You regular readers are already aware of my past projects of transferring a boatload of VHS and Hi-8 tapes to DVD. Needless to say, I have at least 100 DVDs I created this way.
When it came time to storing these newly created DVDs, I just bought the plastic slimline cases. They don't take up as much room as a standard DVD case, and besides, I knew I wasn't going to make fancy labels for each and every disc I burned. So these seemed like the logical choice.
The problem however is that you can't quickly read these on a shelf. So going through them has been rather time consuming, because they all look pretty identical:
I searched around for some other cases that would help resolve this. Lo and behold, I found these 4-disc holding cases on eBay.
They also had cases that held 6, 8, or even 12 discs. But this was the most you could seemingly squeeze into a standard-sized DVD case. So I bought twenty of these. I had plenty of related DVDs that could easily be put together in groups of 4 or so. I spent some time moving things to the new cases, and inserting either a full sheet on front or paper that was at least big enough for a side label.
Did I save space? You bet!
My only regret is that I didn't order more of these, because I had no problem filling 20 cases (that's 80 discs, for those of you who are pathetic at mathematics). What you see above is only a sample. So another batch are on their way.
By the way, if you want quick blank labels you can stick into the front of a DVD case, here's what I do: take an 8.5x11" sheet, and trim 1/8" off the long side, then 1 1/4" off the short side. Having a paper cutter sure comes in handy.
On a related note, I was at a friend's place recently, and I noticed their DVD collection was now crammed into a dozen HUGE binders, where each binder holds something like 200 discs. Of course, this meant having to toss the original DVD cases and sliding everything in slots. I don't think my collection is so big that I'd have to resort to that, but it is indeed another solution to the problem of DVD storage space.
