DVD Crazy!

I have a core set of movies, probably around 25, which I pretty much stick to and are the only ones I own. They all fit in their cases in my clear coffee table so that everyone can see my Adam Sandler obsession right when they sit down. It's extremely convenient having them there since I can see all the movies I have, they don't take up any extra space in my apartment, and it's right in front of the TV. So this works beautifully for me, but most people I know have many more dvds than could fit in my modest IKEA coffee table.

For example, both my roommate and my boyfriend own hundreds of dvds. When I first saw both of their collecions, I was overwhelmed and had my usual urge to organize the madness.

My roommate's dvds all had their cases and arrived in a huge media cabinet that we keep in our entry way. I ended up spending a day sorting the movies by genre within the shelves and writing up alphabetized lists on the inside of the doors so that we can find movies faster. Not ideal since it's far from the TV and takes up a ton of space in our apartment, but it has sufficed.

My boyfriend's dvd collection is monstrous; we recently wrote up a list and it came to just under 600. He no longer has cases, but keeps all of them in big binders that you have to flip through to find anything. True, the binders are smaller than a media cabinet and can be kept under the couch for easy access, but they certainly have their downsides. Flipping through page after page of three huge binders is tedious, and keeping them alphabetized is almost impossible when your collection is still growing. Most importantly, many of his dvds have become scratched or worn down just from being stored in the binders for so long. Imagine finally finding the movie you want to watch, only to have it skip during the most edge-of-your-seat moment: not fun.

So recently, we've been trying to find a safer way to store his never-ending collection. First we looked into filing his movies since it would keep them from being smashed together and would be much easier to alphabetize. The cabinet below holds 600 cds/dvds:

It would probably work well, but I have a few hang-ups about it:

• It's pretty big and doesn't exactly blend into many spaces very easily (If you want it at eye level you have to keep it on a table, which would just be a waste of space and not very appealing)


• The folders are paper, which really isn't ideal for keeping them in good shape


• It's not portable at all

After that, we found these media storage devices that are really cool and I'm almost really excited about. Each unit holds 100 cds/dvds and is hooked up to your computer. It comes with simple software which allows you to search for and choose a dvd on your computer and it will pop out of one of the units. No need to dig through cabinets or flip through binders, and it keeps all of them safe from ruins.

But again, it's not perfect yet. We would need six of these stacked on top of eachother to hold all of the movies. Not something that I want to look at everyday. Also, many people don't have computers near their TV, which makes it less convenient.

So we haven't decided on a solution yet, although I know I will keep looking. Now I'd like to share one idea I've thought of after all of this: A computerized media storage coffee table.

• This coffee table would allow storage of all your dvds without adding an extra piece of furniture to your living room.


• It would utilize the same technology as the smaller units above, but would store hundreds of cds out of site within the table.


• A touch screen on the top of the table would allow you to search through the movies you have.


• Once you have chosen the dvd, one touch will pop the movie out for instant gratificaion

This super coffe table would allow everyone to have the same convenince I do with dvd storage, even if they they own 30 times the dvds that I do.

I'll leave you with a couple fun coffee tables that are actually available now:

Foosball Coffee table

James Bond Pinball table

Enjoy and Have a wonderful day!!