Ok, not recordings, but...storing CDs in a smaller space?

[TerraEpon]

(There's no good forum here for this, but I figure since many people here probably have a lot of discs I could get some input. Apologies if it's misplaced)
I've finally decided that my CDs take too much space, and I'm looking to buy a large amount of cases to slim down the space they take up.
Anyone have anything they use? I'd much prefer a soft type case that won't break when dropped, etc. There are some out there....but I can't figure out if any of them hold the back insert and/or liner notes. But it seems finding thin-sized CD case is a furtile endevor, at least ones that can hold everything.
I asked elsewhere and did more searching (some helpful theads on SteveHoffman forum) and got the idea a lot of people use sleeves of some sort. Jazzloft, Bagsunlimited (it seems http://www.bagsunlimited.com/p-3317-cd-gatefold-sleeve-nbsp-40mil-polyethylene.aspx is the way to go, nothing else they have seems to hold both booklet and insert) and www.sleevetown.com are the main contenders -- the last one seems to have a few potential options, and gives out samples for a penny...though they also charge hefty shipping. Still, under $8 for 7 potential options isn't too bad.

It's kinda surprising there isn't more out there, and what there is is hard to find. Anyone with ideas?

[mbhaub]

At one time I was really concerned about storage, but the large book-like volumes just aren't viable for me: I personally wouldn't buy a used cd with the back insert missing, or worse, the booklet. I want the whole package. Slim cases don't allow for keeping both, either. The new digital storage devices that can store thousands of cds are tempting, but given the size of the hoard, they need to make much larger units and make disk access easier. Call me old-fashioned, but I like the ability to grab a disk, plop in in the player and listen. My solution isn't for everyone, but if you have the room and woodworking skills you can build shelving. I dedicated an entire wall which is 20 ft wide and 10 ft high to a built-in made out of inexpensive MDF. After a nice paint job even my wife doesn't mind and having 8000+ cds on display certainly catches people's attention. If 10 ft high seems challenging, it isn't. I have sturdy step stool and then store disks up high that I don't listen to a whole lot. I can keep the original cd packaging and when the fateful day comes that someone has to remove the collection, it will be easier for them and for prospective buyers, assuming that there's anyone left who cares about great music and our incredible musical heritage.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hope the floorboards stand the weight! Just like mbhaub I'm unwilling to dispose of plastic cases however inferior such things may be (they break, scratch and are shoddy things). Why? First, a trickle of them go off to a S/H dealer and the things are worthless if cases, documentation, slipcases etc are not complete. Second, one wretched day the whole lot will be acquired by someone else or some institution (written into the last Will & Testament!) and although stiff & inert by then I don't want whoever benefits to be muttering curses about me for not bequeathing the original plastic cases. And, third, it doubtless implies something about my psychology that I don't want to know, but I enjoy collecting the things (a real whoop of triumph is let rip when some esoteric item is deleted from the wants list) and plead guilty to drooling over shelves and shelves of the complete things.

I've contemplated some means of storage in which something like 15 CDs get squeezed into an inch. But pooh to that - it creates huge problems in filing them in correct order, finding a particular performance of a Haydn quartet or whatever, and you really need the width of a standard case to be able to read the title on the spine. (I wish, incidentally, there was absolute standardisation whereby all record companies printed the writing the same way on the spine!) I've also thought of storing the whole lot in some form with access through computer & associated gimcracks. But bah to that option as well - technologies change rapidly and dramatically, and besides I've no wish to spend hours of my life twiddling knobs or buttons.

So Like mbhaub, on with the ear-muffs (very precious things, the ears!) and out with the electric saw, belt-sander and all the rest of it. I don't like MDF - not very strong, creates dangerous dust when you're working the stuff, and must receive 3 coats of paint. I used easily available pine or softwood. Much stronger, one coat of yacht varnish, and within a few months it comes up a glorious golden hue with all the grain & occasional knots displayed. And add on a few bits of carpentry twiddle - architrave, mouldings etc and, dammit, you end up with a fine bit of furniture equal to any fancy bookcase. Mine are a mere 7 ft high (or 12 shelves) and built in 3 feet wide 'units' that lock together to facilitate movement and any future house move. And I guess I'm in mbhaub league given that there are 7 units (i.e. 21 ft) down both sides of the room. Dumbos often say, gosh how many CDs have you got? / have you listened to them all? etc and I puzzle them when I reply that I haven't got the foggiest idea! OK, conscious that all this stuff hasn't got an intimate connection with Raff, but I suppose there's a kind of very tenuous link somewhere!

