CD storage solutions

September 12, 2005 2:40 AM

Anyone got any bright ideas for CD storage?

Me and The Light Of My Life just moved into our bijou love nest and, between us, we must have at least a thousand CDs. Being hep young things, we listen to 95% of our music from various MP3 players. (I know. Check us out.), and are well past the stage where we want to ‘show off’ how many CD’s we have. I also have an aversion to modular furniture. Or, rather, I have an aversion to spending money on modular furniture.

We have no cupboards. We have no shelf space. We have no attic. Our only asset is that we have a lot of floor space.

So we want to be able to cheaply, subtly and attractively store these damn things, but they don’t have to necessarily be accessible.

And, if possible, the moon on a stick

posted by Jofus to home & garden (42 comments total)

Good god, a thousand cds and you don't want to buy furniture...are you emotionally attached to physically owning the cds? If not, pick up some hard drives in a RAID array, archive them to a lossless format (not mp3), and sell off the physical artifact. You can make at least a few thousand bucks by selling the cds on eBay or locally, which will more than pay for the investment made in digitizing them. Also, you'll now be able to convert from the perfect lossless copy to lossy mp3s for your iPods, but if a better lossy format than mp3 comes along, you still have your perfect lossless version and can reencode your music all over again.
posted by evariste at 2:57 AM on September 12, 2005

Or you could cruise the dollar stores for suitably-sized plastic boxes. Worked for me.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:09 AM on September 12, 2005

I bought a bunch of wallets that store 200+ CDs each, boxed up the empty jewel cases and threw them in the attic at my mum's place. 5 wallets won't take up much shelf space.
posted by Leon at 3:17 AM on September 12, 2005

I asked a similar question - you might find the answers useful.

FWIW, I ended up finding some old adjustable pine bookshelves that were getting thrown out of an office, took 2 shelf casings and the loose shelves and fittings from a few more so I could space the shelves at CD height. Works a treat. But might not be an option available to you.
posted by handee at 3:36 AM on September 12, 2005

posted by Jairus at 3:36 AM on September 12, 2005

If the CD's have no cases then yeah, use folders like the pic above.

Otherwise the best idea is probably those cheap stackable plastic crates/boxes where you can put the CD's then hopefully slide them under something like a bed or table where they won't be too obvious.
posted by fire&wings at 4:28 AM on September 12, 2005

Blanket box / enclosed sideboard / coffee table cabinet? Depends on your choice of decor, I guess. Personally, I'd either stick them in a polished timber blanket box or sea chest kind of thing, or build a brushed aluminium or granite-finish cube with hidden seams.

A friend of mine built a chinese puzzle-box coffee table to house his DVD collection.
posted by Pinback at 4:47 AM on September 12, 2005

As said above, ditch the cases and put them in wallets. We did this a couple of years ago and have never looked back. We hung on to the inserts for nosalgia's sake. We store our DVDs the same way. It's quite freeing, actually!
posted by wallaby at 5:26 AM on September 12, 2005

I have all my CDs ripped to iTunes, but still use them in the car, which means that every few weeks, I file away 24 discs, and get out 24 new ones for my CD case. That means I want them vaguely accessable, but they don't need to be, you know, right there.

I've removed them all from their cases, included front and back cover art, and put them in small plastic sleeves. Then I've filed those in drawers alphabetically. 500 CDs fits easily in two small drawers on a portable trolly that I use for a number of other things, as well.

I don't like the books because the small ones add up to a great deal of expense and the large ones are too heavy to ever take out and use. Also, they don't handle digipacks in a reasonable way.

If you don't feel a need to preserve your liner notes with your discs, you can get much better space compression out of storing the liner notes (remember the back halves if you're ever going to want to sell) in a box and the CDs themselves on spindles.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:47 AM on September 12, 2005

Put them in CAREFULLY LABELED banker's boxes. Put the boxes in closets, under beds, etc.

Ditching cases seems risky to me in that if you decide in 3 years to store them in bookcase-oids, you're gonna be out a pretty penny replacing the cases.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:33 AM on September 12, 2005

Put all of your music into a lossless digital format - this may take several months, but just try to throw a few cds down a night and it shouldn't be too bad.

Most favorite CDs, sure, keep... put in storage somewhere in bankers boxes.

But the rest, sell off - why not?
posted by k8t at 6:41 AM on September 12, 2005

If you like the look, I know someone who tore out all of their cd wallets and then tacked em up on the wall to better see all of the crazy cd artwork.

