CD storage

[The Shift]

God this is a gut-wrencher.

Got to that stage in my life where i have to start thinking, so I thought I'd see if anyone had thunk before me.

I have a daughter approaching her first birthday. I have a CD collection that goes back to the first SMiLE CD boot back in '85.  Must be well over 1000 CDs there, and most of them are Beach Boys or Beach Boys related.

They need proper storage that's out of the way of my daughter, and not too obtrusive in a house that's often full of guests (of the "wouldn't understand the obsession" variety).

Where & how the heck do I store them so they're unobtrusive but easily accessible?

I'm not at all keen on getting rid of them, or ripping them to the Mac and listening on an iPod (which doesn't really solve the storage problem anyway).

[Loaf]

I have a similar problem. I keep half my collection at my parents' house and rotate them every few weeks/months.

It can get frustrating if there's a song you want to listen to that you actually own, and it's somewhere else, but youtube is pretty good for most things until i can get to my parents.

[buddhahat]

I went through a similar thing when our kids arrived. One solution is to put all your favourite discs in one of those cd booklet things, then all the cases can be shifted up into the attic or whatever.

[The Heartical Don]

Why not let your daughter in on your secret? I suggest the following experiment:

give her a big pot of children's clay, a set of felt pen markers, and a bucket full of Mr. Slime. And give her the 1985 SMiLE bootleg. Leave the room for an hour or so. And see what brilliant precocious creativity she came up with.

Do it. You'll love the result.

[Loaf]

Why not let your daughter in on your secret? I suggest the following experiment:

give her a bit of pot and the 1985 SMiLE bootleg. Leave the room for an hour or so. And see what brilliant precocious creativity she came up with.

Do it. You'll love the result.

You've got my vote, Don

[The Heartical Don]

Why not let your daughter in on your secret? I suggest the following experiment:

give her a bit of pot and the 1985 SMiLE bootleg. Leave the room for an hour or so. And see what brilliant precocious creativity she came up with.

Do it. You'll love the result.

You've got my vote, Don

Dammit... I saw your wonderful joke a bit too late, but it's brilliant 

[The Shift]

Why not let your daughter in on your secret? I suggest the following experiment:

give her a big pot of children's clay, a set of felt pen markers, and a bucket full of Mr. Slime. And give her the 1985 SMiLE bootleg. Leave the room for an hour or so. And see what brilliant precocious creativity she came up with.

Do it. You'll love the result.

I must thank you personally for that suggestion. Sort of thing my in-laws would suggest. What's your address, buddy?

[Dr. Tim]

It's good you're thinking about solving the problem just in case - but don't make yourself crazy.  You may not have a problem at all.

A daughter, right?  Does she go around pulling things down now?  If not, you're almost to the end zone.  She may never start, or if she does, sharply chide her and make clear to her it's a no-no.  That may be all you need to do, once or twice.

Some kids just have good sense and don't do those things (though they WILL do other things, they all do).  We were very lucky, my daughter never pulled things down or did crazy things like play with wall outlets.  So don't worry so much.  Some good storage shelves should do the trick.

[Loaf]

It's good you're thinking about solving the problem just in case - but don't make yourself crazy.  You may not have a problem at all.

A daughter, right?  Does she go around pulling things down now?  If not, you're almost to the end zone.  She may never start, or if she does, sharply chide her and make clear to her it's a no-no.  That may be all you need to do, once or twice.

Some kids just have good sense and don't do those things (though they WILL do other things, they all do).  We were very lucky, my daughter never pulled things down or did crazy things like play with wall outlets.  So don't worry so much.

What planet do your kids come from, and can i swap?

My vinyl, CDs, DVDs, cups of tea, telephones are all at waist height or higher.

[The Heartical Don]

Why not let your daughter in on your secret? I suggest the following experiment:

give her a big pot of children's clay, a set of felt pen markers, and a bucket full of Mr. Slime. And give her the 1985 SMiLE bootleg. Leave the room for an hour or so. And see what brilliant precocious creativity she came up with.

