Personally I'd organize them in the drawers alphabetically without using any kind of extra containers. As for when you take one out to view, use a "place holder" to keep things in order. A place holder could be anything, even an extra divider from a daily planner as long as it sticks up enough to easily see it. If it's not already laminated I'd have that done or cover it with contact paper.
~Becky

Forgot to mention we have a library in our home so we store books in there. Not that it's finished yet, so many books are still in boxes and/or baskets around the house. Have you thought of buying a nice bookcase for storing your other books? In our last home, we only had one bookcase and it was double deep with VHS tapes before DVDs came along.
~Becky

I agree that you should just use the drawers.

Why go through the time and expense to find boxes that will fit inside drawers?

Because they slide all around in the drawers and don't stay nice and neat. I want to open those drawers and see my dvds and vhs tapes all lined up in rows. Without some kind of holder, the drawers are too big and everything just goes all over the place.

Have you checked to see if photo boxes will work? I'm pretty sure they are not tall enough, but if they fit otherwise you wouldn't need to put the tops on. I've not looked at these boxes for some time, but they used to be on sale for well under five dollars each.

Another even less expensive idea is to buy some posterboard and make your own boxes. I'd either cover these boxes with contact paper or use wide tape over the edges to keep them from wearing out. If you've never made your own boxes I can tell you how to make them.

~Becky

Another idea would be to place some on their sides and some on their backs like shown in the drawing below. Any series, such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones or TV series would work good for those stored on their backs since you'd know automatically what was under the top DVD or VHS.
{{!gwi}}

Instead of boxes to make the DVD's and videos stay put, how about using bookends to keep them in place?

Here is a link that might be useful: Bookends

The place holder could be the ORIGINAL BOX. Just remove the disk, and leave the case/cardboard sleeve in place. Then, you'll always be able to find it!

And I agree, as long as you've got drawers, why get yet another box?

you'll lose space to the box itself, plus the margin around them.

Here's what I would do: get Bainbridge board (a mat board, heavier than shirt cardboard, thinner than foam board), and cut it into dividers, then attach the dividers to the sides of the drawer. You can do this w/ duct tape (it bends nicely), or by making the divider too long, then scoring a crease to fold a tab at each end, and staple-gunning them to the drawer sides.

I have done this w/ thin cardboard in the plastic drawers to keep pens & markers from sliding; I've done it in the sock drawer and a kitchen drawer w/ foam-core board.

In my world, books go on shelves. (well, they're supposed to; right now DD's books are lying on their sides in stacks in a corner of the room.

The no-skid liner (kind of foamy) works perfectly for me. I have CD's on their edges in a drawer that is bigger too and they do stay put. The boxes would need to be full too to keep them from moving.

Maria

Becky, could you tell me how to make the boxes? THanks!

Here you go....
{{!gwi}}

First things first. Decide how many DVD (or VHS) you want in each box. Hold that amount together with a couple rubberbands. This will allow you to take measurements to make your boxes.

Use these measurements to make your box, depending on how you will be placing the movies in the boxes. Adding sides 1 and 3 together with the length of the bottom will give you the length to cut for the box. Adding sides 2 and 4 with the width (smaller) of the bottom will give you the width to cut the for the box.

Once you have the piece cut out to make your box you'll measure for the height of all sides of the box. Using a ruler and boning tool or back side of a table knife, score along theses lines. They are shown in red above.

Once scored clip tabs as shown above by the dotted lines. Now carefully fold along the scored lines folding tabs to the inside or outside of box and gluing them in place.

I'd advise folding packing tape over and around the top edge of the box for added stability. It will save the box from fraying with use.

I hope this makes sense. It's not really easy explaining without actually showing at the same time.

~Becky

I would just make dividers out of heavy cardboard or foamcore. They will take up less space than boxes.

jokewing did you get the pattern?

Justgotabme, I love your pattern. I didn't ask the question but I certainly do like your solution. Thanks for sharing. Andrea

Just another thought...we use the Fellowes black nylon zippered case that holds 224 dvd/cd. Each page holds 4 on each side so there are 28 pages total. We have two cases that sit on the lower shelf of the family room bookcase. Granted, the disks are out of the hard cases but it is easy to pull out a case and thumb through the pages for the dvd we want.

Casey

"http://www.driverdb.com/Sean McDonagh"

I have found books with page numbers written on them to be the best method. I have an account with IMDB.com and i keep a record of my movies with the location in the online app. Trying to keep them in any kind of order is trouble as you have to always move others around as you get more.

IMDBs inventory list automatically puts your movies in ABC order. You only enter the title and location and you can find it every time. IMDB also gives you a link to the movie and tells you what it is about and who plays in it. You can also click on an actor and find everything they played in (helpful if you want to watch another movie with same actor).

I have like 10 books full of movies (over 3000 titles). Each book is numbered with pg # wrote on each page. example of location B3-21 would mean Book 3 page 21. Each page only holds 4 disk so it narrows the search quite a bit.

I built 6"-deep shelves for CDs and DVDs. The shelves are in a hallway between my sons' bedrooms, just off the family room, so it's conveniently located. I thought it was pretty good use of a space that isn't good for anything else.

Those shallow shelves are nice! It can be hard to find something that narrow ready-made.

In the market there are storage container boxes which you can use for storing these DVD's and VHS tapes. And they also helps in utilizing space as you can put them anywhere like on the shelves or in the closets etc.

IMO, VHS tapes should be tossed or recorded to DVD.

DVD cases should be tossed. All CDs and DVDs should be kept in a book -- one little book holds 100 or more. You can cut out a section of the DVD or CD wrapper and put it in the book's sleeve with it's disc. You can also write on the sleeve with a permanent marker.

As for books, I only keep the ones I reference often, and the ones that will not be dated in a few years. I use the public library and seldom purchase a book unless it is an awesome reference. Most books need to be purged.

Yes, I'm a minimalist. :-)