But then, I suppose that would be a bit like showing off. Still, it does look cool. And he uses his mp3's, not the cds too.
posted by mulkey at 6:41 AM on September 12, 2005

I did the wallet thing last time we moved and my wife didn't alphabetize them (she organized them is a fashion that would impress Daniel Stern in the movie Diner but no one else) so I now don't listen to well over 80% of my music because I can't find the cd when I want to listen. I uploaded my favorites to my hard drive but it filled up pretty quickly.
posted by any major dude at 6:51 AM on September 12, 2005

Not that I really care, but isn't ripping the discs and then selling the physical media kind of, well, theft? That's my understanding of the current asinine copyright laws, anyway.

I have been going through the same issues as the OP. I'm leaning toward binders, even though they are expensive, just reserving boxed sets and selected collections for display and ready access. However, when I started the binder thing I ran into a similar problem to that mentioned mentioned above: when I purchase new music it throws the binder organization all out of whack.
posted by mkhall at 6:58 AM on September 12, 2005

Screw the law mkhall. Hey, that rhymes.

Buy some 200GB hard drives for rather cheap, copy them in lossless or very high quality MP3 or AAC (320, none of that 128k crap) and sell the remainder. You will have your music, and you will have extra from selling your CDs. Technically you could have some slower computer with a new CD-RW or ROM (like an older machine, go out and buy a new CD-ROM drive for like $30 it is important) rip all that stuff, and keep that computer around as a cool music entertainment center. My ex loved it when I set her up with one.
posted by Dean Keaton at 7:17 AM on September 12, 2005

Pick up this soundcard while your at it. $24 for critically acclaimed 192k 24-bit sound. Google it.
posted by Dean Keaton at 7:20 AM on September 12, 2005

isn't ripping the discs and then selling the physical media kind of, well, theft?

OK, then rip them and donate the originals to an orphanage.
posted by pracowity at 7:31 AM on September 12, 2005

For the last time, copyright infringement does not equal theft.

So, while there might be some moral questions raised by the act, it has nothing... I say again, absolutely nothing, to do with theft.
posted by odinsdream at 7:35 AM on September 12, 2005

These are the cases that I use to store >1000 CDs and around 150 DVDs. They sit on top of a 6ft bookcase in the living room and take up very little space while still being very accessible. The only reason I post the link is because people are saying how expensive they are. And they are like $40 at Best Buy or other brick and mortars, which is expensive. But $26.50 seems much more reasonable.
posted by Who_Am_I at 7:39 AM on September 12, 2005

If you don't want to toss the cases, floor to ceiling shelving, six inches high and deep.

[odinsdream: copyright infringement may not technically be theft, but is basically the same - you obtain a thing of value without paying the person who is selling it.]
posted by caddis at 7:55 AM on September 12, 2005

I had a similar problem...I have WAY TOO MANY burnt cds of mixes, live shows, etc. I found the Case Logic cd binders to be way too bulky and not too attractive (which you stated isn't a concern...).

I bought some generic cardboard boxes (mine were photo-box-esque ones from ikea...the KASSETT line, like these, but CD-sized, in white and black) and tons of relatively inexpensive paper sleeves and stored them thusly.

Of course, I put these on bookshelves, but you could slip them anywhere.
posted by tpl1212 at 7:59 AM on September 12, 2005

If you want to keep the cases and everything intact, you could always get 4 DILLING under-bed storage boxes from Ikea. Each one will hold about 264 CDs, spine up for easy identification. Four of these will easily fit under a Queen-sized bed - not sure about a double or full (as they tend to call it these days).

At about $12 each that seems like an economical and convenient solution.
posted by mikel at 8:28 AM on September 12, 2005

when I purchase new music it throws the binder organization all out of whack.

This was a problem for me with binders, as well. It seems like there ought to be looseleaf style CD binders, but I couldn't find them. What I did do, though, to minimize this, was put CDs only in every 4 of every 5 spots on the pages as I filled them in. Thus, I was able to maintain alphabetical order by moving only a few CDs around each time I bought a new one.

About the same time I was considering taking them all out and shifting them to open up those spaces again, I decided the binders were really too much of a pain in the ass and switched to drawers. But for that 8 months or so, it did alleviate that one nuisance.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:03 AM on September 12, 2005

For the last time, copyright infringement does not equal theft.

Something tells me this won't be the last time . . .
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:12 AM on September 12, 2005

That's a buttload of CDs. I keep mine in sleeves, in pretty little black boxes from Print-file. There are cheaper boxes, but I didn't need that many, and these are pretty nice.

Do you need an extra wall somewhere in your house? The floor to ceiling shelving, with both sides exposed sounds like the coolest idea.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 9:36 AM on September 12, 2005

I've just carefully finished ripping 1000+ CD's to MP3 tracks on a RAID appliance/server. I'm reluctant to sell/giveaway my original CDs, so I'm just packing them, jewel cases and all, into cardboard boxes which will go into storage (e.g. my closet). Not too fancy, but I don't plan on accessing them very often.

