How Do You Organize Your CD Collection?

Category: Safe Haven

Post 1 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 23-Nov-2004 22:51:39

Hi All, I don't know about you, but I have a huge CD collection. I don't buy as many CD's as I used to, but when i did, I got quite a collection. Not as big as some people's, but big enough to rival others, my CD collection used to be housed in small plastic tubs, which held 20 or so disks each. I labeled each individual CD with Braille-On, and labeled the tubs with numbers. I had the tubs stacked and the CD's in the tubs were ordered from most currently bought on the top to oldesto n the bottom. Now that i've stopped binging on CD's, the question remains: How to keep my collection in order? After a few friends came over, rifled through my collection and turned it into a hopeless turmoil, I drew the line. I knew I had to do something with my collection. With some advice from Bug (from teh zone), I purchased three wire CD holders. I realized that if I put the CD's in alphabetical order, I would have to leave spaces for new ones, or else move every CD down a notch every time I got a new one. So I decided to put them in no particular order, at least for now. I wrote down the CD's in order from top to bottom, left to right rack, on my BrailleNote. Then, if I want an artist, I use Find and search for the CD's location. Then I just count down to it. Most of my CD's have braille labels, so that helps, too, although some forty of them don't. But next to about 400 others, that doesn't really matter much. I put all three racks in my closet last night, at about midnight, having gotten them in order. This mroning, when I went to open my closet, a rack tumbled out at me, spilling all my neatly ordered CD. I spent two more hours this afternoon rummaging through the 120 CD's on the floor and putting them painstakingly back in the rack, in order. Now, I have tied the racks to the wall by looping ribbon through the hooks on the top and taping it with duct tape to the wall. Ugly, but temporary, and good. I also purchased some loop thingies that screw into the wall. Once we get our new carpet laid down, I'll rip off the tape and use these.
Sorry for tis extensive post. So, what do you all do to keep your CD collection, tape collection, video, DVD, album, record collection, whatever--what do you do to keep it under control?
Caitlin

Post 2 by Emailaddressthief (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Tuesday, 23-Nov-2004 23:01:03

Yay, i'm glad i could help though not much. I keep my CD's in a CD rack as well, or at least all the CD cases. I have the actual CD's in a CD binder. And for those that don't know, I can see so labeling isn't an issue for me.

Post 3 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Tuesday, 23-Nov-2004 23:06:19

Yeah. I should get a CD binder. I'm just always afraid the CD's will crack in it or something lol. I forgot to mention that my racks are the ones with a slot for every CD, that's why I would have to move everythign down a notch. And if I left anything else out just ask and I'll answer lol.
Caitlin

Post 4 by KC8PNL (The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.) on Tuesday, 23-Nov-2004 23:36:07

I gave up trying to organize my CD's a long time ago. I used to alphabetize them, but my brother always used to love to take CD's out of the binder I had and not put them back where he got them. Eventually, I just got fed up with it. Now, I just put labels on my CD's and have a small case for whatever I am currently listening to, and 2 other binders for everything else. They aren't in any particular order I guess partially because I'm just lazy.

Post 5 by alison (my ISP would be out of business if it wasn't for this haven I live at) on Tuesday, 23-Nov-2004 23:50:07

I don't have very many cds, my harry potter cds...and they're in an album...

Post 6 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 0:00:29

Yeah KC, I had just given up until Bug inspired me. Smile. And Alison I need to get an album for my Harry Potters. Well, I need to get them all on CD! I only have the fifth on CD because I was to naive to get them on CD hehee.
Caitlin

Post 7 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 0:16:52

I used to alphabetize my cds and when I had many cds by the same artist I put them in chronological order. After about two years of obsessing over that I just gave up, every time a friend came over or I had a party all the cds ended up all over the place and hardly ever was a cd in the right cd case. So over the last 3 years I've spent tons of time ripping all my cds to my computer, then I got a wireless usb thing that broadcasts the music from my computer to my home theater system and I can just select the songs off of my computer with a remote control down there or create a play list. It's awesome, it was a little expensive and annoying but this is perfect. Also if I really like a cd I burn it and put the burnt cd in a cd folder because that way I dont care if it gets messed up or stolen or whatever, I just get another copy.
cheers
-B

Post 8 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 0:21:40

Yeah, I like the comfort of burning CD's and knowing there's anotehr copy safe at home in its case. I don't have a CD burner at present, but hope to get an external one, if it's not too expensive or hard to manage. I wish I had enough room on my hard drive to burn all my CD's heheheh.
Caitlin

