how do you organize your cds, books etc

how do you organize your collections

Before I come out sounding like too much of a nerd, I must explain that I have more books than any 1 person should need. I am in the process of categorizing them in Excel because something is screwed up with Access right now. (I can always convert it later).

I have my books physically sorted on the shelves by category then alphabetically by author.

I have the same system with my CD's and movies. Which I also have more than any 1 person should ever need.

Are there ever enough shelves and storage areas,LOL???

Bookcases and wall units for most. In the kitchen/family room there is a built in wall of shelves and storage where I keep cook books, gardenening, and craft books. In my office I have a wall of wall units where I keep reference type books, medical books,and all my Girl Scout and woman's club materials which seem to grow daily. In my bedroom the same idea but books just for reading. I organize by type, then author. As for CD', DVD's, and videos again by type then by artist. Andf then there are books in boxes and on shelves in closets. One of our woman's club projects has been collecting books, for schools, libraries, shelters, and to put in the suitcases we collect and distribite to foster children so I try to donate books for that but I really hate to part with any book.

OK a plug.... if it's not being done in your community suitcases and backpacks for foster children is a very worthy and rewarding project. We were shocked at the number of children in the foster care system that had only grocery bags and sometimes shoe boxes for their belongings. New is great but most of the time it is used ones that are clean and in good condition. We also have all of our members bring toiletry items, stationary, and stuffed animals to each of our meetings. This allows us to put something in the suitcases for the children. Members write notes to let the children know we care and are thinking of them to add to the suitcases. Sorry for getting off topic.

YEAH! Not only is Mpal2 from the same city, but also is obsessive compulsive enough to alphabetize book collections like me! I have WAY too many books. Many are in giant U-Haul boxes in my attic, yet my poor room is still full of them. I have some very nice shelves built into one of my walls and those hold the majority. The rest are in piles on my desk, etc.

Bronze


Actually, I'm even worse than that. I copied an Excel file to my Palm through Documents to Go. It's a list of movies and CD's I intend to buy and the next books in several series that I'm purchasing.

Now I am armed and dangerous in a store. Instead of leaving it on the shelf because I don't know what I have, I know exactly what I am looking for. It's good because I know what I want but really bad on the pocketbook.

Organized? I'm not sure I know what the word means. Mine are on Wal-Mart shelves, in a mostly hap-hazard fashion.

Organize? There are people out there who do this? I don't have the space.

What's organize?

mpal2

what is the advantage of acess? I only know how to use excel.

? For the ones who voted custom made shelves, built in wall units:

How expensive?

I am allowed to use 2 (small) rooms in the house as my study, storage, audio rooms. The desk and computer take up 1/4 of the space of my study. I think storage units built in the walls are more space saving.

One of the first tasks on my to-do list when I retired was to catalog my books. And I did have a good start even bought a new laptop with enough memory and CD burning capability. I got those neon orange dots so I could keep track of those books I posted on the Excel file. And I did get a good start, logging information for about 300 books and yes I went a bit overboard and included a brief plot summary for each book.

What's that old Robert Burns saying: The best laid schemes o mice and men often runs so far amok that you don't know which end is up anymore! My husband, bless his soul, decided to clean up our great room so whilst I was on the phone with the million and one telephone calls one needs to make when one retires, he moved all of the books from the great room into the dining room.

I thought I could just start where I left off but no that was not to be. Most of the little neon organge dots came off the books during the move. Shucky darn I thought and decided to wait to start again.

Thank dog I waited because once again, thinking he was being helpful, my better half moved the books. Now you must remember that I'm still purchasing books from amazon on a regular basis, so not only can't I find those books I've posted to the Excel file, I can't find the new books that I haven't read yet.

I don't know if there are any Count Basie fans on the board but if you are you will remember at the end of April in Paris, Basie says "One More Time" and the band repeats the previous 32 bars. I think you know what is coming next...........Yes, yet another move. But why stop at one more move when we can buy shelving and do it again.

