Organizing and Storing CD and DVD Disks in Binders

Are those little round disks are taking over your house and car?  Are these expensive disks in stacks and junk drawers all over the house getting scratched?

I’ve tried several different cataloging and organizing systems and I am happy with my CD Binder System I started using about 5 years ago (no more jewel cases).  I’m sharing this  system with you for inspiration.

You may come up with a better idea for your collection. There are many binder systems, wall mount systems, desktop stackables, cabinets,  floor standing systems, etc. The goal is to be able to find what you need when you want it easily. This is easy if  your collection is organized, visible, and easy to reach.

My CD / DVD Binder System

I got  my Binders through Amazon: Bellagio-Italia CD/DVD Storage Binder

Step 1.  Make a List of Your Planned Binders.

The best binders have three metal D-rings with removable pages (to you can add pages later).

If you have a small collection you can use a few binders and divider tabs. Our collection is quite large so I have separate binders. I purchased two binders at a time when they fit in our budget. In 5 years I now have 10 binders.
which run about $15.  Knowing these were going to be on the shelves for many years I invested in  better quality binders.  Each Binder holds 48 CDs/DVDs. You can add more pages (4 CD per page)

If you can’t afford the binders now use sometime of containers (The Dollar Stores have $1 plastic shoe box size boxes) to get everything sorted. You can add to binders later.

My Binders

1. Critical Software
2. Bible Study
3. Homeschool Teachings
   
4. Children’s Educational Software
5. Photos, Clip Art, Scrapbook Kits
   
6. Home Life
   
7. Music
8. Movies
9. Children’s Movies
10. Children’s Video Games

Step 2.  Gather and Sort all the Disk

• Have the kids go on a CD hunt and bring every CDs in from the car, bedrooms, all over the house into one location.
• Carefully sort them in these piles listed above. (Good time to clean them)
• Don’t place in the binders yet. You need to decide on a system.

Step 3. Plan How to Organize Your System

Divide each CD collection according to your preference i.e.  Use the best method for each binder. Its easy to pull out sleeves and move them around.

Some options:

• Alphabetically
• Types of music
• Types of Bible study
• Types of images
• Movie by genre
• Teachings by Author

Grab a notebook and jot down each Binder you wil have and possible categories. Here are my sorting methods to help you get started.

How I Sort My Binders

1. Critical Software Binder

• Computer software with  product keys that I need to run a publishing business (MS Office, Photoshop, Quark, ect)
• Back ups of all HOW publications (also on an external hard drive)
• Back up of finances, tax records, mail lists, etc.

2. Bible Study Binder – These are sorted similar to how I store my files on my MP3 player.

• Audio Bibles (by version)
• Hebrew Roots (First Fruit of Zion, Dwight Pyror, Conference audios, etc.)
• Israel (documentaries, teachings)
• Women Studies (Elizabeth Elliot, Beth Moore, Nancy Leigh Demoss, Prayer retreats,  etc)
• Religion vs Relationship (Wayne Jacobsen, Baxter Kruger, etc)
• Church Sermons (not listed above,  by pastor or  teacher)

3. Homeschool Binder – I have a large collection of CDs  from attending 20 years of homeschool conferences.  I sort these  by topic.  Sorting by conference year or by author was too confusing.

• Bible
• Unit Studies
• History
• Science
• Writing
• Creative Teaching

I have hundreds of Bible study and teaching from homeschool conventions in recorded audio cassette and CD format I plan to change all to MP3 format and store on a hard drive.  Meanwhile I have the Binders. The audios are now organized in several shoe box size plastic containers stores on top of my bookshelves.

4. Children’s Educational Software Binder – I sort these CDs by subject.

• Bible
• Phonics
• Math
• History
• Science

I’ve been using education software  for over 15 years. I still have beginning phonics CDs for my son who is now a Freshman in college! They’ve been used by 9 children so far so I got my money’s worth! Many of the CDs will only work on our older  computer (we keep just for this reason).

IMPORTANT TIP: Mark software CDs by computer version. Its VERY frustrating to spend 10 to 20 minutes installing a CD only to have it not work. To prevent this frustration, I invested a day attempting to install every disk on the children’s Vista computer. Then marked each with  a black permanent marker:  Vista only, Windows NT only, etc.

5. Photos & Images  Binders – I am transferring all images, photos and scrapbook kits to a external hard drive but keep the original CDs  in the binders. This binder has dividers: Photos, Images, and Scrapbook Kits:

• Photo CDs sorted chronologically by date
• Images and clip art sorted by topic
• Scrapbook Kit CDs are sorted by publisher.

6. Home Life Binder- Most of the sewing and cooking teachings I are older and currently in video tape format (lots of Sewing with Nancy taped from TV) .  I plan to have convert to CD and then into this Binder.

• Sewing (quilting, smoking, embroidery)
• Animal Care (horse, dog, goats, training, care, etc)
• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Cooking
• Publishing (don’t have enough for its own binder)

7. Music Binder - When I can get hubby to label his CDs they go in the binder by by genre and artist.

• Praise and Worship
• Romantic
• Holidays
• Children’s Music

Eventually all the music will be transferred to MP3. All the children’s CDs have been transferred (Bible passages, Praise and Worship, Math drills, etc)

7. Movies Binder – sorted by genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Documentary, etc.

8. Children’s Movies -These come in and out of the binder too fast to keep it organized. I’m just happy if they get back into the Binder.

I store about a dozen movies in a small binder for the car and rotate as needed.

9. Children’s Video Games – See Children’s Movies- ditto

Step 4: Place into Binder and Label

Remove your ordered Cds and DVDs from their cases and place them in the new binder pages.If you have the original jewel case with inserts, place them in the pocket that corresponds to that movie or CD.

Digitize Your List: If you want to really get organized you can digitize your list. Create a spreadsheet on your computer and name columns: Title, Genre, Year, Actor, Author, etc. Play with the spreadsheet, sorting by column decide how to order your  CDs. A copy  can also be placed at the front of the binder for quick reference.

Use a label maker, and label your binders if you have more than one. For example, “Movies A-P” and “Movies Q-Z”.

Step 5: Find a Home for Each Binder

Find a place to store each binder and remind the children that is the binder’s home.

I store software in my office book shelves, Bible studies and movies in my bedroom book shelves, Children’s Movies and Games in the family room bookshelves.

TIP: When you loan out a disk, slip a note in the empty pocket with the name of the person and the date they borrowed it.

Maintenance

If you find lose disk around the house, you may need to have a talk with children about returning the disks to the binder. If that seems impossible settle on creating and keeping or stack nearby and plan one specific day of the week to return the stack to the binder.

So, how do you organize and store your DVDs and CDs?