Post 9 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 0:41:33

I don't have mine in any special order. I have old time radio cds, not music. I have 73 old time radio cds, and I just have them in 2 growing stacks in the top drawer of my desk. The first stack is all the way to the top, and the second stack is slowly climbing up there. The drawers are long, but too narrow to put them in any kind of order, and I don't know how I'd manage it, I have too many different kinds to put them in order. The drawers are narrow, so they have to be stacked longways instead of sideways.
wonderwoman

Post 10 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 0:43:46

Cool, Wonderwoman. So you don't label them, do you just remeember what order they're in, or what?
Caitlin

Post 11 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 0:50:55

The woman I buy the cds from labels them for me. She will automatically label the cds for the customers, unless they tell her not to. But I don't have them arranged in any order, I just have to lift them out of the drawer and read the labels on them to find what I want.
wonderwoman

Post 12 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 1:01:04

Man! I wish someone'd do that for me! Lol...
Caitlin

Post 13 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 1:07:45

She's wonderful to do business with. Once I got a bad cd that wouldn't work, and she replaced the bad cd with a good one, and she didn't even charge for the extra cd. And once when I was giving a list of shows I wanted for the month, there were too many to fit on one cd, so she put the leftover ones on a 4thcd, and when we told her we couldn't order 4 cds every month, she said there was no extra charge for the extra cd, to just consider it a gift for being such a loyal customer.
wonderwoman

Post 14 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 1:10:03

Sounds like a truly wonderful vendor. Wouldn't it be nice if all people were as generous, accomodating and kind? Lol ...
Caitlin

Post 15 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 10:14:09

I dont the confusion of not knowing is all part of the fun, anyway since my nephew Louis took to discovering the limits of his curiosity disorganistation is a large part of my life.smile.

Post 16 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 13:52:20

That's how I am with my tapes, I gave up organizing htem a looong time ago. My blank ones, I mean, the ones I've recorded on. Anyway, I made up a game that involved putting a tape on to play and trying to figure out "who what where when why how" etc. It's quite fun.
Caitlin

Post 17 by thrillseeker (Veteran Zoner) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 17:39:24

I used to keep all my CD's in cases and organize them alphabetically in this rack thingy that is just like shelves with no slots. Then I started taking my stuff to parties so I bought huge binders and labelled the CD's themselves. Now that I'm trying to sell things I'm realizing this is not the greatest idea, so I'll probably just label the cases of the new CD's I buy, burn a copy for my notebook, label the copy, and keep the original someplace. As for organizing, the most played things wind up on top of everything so there's not that much mobility and I can have a general idea of where everything is.

Post 18 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 24-Nov-2004 20:20:42

Sounds good to me, TS. Only when you labeled a CD, was it in braille? And either way, did the CD still play?
Caitlin

Post 19 by thrillseeker (Veteran Zoner) on Thursday, 25-Nov-2004 12:38:28

Yup all my CD's are labelled in Braille and I've never had any problems getting them to play. Well except when my old stereo ate some of the labels and broke, but the CD's themselves were fine. I guess I'm super extremely lucky. heh

Post 20 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Thursday, 25-Nov-2004 12:45:06

Caitlin I'll have to try that ...again..smile. Louis has decided Cd's are useful for eveything apart from what they were designed for.

Post 21 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Sunday, 28-Nov-2004 14:43:48

...currently my CD collection is .. is ... is... well, a bit scattered. I took some of them with me when I moved back to the home of my childhood {LONG-STORY}last Year Autumn , 2003----through----This Year, 2004--Mid-Winter/Early-SpringTime-Season-Time-of-Year ...THEN all those CDs and a few purchased while I was away from "My Home"... well, THEN ALL my CD's himm now, scattered about in like small packages... like groups of CDs made at a one-time shopping sprees as it were... REALLY must get into some sort of organizing ... THEN Again! I basically know where all my CDs are.. so.. ... ... I guess I am more organized than previously thot... Go Figure AfterMath and all. ConnieG. here

Post 22 by Jess227 on Sunday, 28-Nov-2004 18:18:07

Well I organized my cds by artists. That stopped when my sister and mom would take cds and not put them in the correct order. So when I wanna listen to a cd I just pull out at random.

Post 23 by Jess227 on Sunday, 28-Nov-2004 18:19:27

Here's another way you can do this. There's those stick on cd lables for blank cds right? Well if they exist, by a package, then use the braille on lable then stick it to the label, then the label to the cd. Not sure if that would help.

