Wow, that's a lot of packaging. We had the same reaction as AT Reader Holly, when we compressed our DVD collection. There is a lot of wasteful packaging, that for some reason we all become attached to. Seriously, it's only plastic and why do we feel the need to devote entire pieces of furniture to house plastic mass-produced containers?
We filed ours away in one of these Allsop binders, but Holly offers another solution that allows you to keep the DVDs individually stored. She found these economical sleeves that allow her to store her DVDs and their liners in much less space than those clunky, plastic cases. Read more about Holly's ideas here.
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I love this idea and can't wait to try it out. With movie prices so high and having real paying jobs(recent graduates here), the husband and I have been purchasing more dvds and although I am planning to give some away to friends and family, they do take a lot of space. I just have to figure out what to do with the left over cases. Are they recyclable? While typing this I just thought about using them to give cds/dvds with home movies/pictures to family/friends. Anyone else has any other ideas? I mean they served their purpose for me, but they could have other purposes., I just don't want them in my apartment.
view Sonia's profile
spend more money to change the storage container? how about just buy fewer dvds?
view Deb of Oz's profile
I love movies...most of my collection is classics..and we don't have cable so we watch movies about 3 times a week ..the ones that I keep are usually classics (except for some guilty pleasures)...the ones I get just because I wanted to see but didn't really like, usually end up in someone else's collection (I have this box where friends trade me for something else I want, usually shoveling my car off in the winter)...but my personal collection is taking too much space. Right now it's sitting in a box in my spare closet, except for about 10 that I keep out. So it's a pain to look for Bringing up Baby, when I want to see it. I have about 30-50 dvds, and would love to put them in my shelves, but with the cases, it just wouldn't fit. But that's still a lot of boxes to get rid off.
view Sonia's profile
I simply took my DVD's and put them in a CD binder that holds well over 100. The only time I keep the packaging is when its has for example a booklet or the design is really special.
view Sara48's profile
Why not just go digital and store them all on a few TB's of disk space? Easier to search and on demand access!
view DaveD's profile
I did away with CD/DVD cases about 15 years ago. As I worked on my project I tossed the plastic cases into a garbage bag. When it was full I lugged it out to the curb and along the way the bag grazed my calf and I felt something warm on my leg. When I got back to the house I could see in the glow of the porch light that I was bleeding from a gash from one of the cases that poked out the side of the bag! 9 stitches later I swore I'd never allow "jewel" cases in my life again. Now we use friendly soft envelopes stacked in Container Store clear plastic shoe boxes (sans lids) that slide neatly under the TV or sit quietly on a shelf under the CD player. CDs are mostly going into the MP3 player so even these are diminishing.
view Juliejulie's profile
Sonia, have you consider donating the empty cases to your local library where I'm pretty certain they also lend out dvds. I can't tell you the number of times when I borrow dvds from the library and the cases are falling apart, especially the center clasp holding the dvd in it's place. When it's broken it usually scratches the disk pretty badly.
I agree with DaveD. I pretty much ripped all of my dvds onto my external harddrives. Save space that way.
view Jabber's profile
We ditched our DVD cases and switched them all to slim cases, and then labeled (go go gadget label maker!) each one. We then put them in a long basket or tray, and what used to take up 4 bookcases takes up 1 lone shelf, and they all stay in perfect alphabetical order... because they have to.
We listed our empty boxes on Craigslist and had over 40 replies for people who wanted them for movies that they had burned from Netflix and needed cases for.
Best thing we ever did.
view sarahrae's profile
Thanks everybody....I completely forgot about the library... I would try to store them electronically, but I would need a new computer for that since my laptop does not allow me to do that (i've had it since 1999)...and technically I don't have the know how...but maybe will one day...
view Sonia's profile
I'm all about reducing clutter but I LOVE my dvds and I have over 600. :) I keep mine in Ikea units where they are snugly waiting for me to pick one. Right now, they are not organized since I moved in not too long ago and didn't take the time to re-create "my system" (I organise by genre) but I think they look good. Of course, my place is almost 1200 square feet so I do have the room to display them... Here's a few pics:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1274/845474811_1fd8c4c7ed_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1052/845406013_cd9e9e627b_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1074/1362452819_06a425b862_b.jpg
I've tought of covering each of them with a sleeve of translucide white velum paper, just to unify them. But that would be one heck of a big job.
view Eve in Hochelaga's profile