organization

Movie Storage Solution

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Recently I posted about how we did away with cable in our house. It’s been over a month with no cable or internet service (besides our smart phones and Netflix on our TV)! You can read about it here: How I Cut Cable and Internet…and Lived to Tell About It

It’s still going very well! But, in case you’re wondering what we do for entertainment (besides good ‘ol board games like I talked about here) the answer is Netflix and DVD’s. Yep…we have TONS of them which is part of the reason why I felt compelled to get rid of cable service. We didn’t watch a ton of TV. But, when we did, it seemed like we tended to pop in a DVD rather than browse the TV for something to watch. I’ve always felt I had a little more control over what the kids watch when they are watching DVD’s too-it puts my mind at ease.

I’ve also started the journey of having less which you can read about here. You might wonder how that works with owning tons of DVD’s…well, it’s a process-one I’m still working on.

When I decided to start having fewer items in my home, one of the first areas I wanted to go through was our DVD collection.

This is what I started with:

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Yikes! It’s just overwhelming! I decided it was time to do something different and make a way to find our movies easier and without the need to dig for them. Each basket is full with two layers of DVD’s.

The first thing I did was get rid of the DVD’s that we don’t watch or that the kid’s have outgrown-see you later Elmo and Barney! (insert happy dance!)

That helped quite a bit. However, I still didn’t feel good about the outcome.

I did some hunting and found these DVD sleeves on Amazon which claimed to be a “space saver.” It sounded perfect so I went out on a limb and ordered enough for every single DVD that we owned (minus the ones I set aside to donate to the library).

I was like a kid at Christmas waiting for that delivery to come. I will admit…I may have not hiked that week because I didn’t want to miss out on the mail coming! GASP! Once it did, I tore open that package and got to work right away! (yes, I’m a dork and was looking forward to this project that much!!!)

I took each movie out of the original case and put the title sleeve and discs into the new containers. It looks like this: 

You might be wondering how this saves space. Well, here’s the proof!

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On the left you will see a stack of movies in the new cases compared to the stack on the right which is the original cases for those same movies!

Pretty amazing, isn’t it!

I was able to get rid of (aka donate to the library/thrift store) the old cases by the box-full! It felt SO GOOD to get rid of that much cluttered mess. It was an area of my house that just ate at me because it felt so unorganized.

Now, look at how the DVD’s look:

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Go ahead and count those baskets! Yep-I went from 3 baskets with 2 layers of movies in each one, down to 1 basket with just 1 layer of movies!

We can still easily read the titles to the movies and they are all protected in these new cases.

And, yes! We kept Scamper the Penguin from this post: Scamper the Penguin: The Odd Movies Our Kids Fall in Love With

I just HAD to make a post to share this discovery with you guys because it’s a game changer for us!

Let me know what you think! Are you going to give it a try?

Movie Storage

With Aloha,

Lacy

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Published by adventuresofabusymomcom

I am a military wife, a mother, a hiker, a dog lover, a refurbisher, a reader, a drawer, a baker...whatever I can do to enjoy life is what you will catch me doing!

12 thoughts on “Movie Storage Solution”

  1. That looks really tidy. A great solution for the quantity of movies you have, I also like that since you have kids that you are able to keep the photo covers. We have in the neighborhood of four to six hundred. That being said we have to use a different solution. I’m like you in that I have never been able to successfully digitize my movies. I don’t want to anyway. I’m from the old school, there are times when I don’t have the internet. I still want access to my movies. The movies bring a lot of value to our lives. We put ours in a book (well we have three) They don’t take up a lot of space. We plan on downsizing our hard collection but most of them are our favorites 🙂

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    1. When the kids were smaller, we had them in books too. It was easy for them to find the movies themselves. Im not sure when/how they got put back in their cases…probably during a move or something. I remember it being hard to keep the DVD, Blu-Ray & 3D discs together. I do think this works better for that.

      With your large collection, this could still work. Or, I’ve even seen a different plastic case that’s thinner than the original and would take up less space but made of the same material as the original cases. Lots of options out there. This has worked great for us for a few months now!

      I haven’t gone too digital either. Some movies come with a digital copy which we will put on he kids’ tablets but we still like the discs 😉

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      1. With the RV it will be easier to keep them in books I think, but later going into the house it would be a great idea. That is what I love so much about being able to share ideas. It is so awesome to have someone to share them with.

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  3. When we bought our new tv and Roku, for whatever reason, we never hooked up our DVD player. Between the two of us, we have enough dvd’s to start a small Blockbuster again. But we never watch them. I think the time is coming to get rid of them. This was another awesome inspiring post.

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    1. Definitely! Moving always sheds light on what we value. I will find a box of stuff a year later tucked into a closet that never got unpacked. I always take it as a sign that it’s contents aren’t that important to me if I haven’t needed/looked for them in so long. I’d say if you haven’t watched the movies, you could definitely donate them to the library or try to sell them. Sadly, you don’t get much for dvds except for a tv series maybe. That’s why I just donated mine. It wasn’t worth the hassle 😉

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    1. That’s great! I use the library so much! I worked in libraries for over 10 years so I’ve seen how much they get used. It makes me feel better in donating when I think about that. In my house, it might get used every once in a while…at the library, that same item can be enjoyed over and over much more!

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