

As we rarely watch TV, we’re happy to support a large DVD/Blu Ray collection and being in country Australia, aka Broadband ADSL 2, Netflix is extremely slow to load, nobody wants to sit waiting 5 minutes mid movie for the next scene to load.

Categorising the DVDs

Discussions ensued as to just how we would categorise the DVD/Blu Rays and the collection was sorted into;

• adults
• teen
• children
• musical and educational

Colour dots were added for the categories and the label maker marked each box with their designated name. The organisational layout has been even more fine tuned since we began. It has been a project that Princess, 17 and PC have taken great responsibility for and pride in. The collection has been sorted into more sub-genres and dots have received clearer coding.

• adults – drama
• children – animated
• teens – 15+ etc

Gone is the visual clutter. Taming our media collection makes the loungeroom now one of my favourite rooms. Encouraging anyone who is in despair over their DVD/Blu Ray collection to give this a go, it worked for us 🙂