# How do you organize your collections? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734 "2011-08-06T15:11:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/1 "2011-08-06T15:11:11Z")
My music collection is chronological by band, then chronological within that band and all done right to left. I never thought about it until the other night when I realized that my books are all set left to right. That makes since because I worked in my high school and college libraries and that’s how you shelve books. The odd thing is that the radio station where I work also puts all of the albums (ok, cd’s) right to left. But I was doing mine that way long before I worked there. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/2 "2011-08-06T16:12:06Z")
Do you mean \*alphabetical \*by band? If so, that’s mostly how I do it, but I have all non-rock/pop separated out in their own genres. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/3 "2011-08-06T21:23:07Z")
Nope, chronological. Rolling Stones before Bowie, Who before Kiss, etc. Don’t know why but that’s what works for me. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/4 "2011-08-06T21:42:42Z")
Yeah - I vote “alphabetically” which somehow isn’t even on your list. Why not put “by color” up there as well if you’re going to leave off probably the most popular choice? Or exclude “other”? ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/5 "2011-08-07T01:03:17Z")
By color never occurred to me. How do you change a poll? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/6 "2011-08-07T02:27:17Z")
My rather modest CD collection (about a hundred albums, give or take) is alphabetical by artist, and then for a given artist albums are arranged chronologically (and tribute albums after that), all from left to right. Maybe the R to L impulse comes from having once upon a time stacked your albums vertically and then kept that order when you put them on their side so they’d fit better on the shelves. My much more extensive comic book collection is alphabetical by title and then in issue number order from front to back, with particular sub-sets of interest filed separately. The biggest of these ( '70’s and '80’s Marvels) being on its own a good third of the whole collection. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/7 "2011-08-07T03:00:57Z")
Mostly alphabetically by artist name. ---
**Author:** ![minionkat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@minionkat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minionkat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/8 "2011-08-07T17:38:10Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > My rather modest CD collection (about a hundred albums, give or take) is alphabetical by artist, and then for a given artist albums are arranged chronologically (and tribute albums after that), all from left to right. This, except with about 1000 CDs. As I rip them into the computer, they go into boxes in the basement. Books, alphabetically by author, then willy nilly by title. Movies are alphabetical by title. All are left to right, top to bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-organize-your-collections/591734/9 "2011-08-07T17:51:40Z")
By genre, and then by topic within it: Books: Science [Physics/Chemistry/Geology/Biology etc] History [US/Latin America/Africa etc] Music: Rock/R&B/Reggae/Latin/African/World/Classical I don’t try to organize between that, except for putting similar topics/artists close to one another.