Do it. You'll love the result.

I must thank you personally for that suggestion. Sort of thing my in-laws would suggest. What's your address, buddy?

 

[The Shift]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far folks (except the Don but he and I are going to sort that out man-to-man)...

I keep wondering about eBay ...

Just been down the timber yard to look at possible shelving solutions. £60+ on ugly metal brackets, or £200+ on kiln-dried, hand-hewn, solid oak timber uprights with hand-cut 6" shelves supported on oak pegs, plus labour (labor)?

or just eBay the lot?

[Stephen W. Desper]

COMMENT TO WEE HELPER:

You might find some design or an idea to solve your storage problem at this site:

http://www.racksandstands.com/DVD-Storage-and-CD-Storage-l4-c14.html?refid=G86.cd+shelves&gclid=CL_J_YLi9J8CFRVc2god4n2aYg

~Stephen W. Desper

[DonnaK]

Unfortunately, when I bought a new t.v., one of the 42 inch kinds, I had to completely re-do my storage. I had about 250 lp's that I had to part with after pulling all the favs. Those are now stored in a plastic milk crate in the basement. All the dvds, vhs, and cd's.......well I had to buy a storage unit to match the long one that holds the tv. Now everything is stored nicely, and out of sight and away from "little hands" or snoopy neighbors. There is wonderful storage furniture by Sauder that you put together and it lasts for years. The old unit was one, and it had to go out back to the fire pit. Good luck.....I hope this will be the only problem you'll ever have with your daughter!!!!! Wait until she starts driving and dating.......you'll look back at this time in your life and laugh!!!

[Dr. Tim]

Like Mr. Desper says.  Also there should be some cheaper pre-made CD shelf units of various heights available (Sauder is one maker, as Donna notes), yes through eBay but also department-type stores.

Following on Donna's idea: do you have some blank or no-good/outmoded CD-R discs?  When she sees you using your CDs you can give her a couple of those useless ones to play with, you don't care what happens to them, they're hard to break (not that she'll try - you may be surprised).

[The Heartical Don]

Like Mr. Desper says.  Also there should be some cheaper pre-made CD shelf units of various heights available (Sauder is one maker, as Donna notes), yes through eBay but also department-type stores.

Following on Donna's idea: do you have some blank or no-good/outmoded CD-R discs?  When she sees you using your CDs you can give her a couple of those useless ones to play with, you don't care what happens to them, they're hard to break (not that she'll try - you may be surprised).

Hmmm dr Tim - I'd think that when she's allowed to fool around with those placebo disks, she'll think that she may do the same with Daddy's precious Get The Boot set... and with a big grin present him with the 10,000 shards she turned said set into...

[The Shift]

Really appreciate these replies so far -  unfortunately some of the systems (Sauder for one) aren't available here in the UK... I wish Ikea would get its act together regarding CD storage, they've done great things inn the past but there's nothing there at the moment.

[The Shift]

Like Mr. Desper says.  Also there should be some cheaper pre-made CD shelf units of various heights available (Sauder is one maker, as Donna notes), yes through eBay but also department-type stores.

Following on Donna's idea: do you have some blank or no-good/outmoded CD-R discs?  When she sees you using your CDs you can give her a couple of those useless ones to play with, you don't care what happens to them, they're hard to break (not that she'll try - you may be surprised).

Many thanks Dr Tim... appreciate that, and the Don will appreciate the idea of letting her perfect her method of breaking discs before she starts on the real McCoy!

[DonnaK]

Sorry you don't have access to Sauder over there, and shipping it would be out of the question. My cd storage thingy is large and has a LOCK with a KEY........look for something like that......keep thinking, it can't hurt!!!!

[Roger Ryan]

Seriously, I would start by explaining to your toddler that "these are items we treat with respect" and demonstrate how they are used...and how they should not be used. Children tend to follow the parents' lead when it comes to using stuff. If they damage something, you should express your disappointment and explain that it was wrong and you don't want to see it happen again. Accidents will happen, of course, but a child needs to learn sooner or later (preferably sooner) how to properly handle things.

