DVD and Blu-ray Organization Project

Ask anyone – especially any parent – DVD organization can be a nightmare. We start out with a slim, cultivated collection of DVDs representing only the most uplifting and delightful and then…somehow…Alvin and the Chipmunks slip in there. And then one day, you realize that DVD and Blu-ray cases are taking over your home, your car, and your travel bag. Somewhere along the way, I found we were drowning in DVDs.

In an attempt to organize this collection I’ve tried it all. We quickly outgrew the neat and tidy drawers in our coffee table so I looked for other solutions. Remember the {ugly!} black vertical DVD towers that stacked your DVD cases? That was a decor statement! (And it didn’t really hold that many – you’d need 80 of them to contain what I organized into 4 small bins.)  I moved into 3 ring binders and that got rid of some of the clutter, but it wasn’t as easy to manage as I thought. The binders were unwieldy, not always easy to flip through to find the movie you were looking for, and there were several of them to keep up with our growing collection. And when we were traveling and wanted to bring a few DVDs along, we had to pull them out of the binder and slip them into a ziploc bag – not the best way to travel with DVDs if you don’t want them to scratch!

Once we ran out of space in binders I started searching for another solution and this bin & sleeve solution is what I landed on over a year ago. I waited to share because I wanted to make sure it was manageable and workable! And it has been!!!

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What used to consume multiple cabinets and drawers now fits into 4 slim bins on the left side of our entertainment cabinet.

This has been THE best solution for condensing and organizing a DVD & Blu-ray collection into a smaller and more manageable space, but it also keeps the DVDs accessible when someone is looking for a particular movie, and completely portable and easy to travel with – just grab the sleeve (the DVD remains protected inside), tuck into your bag or the van, and easily return when you get home.

There are a lot of options for DVD organization – wire baskets, mesh bins, decorative bins, and media boxes with lids. There is even a DVD organization tray that functions very similarly to my bin & sleeve solution.

The first step in organizing – any organization – is to declutter. And that’s exactly what we did. We sat down and pulled out every single DVD we owned and created two piles: keep — give away. We kept ONLY those DVDs that were absolute family favorites or that were difficult/impossible to stream. Streaming movies on netflix and other services meant we could easily part with several of the DVDs in our collection. And we did so. Ruthlessly.

Once you have your keep pile, you’ll need to remove the front cover from the hard plastic case as well as the DVD (and any bonus DVDs).

SOURCE: Plastic DVD sleeve set (pack of 50)

The plastic sleeve set I bought contains a non-woven/no-scratch sleeve capable of holding 2 DVDs, and then a separate plastic sleeve with flap that can hold the DVD sleeve as well as the cover. It all slides into the transparent plastic sleeve and is now:

• visible
• protected
• portable
• and much slimmer!

We consolidated and transferred ALL of our DVD collection into the plastic sleeves with only a few exceptions:

• boxed sets (like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy) that we wanted to keep intact
• DVD boxes that have beautiful artwork or special inserts that we didn’t want to lose

It’s important to note that DVD cases – whether regular plastic DVD cases or the decorative boxes – do fit in these bins.

SOURCE: mDesign media bins – 10″ or mDesign media bins – 14.5″ (set of 2)

Next, we needed a way to easily contain and organize all the sleeves. (We ended up with over 200 Blu-Ray and DVDs in our collection.) I wanted a clear bin that would be simple for my little kids to pick up and carry, would allow us to easily see the first sleeve in the collection and I wanted the bin to fit the sleeves absolutely perfectly so that they would stand up without any shifting while still allowing us to sort with ease.

I chose the mDesign bins and they have been perfect! We slide them in and out of our cabinet all the time, and the kids can easily handle them (the cutout hand-holds are nice for that!). What I love about them is that they just disappear into your decor because they’re clear acrylic. They’re completely functional, the perfect fit for the DVD sleeves I bought, and slide in and out of our cabinet without scratching.

For reference:

• The bin below (and above) is holding 59 DVD sleeves (some are 2-DVD sets), and the Narnia box.
• I filled this bin as full as I could (not pictured) with DVD sleeves only (I removed Narnia from the bin) to give you a max capacity count:
  • This bin will hold a maximum of 85 (filled) DVD sleeves (many of those are 2-DVD sets).
  • That means that with 4 bins that take up a small space you could potentially store and organize almost 350 DVDs!

We organized our bins to reflect the movie genre that we typically view around here:

• Disney movies (animated and non-animated)
• Non-Disney kids’ movies (animated and non-animated)
• Family movies (rated G and PG)
• Any movie that is PG13 and above

If you’re looking for a solution to the DVD explosion in your home, maybe some of these ideas will fit your needs! Let me know if you have any questions!