One of the things I love most is watching good movies. I've always loved movies. Getting lost in the romance, the action, the heroes, and in the comedy. Movies can totally change my mood, and as long as I'm entertained, I'm usually not too critical. I'm a sucker for a cheesy movie with good ending.
The family that I grew up in was a huge movie watching family. It was something we did together and meant family time. So, it's no wonder that I inherited my parents movie-purchasing habits. We both have huge personal movie collections. But, when my collection started out-growing my space, and I found myself purchasing movies I already owned because I had forgotten what was in my collection, it was time to get organized!
DVD Storage
DVDs (and Blu-Ray) plastic cases are bulky and take up a lot of room. So I needed to find a way to get rid of the bulky cases and store them in a functional way that took up a lot less space.First I thought about the way we use our DVDs, so I could determine what was going to be the best way to store them. We have multiple TVs and DVD players and so we are always moving DVDs all over the house. We also have a DVD player in our car, so we usually keep a rotating selection of DVDs in the car for the kids to watch. I had originally considered get a binder with DVD sleeves for our movies, but after truly evaluating our needs, I figured that individual sleeves for each movie with maybe some decorative boxes would be the way to go. I settled on the Atlantic Movie Bin and sleeves from Amazon. The quality of the box was great and I really liked the style. The sleeves were thick and sturdy. And the price was cheaper than some of the other sleeve options. Each bin comes with 36 sleeves (which holds 72 disks) but the bin will easily hold 70+ sleeves. I purchased 5 bins and 2 extra packs of sleeves.
DVD Cataloging
The next part of my process was to find a software program or app to help me catalog my DVDs so that I would no longer purchase duplicate DVDs and help me keep better track of what DVDs are where and if I lend any out to friends and family. I purchased My Movies Collection Management Software. It has a desktop application that synchronizes with their app for both iPhone and Android. (There is a free version that will hold up to 50 movies in your catalog). So now I can see exactly what movies I own, whether I am at home or on-the-go on my phone.
Organizing the DVDs
The process of actually cataloging the DVDs, removing the DVDs from their bulky plastic cases, putting them into sleeves, and alphabetizing them by category took me a few days because I have such a large collection, but the process was actually very simple.
1. Using the My Movies App on my phone I cataloged the movie by using the barcoding featuring on my phone app. All you do is scan the barcode with your phones camera and it searches the My Movies database for the right movie and you add it to your collection. This was a HUGE timesaver and one of the reasons I chose this program. I did not want to have to type in all of my movie titles.
2. Remove the movie packaging from the plastic case. Fold it so that the front and spine are in the front and the back is folded to the back. Then insert the disks into the disk pockets. If your movie has more than 2 disks, you can grab another disk pocket from another sleeve (this is why I bought plenty of extras!) and place the disk pockets into the sleeve.
3. Organize your CDs in whatever way works best for you. I separated mine into 4 categories and then alphabetized each of those categories. Two of the categories have so many movies, I had to use two bins.
1. Kids Movies
2. Chick Flicks
3. Church Movies
4. All other movies
4. Find a home for them. My movies are on the top shelf in the Armoire in my family room. This is where the majority of the movie watching happens, and is easily accessible to everyone.
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