I gave up, shut up and put the project on the back burner. For some strange reason, I'd rather have peace and harmony than make my point.

4dk - who remembers the time when everso helpful cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and rearranged the contents while I was at his sister's bridal shower. Couldn't find anything for months. But I wouldn't trade him for a gazillion bucks.

I have no problem with organizing my [should be] vast library. Every so often I have a moment of insanity and let my family members ''borrow'' them. It's a certainty I will never see them again. I take that back. My sister once returned the book she accidently dropped in the bathtub.

They are organized in only the loosest of terms, kinda grooped by size or subject, and even that never really lasts that long. Still, I almost never have trouble finding something I want.

I can get very Farienheit 451 about books, perhaps because I used to move so often. I borrow from friends and take out from the library as often as possible and then I periodically purge and give away to charity. I just don't understand some people's emotional attachment to books, where they have practically every wall lined with dusty shelves. How is it different from those strange old ladies collecting stray cats?

Tapes and CDs kinda purge themselves, as they're all rubbish and it's not long before the tape weares out from overuse or the cd scrathes beyond listening enjoyment.

Other than that, I try to set resonable limits. For example: skating tapes. I won't keep anything other than nats, worlds and Oly, and even then I try to limit it to one tape per event. It's been about a decade now, so don't be surprised if you see the whole collection at a yard sale one day.

My dream house would have all cubboards, so it would never look cluttered, but until then I keep the books mostly on shelves and the cd and tapes in drawers. Exposed is so messy looking and at least books are kinda nice looking, tapes and cd are just plain ugly.

I personally don't organize things. I don't think my brain works that way.
My daughter organizes me and my things. She makes lists of books, CDs, movies . . . .
If I want to know where anything is, I usually ask her.
I don't know what I'll do when she leaves me. :\

CDs - In milk crates, and in no particular order.

Books - In book shelves - My favorite authors/series grouped together, the rest mostly by size (where they fit determines where they are).

As far as my CD's is concerned, I have them at a storage unit, and organised based on how much I like them.
As for my books, I have so many that they are everywhere, some on a bookstore, some at my desk (actually it is virtually covered with books, I don't think I have "actually seen" my desk in months), an many more on the floor.

gezando said:

mpal2

what is the advantage of acess? I only know how to use excel.

Click to expand...

For the excessively nerdy and organized, Access is more of a database program. You can set up all kinds of categorys like the year a book was published, the author, actors in a movie and then setup custom reports. If you wanted all movies with actor X, a summarized report is 5 seconds away in Access.

I actually did a program that put a list of my books into a database for my final project in Database Design class in college (Of course, that was about 5 years ago!).

My books are on the shelves; yes, I am one of those people who gets overly attached to them. Sometimes, I'll be in a mood that will just make me go, "hmmm, now I'd love to leaf through Maugham's 'Theater'! Plus, I have a very decent collection of art books (though they are very heave, and take up a lot of space.) One of my favorite things to do is organizing my books. I never finish it -- I'll see some book I long forgot I have, and sit there on the floor re-reading it. What fun!

Berthes Ghost,

LOL, then I'll be one of those old women with 54 dirty cats! I go through about five different phases a year book wise: 1) Russian history, 2) European history, 3) Figure skating, 4) Classic Literature and 5) Biographies. And, I tend to read my favorites multiple times, and I have MANY favorites...so, I find it hard to let go. But, I'm not really one to keep paperback books. I give them all to my Grandmother (as long as they aren't too sexually explicit, violent or depressing, LOL), who then passes them on to all of the women in her senior's group.

I have my books organized according to subject and genre. I have a vast collection of children's books and they are organized by author/illustrator. My videos are arranged by type, musicals, historical romance, action, sci-fi. I have just started a DVD collection, but my youngest son has hundreds. He got tired of paying extended or late fees at the local BlockBuster, so now, he just buys the movies he wants to see............if you wait long enough, you can get them on sale. He came home the other night with about three from Target. Each DVD cost about $5.50.......42