Peter

[Pengelli]

And the fun of selling a very rare,long deleted cd on Amazon for a ridiculously low price!
Sometimes it takes weeks to find a cd. Best course of action. Stop looking for it and lo and behold it turns up!

[TerraEpon]

Well yeah, as I said in my post I want something that'll allow me to keep the book and insert. I'd only do it for ones with standard cases -- all the digipacks, operas with an extra book and others with a sleeve, and unique cases will stay put. I still figure I can make a good 1000 jewel cases worth of space extra even by simply cutting the 'normal' ones in half, which is quite a lot.

It's not so much needing a shelf to put them as it is having room in my room for them.

[mbhaub]

I don't like MDF - not very strong, creates dangerous dust when you're working the stuff, and must receive 3 coats of paint. I used easily available pine or softwood.

Wow, we must be related or something. I made 3 ft wide units, too, that locked together. I built them in the workshop and hauled them as they were finished to their final resting place and attached them to the wall studs, then back to build another. I finished the construction in two days because I used MDF, which I have found to be quite strong, lightweight, easy to work with and best of all: it's perfect. No knotholes, or other blemishes. I did use 5/8 inch MDF. It's dirt cheap, which was also a good selling point. For painting, it took 15 minutes with the sprayer to put on the primer, then a 4 hour dry time, then maybe 15 more minutes with the one paint coat. Really easy, actually, if you can use a spray gun. This was in a new construction house and I hadn't installed flooring or anything yet, so I didn't have to prep too much. The worst part was all of the danged shelves! I needed a lot, over 100. I started to use glass for its thinnes, but after too many cracks and spilt blood, settled on MDF. If anyone undertakes something like this, you really want to use a paint sprayer.

Like others of massive collections, I often think about what will happen to it in the future, but pray that's 30 years off!

[Mark Thomas]

I'm no carpenter, but don't the MDF shelves bow in the middle under the weight of the CDs? Three feet is quite a long unsupported span.

For the record, I store my CDs in multiple shop-bought six drawer bedroom chests of drawers (which don't look bedroomy I hasten to add). The bottom of each drawer was strengthened with transverse battens. My original grand plan was to digitise the whole collection and just keep the booklets but it was too daunting a robotic task. That said, I don't feel the need to gaze upon shelves of CD spines any more (I did once) and my wife is certainly happier with them all neatly packed away in the music room than taking up oceans of shelf space. Access is easy: they're stored spine up in their drawer. But I only have around 4,500 CDs, so I'm not quite in the same league, and these days I'll always buy high bitrate mp3s, if they're available, in preference to the physical CD.

[jimmosk]

I'm in the process of transferring all my CDs into these 520-CD "wallets" (boy, what a misnomer!):  http://www.cdrdvdrmedia.com/520-cds-dvds-capacity-pvc-cd-wallet-black.html

But in my case I'm looking for a way to store them without needing to access them much at all -- I've transferred the music to hard drive(s) and only need the discs in case I have a computer failure or need to refer to the booklet.  The case linked to above holds the disc and booklet just fine, but the rear coverslip I have to fold to get it to fit in -- and of course it doesn't handle the thick books that come with some multiple-disc sets, but I imagine that's true of many CD-storage cases.

They're incredibly compact, incredibly cheap (they cost me $15 each), but not something I'd want to use if I intended to access the discs every week.

-J

--
Jim Moskowitz
The Unknown Composers Page: http://kith.org/jimmosk/TOC.html
My latest list of unusual classical CDs for auction: http://tinyurl.com/jimsCDs