I rarely play CDs nowadays - usually I play stuff on the computer. So I am ready to put my CD storage tower to pasture.
I have a Case Logic folder that is good for discs by themselves, but not the covers and tray inserts. I’d like to keep the covers and trays together in a folder. I’ve seen individual sleeves that allow this but not binders.
Any Dopers with elegant solutions for CD storage with the associated media (covers, tray inserts)?
Can’t you just store the disc inside the jewel case? That’s what I do. They’re in boxes up in the attic. Inelegant, but with everything ripped to the computer I rarely access them.
Maybe you just need a new CD case. I am able to fit the tray liner, lyrics book, and CD all in the same CD sleeve (except of course for the occasional cardboard CD case, which I just keep in a separate little box). In the rare case that it’s too snug, I just just a separate sleeve for the CD and the paperstuff. I personally like the 4-per-page format CD books.
I bought a dozen empty 100-CD spindles online for about $1 each, and I’m keeping the CDs there. I’ve thrown away the jewel boxes and I keep the printed matter stored flat in small boxes.
I use plastic sleeves I bought from Jazz Loft – they store front covers and the back covers as well. They’re a little more pricey than simple one-slot plastic sleeves but they’re still pretty cheap. I don’t know how many CDs I have, but at least a few thousand are pretty darned compact and very protective, and with the Jazz Loft products you can still see the spines (sort of).
All in their proper jewel cases, or whatever equivalent package they were originally sold in (digipaks, cardboard sleeves, box sets, etc.). They are variously in boxes and stacked in the closet right now, but that’s just because I moved recently. When I can afford to, I’d like to build a customized CD shelf capable of displaying all 600 or so of them lined up like books.
I threw away all the jewel cases when I bought carousel players to hold all the CDs. there was something over two full lawn bags of the damned things. I still have the covers in the large books that came with the carousels, but the disks are now in plastic sleeves, two to a sleeve, in cardboard storage boxes made for that purpose.
I recently threw out my CD racks in preparation for my move. I found these binders, and put CD on top with booklet and whatever else was in the jewel case on the bottom. I needed 3 binders, but they take up far less space than the racks and jewel cases! I did have to cut and/or trim some stuff, as some “jewel cases” were cardboard, but it’s all a great compromise to have these cases on a bookshelf instead of taking up floor and wall space.
The cases were very inexpensive, probably wouldn’t last long if used all the time and paged through over and over, but since the collection is ripped to digital media, it’s not an issue.
A good portion of my collection I stored at Tower Records–they even paid me to do so! Being a used CD storage warehouse did not appear to be a good business model for Tower, however, as they are no more.
The many hundreds of remaining CDs I have are kept in stacks of milk crates, all still in their jewel cases, piled in the back of a spare closet.
Before I moved to my present home 4+ years ago, I had them all, or mostly all, in carousel players, with the jewel cases arranged alphabetically on a 5-foot tall 4-sided black wood carousel. Ehen I moved, I had to take the cds out of the carousels and I put them into cardboard transfer file boxes, and put the jewel boxes in separate file boxes. There they still sit, with my carousels sitting empty, in a spare bedlessroom. Too much DirecTv and other things that interfere. I do have a few dozen favorites in smaller multidisc players at home and at work and listen to them when the radio drek gets too bad. Must unpack the cds and reinsert into carousels. No, I don’t own an iPod or pad.