It would be handy but don't you think that they're more apt to get scratched that way? Every time you want to find one you'd have to sort through them and handle them over and over.

My son put his into a 3 ring binder. You can buy plastic sleeves specifically made for CDs and DVD's. That way they won't scratch each other and it's quicker than individual cases. If you're real organized you can even arrange them by artist to make retrieval faster.

I'm with mcmann -- we keep ours in binders, too. They're nice, faux leather, sit on bookshelves and you'd never know they contained CDs. We actually have several. We have one for kids' computer games; a couple for music CDs; and one for movie DVDs. We have saved so much space this way! I have a huge box in the attic with all the plastic cases in case we ever need them.

I think I got my original binders at the Container Store. I bought more later at a web site... I think it was Stacks & Stacks. Exposures Catalog probably has them too.

Yeah, the spindle idea would work fine until you start to search for a specific CD or DVD and keep pulling ones out, and keep pulling, and keep pulling--and then realize the one you want is 3 from the bottom! That would SO annoy me!

Binders are a good idea, as are some of the specially sized boxes that places like the Container Store and Target sell for storage of CDs and DVDs. I think they usually come with individual sleeves so that nothing gets scratched, but all in all I think they save space. Plus you could insert index dividers to separate jazz from hard rock.

A friend of mine (young) decided to burn all her CDs (and she had a lot) to her computer, backed them up on an external hard drive, and then sold the CDs to a music store. I'm not sure I'm cool with that idea yet--I always think even my external back-up will fail.

*This* is why I always need to say my "brilliant" ideas outloud. Binders sound so much more useable. i looked up a few and think that is really the way to go.

I hate to admit, but most of ours are really scratched, but the player reads them anyway. We have always suspected that the techonology will advance before the scratches become a problem. Of course we are careful with the really important ones, Ninja Turtles, Poirot...

In a few years I'll probably look back on this and wonder what I was thinking. Everything will probably be remembered by the machine (which will probably be built into a tv that broadcasts in 3D or something)

:O)

Thanks! I'll be pitching the idea to DH as soon as I find a good time.

We ditched the CD cases when we bought a 400 disc player. Bought binders to organize liner notes.

Wow, that looks really nice, Natal! Are those location stickers on each one? What a great idea. At first I was wondering how you knew where in your DVD player the disc was located, but that looks so efficient.

Natal, that's a great idea. Our jewel cases are always cracking.

PC, yes. Each CD is numbered and I made two master lists for each binder. One done numerically, the other alphabetically. It took a few days to organize everything, but it's so worth it! Now if I could just get my act together and start uploading to that free iPod dh got a couple years ago. ;)

Natal, love how you did it.

I'm too anal about my CD's & DVD's to take them out of their cases. My kids do & they never know where anything is. When they need something; you look in the binder, then you look in the case; then when you still don't find it, you look in the portable DVD player carrying case.

I have a shelf system. all of my CD's are lined up in order by artist. If I take a CD out, I have a special section that will hold the "out" CD's. A binder would drive me nuts if I couldn't keep it alphabetical. I've been sorting my music alphabetical since I was a teen, I'd be lost if I had to search some other way.

All of my music has been burned to it's own hard drive - but there are problem with that too as hubby has issues accessing tunes - probably due to him.