Post 24 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Sunday, 28-Nov-2004 19:29:38

That would help. I just stick the braille on to the cases though and that works fine. I'm scard to label the actual CD's, I think it'd break on me. My family highjacks my CD's too, so I'm notp utting them in alphabetical order. Lucky for me, people don't abuse my CD's, apart from when a friend sat on a bunch of them and cracked half the cases lol. But what do i care about the cases?
Caitlin

Post 25 by Grace (I've now got the ggold prolific poster award! wahoo! well done to me!) on Sunday, 28-Nov-2004 23:34:58

LOL Caitlin... yea, like who cares about cracked cases as long as the CDs are fine and Hm now, not forgetting about the One's ... well, what! they sit on, hope not too ...too ...too, Well, Caitlin, You must understand what! I am too shy to say... *giggle-giggle* Trust where they like sit down not too awfully...awfully ... there I go again! *shy!* *smile* ...Connie

Post 26 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Sunday, 26-Aug-2007 12:07:33

I keep my CD's in a binder, and the cases are currently stashed in a cupboard under my bookshelves. The CD's are in alphabetical order, except the classical ones, which are in order by composer. i leave open places for the ones i want. Thank God i don't have to share with family.

Post 27 by Miss Gorgeous (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Thursday, 06-Sep-2007 12:45:36

I keep my CD's inside a CD holder. I don't put them in any order. Lately, i'm kind of running out of space cause i've been making a few CD's from my computer, so, i probably should buy another holder.

Post 28 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Thursday, 06-Sep-2007 15:23:36

I think there are cD holders that can hold four hundred of those at once. not sure where to find one, though

Post 29 by saxmonger (Generic Zoner) on Friday, 07-Sep-2007 13:46:52

I have one of those four-sided wooden CD towers that rotate for all of my music. It has six shelves per side, and each shelf holds about 15 CDs. I'm kind of tall, so I have it on a solid end table so I don't have to get on my knees to get CDs from the bottom. I put braille labels on the sides of each of my CD cases because they fit in the tower sideways, stacked on top of each other. For all of the books and DVS movies that I have recorded to CD, I just stick braille labels to the side of the CD that isn't perfectly smooth, and keep them in CD folders because you can read the braille labels through the plastic sleeves. I know, it sounds kind of awkward, but I love my little system and I never have to spend 30 minutes hunting for a particular CD.

Post 30 by sea star (I just keep on posting!) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 2:54:01

i don't put my cds in any particular order. I have about 400 cds and it was to find what you're looking for, so I finally got an external hard drive and ripped all of my cd collection to my computer and it's easier to find music and just play it.

Post 31 by Twinklestar09 (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 4:58:03

To store my CD's, I have a CD rack with 4 sections in a row, and each section has 15 CD slots from top to bottom. To identify my CD's I label the cases in Braille with the artist name and or album name. Then I group them by section: the first 2 are CD's from specific artists or recorded only from those artists, next are the ones with various artists on each CD, and last would be books on CD and maybe DVD's if/when I ever get any.

Post 32 by Twinklestar09 (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 5:14:40

Also, I put the CD's in Alphabetical order.

Post 33 by soaring eagle (flying high again!) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 8:26:15

I first seperate the disks into catagories, country, rock pop ETC. then I organize by group but artist like alan jackson I go by first name. weird but it works.

Post 34 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 14:39:28

The person who rips their CD's to an external hard drive has a good idea. I should learn how to do that.

Post 35 by soaring eagle (flying high again!) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 19:26:52

How much storage would you need for 1100 disks?? but I don't think I would keep every song from each disk.

Post 36 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Monday, 05-Nov-2007 23:02:29

I'm done with finding cd's. I wrip to iTunes, and use my iPod to play my music.

Post 37 by Harmony (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Sunday, 06-Jan-2008 5:05:38

I keep my cd's in a cd rack, but I need to get a new rack soon, because the cd's have started falling down and I've got a really big wooden cd rack at the mnute which takes up half the shelf in my cupboard. Most of my dc's ar labelled so I put them in order of my favorite singers but that's about all.

Post 38 by changedheart421 (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Sunday, 06-Jan-2008 8:34:02

hello can you put braille labels on a cd itself?

Post 39 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Sunday, 06-Jan-2008 9:48:14

I was never really into cds. I have a number of them though, and keep them in a cd wallet. What I do is basically just memorise the order. I didn't braille them because I don't think you could put a label directly on a cd. I could be wrong. What I should organise though is my huge tape and record collection. I have tapes that I carry around in a bag with me, and instead of just brailling them, I leave them all over the place, so I never know what I'm getting. Bad idea. My records are all neatly put on a shelf, side by side, but I have to label them or write down their names cause there are 80 some odd ones there and that's too many to remember. I have a really nice collection of mp3s, and believe it or not, have actually managed to organise those, some by artist, some by album. So I'll go into the folder and hit the letter of whatever I want and find it.

