CD (with jewel cases) storage ideas?

December 12, 2009 9:30 AM

How should I store my CD's?

Metafilter is the only place where I'm relatively sure no one will say "Get an Ipod." I have upwards of 1500 CD's, and it is a collection I would like to store more attractively. I currently use several mismatched towers, and I have boxes for the overflow. I'd like some sort of large, high capacity shelving unit.

I can spend about 200 dollars either on a pre-built storage unit, or the materials for one I build myself (limited experience, nothing complex).

Does anyone have any ideas? Also, I would like there to be some room for collection-growth.

thanks.

posted by plungerjoke to Shopping (9 answers total)

Well, I was going to say get an iPod, so there goes that assumption. I always see this CD storage wall in SkyMall and wonder who has that many CDs anymore. Looks like it was made for you!
posted by Frank Grimes at 9:52 AM on December 12, 2009

I've got some Boltz shelves--nice, but might be out of your price range.

Do you live somewhere that you can mount stuff to the walls?
posted by box at 10:24 AM on December 12, 2009

It's going to be hard to shelve 1500+ CD's in jewel cases for $200. If you budget was higher, I'd say to google "library furniture" and find some sort of storage system that you could customize and expand, or perhaps a system like the Can-Am. There are some options here that nearly meet your requirements and budget. I have my doubts about the quality of those racks. Two of these would be just outside your budget, but the metal might be stronger than particle board.

If you already have tools, your best option would be DIY. Even if you only have a drill, you could make something like the flexy rack out of 1x4's and threaded rod. The flexy racks are sturdy and easy to build. Also, it you could always get the parts to expand with additional matching racks in the future. There's also the Babelle DIY CD storage rack from the same folks who designed the flexy, but it looks like it would require a lot of sawing, and I'm not sure if the glue would scale to 1500 CD's.

Let us know how this turns out.
posted by paulg at 10:25 AM on December 12, 2009

I have about that many CD's, but moved over years ago to CD binders. As much as it pained me at the time to ditch all those plastic cases, I never looked back afterward. Now I have a lot more space and everything is on the computer anyway, so they only get pulled out occasionally.
posted by sophist at 10:47 AM on December 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

If you want to shelve the CDs and are open to ditching the jewel cases, and I've looked at these sleeves for quite a while. Holds all the artwork as well as the disc.
posted by toddje at 11:32 AM on December 12, 2009

I have more CDs than you, and as you can see, I've done what you describe for about that cost. Each of those racks holds 160 discs and cost $25. They were manufactured by Maverick Design here in Boston. (The website hasn't been updated in a few years, but they're still in business.) The racks are well-built, nice-enough looking for their purpose, and were even convenient when I moved—I laid them flat and stacked them that way, and nothing broke. So you can do it for $200, or at least pretty close: Your collection would fit in ten, which would cost $250.

I don't know what qualifies as "attractive." For finished-wood storage, you're going to be looking at higher cost, probably well beyond your $200 budget. For instance, I was just admiring this 1,050-disc capacity cabinet in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. Its price tag is $500, and for a 1,500 CD collection with room for growth, you'd want two.
posted by cribcage at 11:34 AM on December 12, 2009

Well, as someone with over 5000 CDs, I understand your pain. My solution is really a DIY project - except it was done by my friend who loves woodworking and has a garage with a ton of tools. The wall shelves look remarkably similar to the CD storage wall from SkyMall in the link provided by Frank Grimes. It can be done for $200 or even less if you scrounge about for the materials. What's involved: a large sheet of plywood as backing. Wooden planks as shelves, width about an inch less than the width of a CD (makes it easier to pull out). Wooden planks as stabilizers running from top to bottom every 3 feet or so. Basically a grid on a plywood backing. Overall height - 7.5 feet, width - as you wish, just repeat the grid pattern and more plywood backing. Now comes the critical part - you need to dedicate a wall somewhere to this. The wall has to be easily accessible. You screw the plywood backing into the wall along studs, so it hangs flat on the wall a few inches off the floor (you don't want to bend too far for the CDs in that last row). Now you have CD shelves running the entire span of the wall - minus a few inches off the floor and the ceiling. Then you paint the entire unit with the same paint you have on your walls, so that the unit blends into the wall (sans CDs). Finally, the optional part: mount a motorized screen on the ceiling, just in front of the unit. With a push of a button, the screen comes down, completely covering the unit - so that it disappears from sight - of course, you can have different solutions here, like a row of venetian blinds that you can pull up or down uncovering sections of the CD unit (every section has CDs organized according to some principle - classical, jazz, whatever).

But really, ultimately, the way to go is to go totally digital - which I've done. I have a media server with 8TB of drives (some of it just backups) - my music and videos are on this, and I can summon it up using iTunes from anywhere (even offsite!). These days that's how I listen to music 99.99% of the time - not from CDs. I still buy CDs, because a lot of music is not available as downloads (even on bittorrent), so I must buy it - plus, even if I download something illegally, if I really like it, I do my best to buy the CD - not only to support the artist, but because of all the ancillary materials - liner notes, photos etc. But then, I immediately rip the CD (losslessly) to my media server solution. These days I walk up to my CD wall only to put in a new CD I bought and ripped, or to pull out a booklet to read the liner notes (even though more and more, this too is digitized). If you want to read a long thread of discussions on how to set up a digital solution, read this link (which I provided on AskMe before).
posted by VikingSword at 11:42 AM on December 12, 2009

If you happen to be located in Northern , New Jersey.
I have a bunch of all ready assembled, great condition CD shelves that I am looking to get rid of. Each hold 500. One of them holds 1000.
posted by TwilightKid at 12:31 PM on December 12, 2009

I'm only in the 600-CD range, but I've got mine in IKEA Benno cabinets, but that'd be in the $400 range for you (180 CDs per cabinet). They're easy to find on Craigslist though.
posted by mendel at 8:00 PM on December 12, 2009