This may not be what you're looking for, since it's "showy" unless you hide it in a closet or backroom, but a few years ago I bought this shelving unit and mounted it onto my wall, mostly for DVDs and ye olde VHS tapes which I still need access to -- it can store some 600+ CDs. I like it so much that I'm considering adding another. (Temporal, to be sure: my movie collection will probably also move to a server -- or an on-demand service? -- several years from now...)
posted by skyboy at 10:04 AM on September 12, 2005

I save the wooden boxes that clementines come in, and got more from friends. They're a bit wide for cds, but they're free, and I like the way they look.
posted by theora55 at 10:21 AM on September 12, 2005

Stack some of these for collections larger than 720 discs...

720 CD Storage Case, Aluminum/Hard Plastic CD Case with Self Clean Sleeve Holds 720 CDs (DVDs)
posted by dgeiser13 at 10:25 AM on September 12, 2005

Word of advice - if you're going for the folder route, keep your liner notes and cases somewhere. A few years from now you may find that a couple of your CDs are worth $$ on eBay - but only with the original packaging.
posted by Gortuk at 10:28 AM on September 12, 2005

I'm interested in this "lossless audio format" idea, but can someone explain it to me? (Sorry to piggyback.) It seems like there are dozens of programs that claim to do it, each with their own format. How do I keep from getting screwed a few years down the line when the program I picked stops working on my computer, the company that made it is long gone, and I have 300 CDs worth of useless files on a hard drive? (Or will this not happen?)
posted by goatdog at 10:28 AM on September 12, 2005

It seems like there ought to be looseleaf style CD binders, but I couldn't find them.

The CaseLogic binders that I linked to now have removeable pages. I always take one out because when you buy them they hold 208 CDs, but with one less page they hold exactly 200. 208 bothers me for some reason.
posted by Who_Am_I at 11:23 AM on September 12, 2005

I'm interested in this "lossless audio format" idea . . .

Same here. I'm interested in ditching my CDs all together. Apple states that their

. . . default encoding format is MPEG-4 AAC, a compressed format that rivals the sound quality of audio CDs.

But my understanding was that MP3 or 4 did not rival CD audio quality. Is this more Apple kool aid that I'm sipping?
posted by quadog at 11:38 AM on September 12, 2005

How 'bout hatboxes? They're not all this dippy, and they look okay if you don't have enough places to hide banker's boxes. I don't know where you are, but around here (Northern Calif) they're $7 each for big ones at Ross or Tuesday Morning. They also come in square shapes.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:08 PM on September 12, 2005

But my understanding was that MP3 or 4 did not rival CD audio quality. Is this more Apple kool aid that I'm sipping?

Yes. Now that I have started to accumulate a sizeable collection of Super Audio CDs I can not imagine going backwards in technology to a lower resolution format.
posted by caddis at 12:13 PM on September 12, 2005

I have something on the order of 9000 CDs (shut up! shut up! I need them for work! honest!), and have been desperately trying to find old microfiche cabinets with sliding drawers, which are exactly the right size to store them with their jewel cases. (And yes, I like having the physical CDs. And their booklets. And their jewel boxes.)
posted by 88robots at 12:43 PM on September 12, 2005

My wife found these online after searching for something to store my collection. She wanted something attractive, I wanted something that could expand. And yeah, they're spendy, but so was collecting hundreds of CDs. Oh, and their LP rack is wonderful.
posted by Ber at 12:51 PM on September 12, 2005

I'll second Ber on the Boltz racks.
posted by spilon at 12:59 PM on September 12, 2005

For the lossless hijackers use EAC to rip to FLAC. FLAC is free in both senses of the word, so you won't be fucked years from now when you re-convert everything to the next big thing. It's also seekable, pretty small, and allows id3 tagging...
posted by togdon at 1:08 PM on September 12, 2005

Jairus' suggestion has worked best for me, and it has significant advantages you might not have thought of: (i) moving a CD book with 300 CDs in it is way easier than moving 300 CDs in their cases. Of course since you just moved, you might not care. (ii) Remember those really embarassing CDs you bought 10 years ago that you'd rather not display so publicly (hootie and the blowfish?) - in a CD book, no one has to know.

A possible disadvantage is that having around 1000 CDs, I'll often forget about those in the books for months at a time, making my listening heavily biased towards the very newest things, and stuff that I have in mp3.
posted by advil at 2:06 PM on September 12, 2005

I bought a cabinet from Can-Am for my 1500+ CDs and have found it well worth the investment.
posted by softlord at 4:59 PM on September 12, 2005

What togdon said. FLAC is the only lossless format I bother with.
posted by evariste at 5:04 PM on September 12, 2005

desperately trying to find old microfiche cabinets with sliding drawers

Check your local-ish universities for surplus sales. Office products galore, if you don't mind them in institutional colors and maybe a bit beat up.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:19 PM on September 12, 2005