Post 40 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Sunday, 06-Jan-2008 12:40:49

I don't think you could put a braille label of the singer or band on the disc itself, because otherwise it would not play properly. If you wanted to remove it later, you'd most likely have to buy a replacement CD because it's ruined.

Post 41 by Harmony (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Monday, 07-Jan-2008 15:09:17

I don't put braille labels on the cd, just on the case.

Post 42 by blw1978 (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Monday, 07-Jan-2008 23:54:00

Hi, I hav three Cd racks. Each holding 20 CDs. I alphabetize by artist and then by album. So Achtung Baby will come before the Joshua tree in the U2 section. I don't braille them, cause when I open the cases, I can tell many times what it is. I also have a rack for burnt Cds. I organize these by category. Christian, Rock, workout ETC. it works very well for me. I live by myself so don't have to worry about anyone snagging them.

Post 43 by Dubstep1984 (I just keep on posting!) on Friday, 11-Jan-2008 18:26:10

yeah. i would not suggest putting braille labels directly on the cd's themselves. i had a friend who did that, her cd's played fine, but then, a braille label started to peal away and it took some of the cd label with it. needless to say, the cd never played again. the information on a cd is recorded onto the under side of a label. light from the lazer runs along microscopic grooves in the cd, thus, reading the information contained on the under side of the label. peal away even a tiny bit of the label, then that whole cd is trash.

Post 44 by Dubstep1984 (I just keep on posting!) on Friday, 11-Jan-2008 18:33:10

oh wow, i lost the reply that i was working on. i will try to reproduce it how i had it. sorry.

Post 45 by Dubstep1984 (I just keep on posting!) on Friday, 11-Jan-2008 18:39:18

i had alot of celine dion cd's when i was a bit younger. i would put the first one that i purchased at the top of my cd rack and so forth. now the cases got lost and now they are sitting in one of those round cd towers scratched up. but thanks to mp3's, i can get the songs back in perfect quality. now, i have a small collection of very rare cd's. i would purchase them from ebay or an online asian music store. when they came to my doorstep, i would immediately rip them to my computer and put them in a cd rack that came built into the top of my desk. now that i have a lock box, they r put in there for safe keeping and then they come out if i ever need to rip them again. right after ripping, they go straight back into the lockbox. as far as organizing them, i do not have them in any particular order, but i do have the artist brailled on the top of the cd cases, and the album brailled directly underneath the artist.

Post 46 by frequency (the music man) on Friday, 11-Jan-2008 21:44:15

fricken flac it! lol

Once I get a hold of cd's, I immediately create cuesheets and rip the cd to flac. Then it's put up in a cd cabinet. If I want to make a copy, I burn from the flac source. The only reason I'd need the actual cd's again is if my HD fails or someone steals it, ETC.

Post 47 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 11-Jan-2008 21:51:34

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's not into cds! *smile*

Post 48 by Dubstep1984 (I just keep on posting!) on Saturday, 12-Jan-2008 11:39:24

i use cd's when i have to. but i have alot of cd's sitting in a round cd tower. alot of them r scratched. some of them r software where i have no idea where i obtained from.

Post 49 by Dubstep1984 (I just keep on posting!) on Saturday, 12-Jan-2008 12:08:56

i use mostly mp3's now. the only time that i use cd's are like in the shower and when i am cleaning house

Post 50 by SFAIdol (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Wednesday, 16-Jan-2008 17:29:29

My CD's r organized in a cd holder that holds 120 CD's. If I am sitting down, the ones I listen to most r first, with my compellation cd's first organized in the order they came out in numerically, then favorite artists with albums by the same artist beside each other. As it gets higher, the artists I don't listen to r organized in no particular order. Then, I skip a few racks, then have soundtracks or burnt cd's. I really don't listen to many of my cd's anymore. Since I moved over the summer, I have two or three cd's that I listen to every so often when my five-year-old sister wants to hear me sing them in a drawer and the rest of them in the storage building in my backyard. I mainly have most of my music on my iPod or some on my computer that I have yet to burn onto CD's.

Post 51 by Dubstep1984 (I just keep on posting!) on Wednesday, 16-Jan-2008 19:18:49

when my 5 year old sister wants to hear me sing in a drawer. hahahahahha

Post 52 by Siriusly Severus (The ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w7 The Taskmaste) on Friday, 08-Feb-2008 1:29:58

WTF?

I am not in to all this music stuff, but with the dusty c.d.s I lable them in braille, and throw the randomly in a case. I put stuff together.

Classical
Rock
oldies
Jappannese music
Chinese music
and so on. I just do that, but they do get out of hand. I don't care since I rarely listen to them.