Sorry if this sounds condescending; I never put items like CDs or DVDs outside of my son's reach when he was young, but he knew that I would not be happy if they were damaged in some way (and lucky 'though I may be, nothing ever was).

[Paulos]

Really appreciate these replies so far -  unfortunately some of the systems (Sauder for one) aren't available here in the UK... I wish Ikea would get its act together regarding CD storage, they've done great things inn the past but there's nothing there at the moment.

Agreed that Ikea is very poor for CD storage but Argos has some good ones, I bought a 700+ capacity one last year and although the shelves are beginning to sag (they are the type that just rest on pegs) they can easily be reinforced by anyone with a drill and some screws which is exactly what I intend to do soon!

By they way, 1000 BB CD's?! Thats awesome!

[Mike's Beard]

Wee Helper let me say that as a fellow U.K. resident who recently "thinned out" his CD collection for space issues, unless you have some serious collector's items in your possession you cannot give the bloody things away these days.

[Pretty Funky]

Heres a few ideas.

Remove the covers and replace with fake "Stars and Stripes', 'Summer In Paradise', or 'Looking Back With Love' versions. No one went near them and the last one scare's the kids.

Put them in the tub! Babies hate bath time.

If you have a sports car, lock them inside. Your days of driving a 2 seater are over buddy!

Most homes have this area called a 'garage'. Some men 'fix' and 'make' things in them I believe. I only discovered mine when my kids came along. It's huge!

Ask Mrs Wilson for tips. She has had many 1 year olds.

[Stephen W. Desper]

COMMENT TO WEE HELPER:

I Looked at the IKEA U.K. website ... they have quite a selection of storage cabinets and boxes. Are you certain you looked here >>> http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/?query=DVD+Storage&pageNumber=0 ~swd

[runnersdialzero]

Why not rip them in lossless and then file the CDs away? You still get to listen to them in their original quality and you can do what you want with the rest of it.

And damn, am I envious of such a collection. I got into them so late, these discs are long out of print, it'd cost me a small fortune to get even a fraction of what you probably have.

[The Shift]

Thanks again for all the thoughts and suggestions guys; very much appreciate the time taken and advice given – and some good laughs in there too!

One of our problems (if you can call it such) is that we live in a small 300-year-old cottage with limited floor space (and no garage - no cars back then!). We've had several unproductive visits to Ikea though I have given them plenty of feedback.

Their Benno DVD/CD shelf units come closest but aren't very tall, so don't maximise use of our very limited floor space to hold all those CDs (the figure 1000 is a guess -  probably a slight rounding-up) -  we'd need rows of them and just don't have the walls to cope. The Benno DVD towers are incredibly narrow. If they did a unit as tall as the DVD shelf, and as wide as the DVD/CD unit, we'd be in business, as I've told them.

Might go down the DIY route -  our timber yard had some good quality stuff that, once waxed, should hold them nicely.

Another prob is fixing anything to the walls - parts of them are a kind of blue limestone which just shatters drill bits.

I ought to draw a line under this thread as I'm putting folk out of their way and need to do a lot more thinking... my god, 45-years old and having to start thinking for myself!

Thanks also everyone for not suggesting the ultimate solution, adoption. That will only become a necessity if she GOES ANYWHERE NEAR MY DISCS!!!!!!!!!!

Why not rip them in lossless and then file the CDs away? You still get to listen to them in their original quality and you can do what you want with the rest of it.

Our 300-year-old loft has 300-year-old holes that let in the rain. And 300-year-old mice which are currently working their way through my vinyl as an apperitif before they start on my BBs book collection; the CDs would end up being dessert.

And damn, am I envious of such a collection. I got into them so late, these discs are long out of print, it'd cost me a small fortune to get even a fraction of what you probably have.

No I feel old! Fortunate, but old!

Have fun!