Your old DVD collection takes up almost half of the wall in your bedroom and stuff nearly all your drawers in the living room, and that’s after you donate roughly half of your DVD collection. The free space left is too small to make other wall decorations for your bedroom or to organize your books, handicrafts in the drawers.
Aside from large space consumption, the inappropriate DVD storage option will speed up DVD rot and aging. So, how to correctly store old DVD collections for small space? Here this post gathers the top creative ideas to store old DVDs with space to be appropriately maximized.
Before you go, the ultimate DVD storage environment is cool, dry and ventilated, with low heat and weak (or no) ultraviolet irradiation. Hence, the kitchen, washroom, and car are excluded. After the storage place is settled, proceed to the next step to try the space-saving storage solutions.
1. Digitize DVD Collection to Store DVDs to Hard Drive
The most effective space-saving workaround is to backup old DVD collection to your laptop, hard drive, USB flash drive, cloud, NAS, smart device, etc. It solves the space issue and the inconvenience of the format and safeguards the video content on those discs against DVD rot, scratch, and damage.
Making a digital backup of old DVDs is simple if you have a solid DVD ripper installed. Visit here to find more information which lets you copy DVD to MP4, H264, HEVC, MKV, MPEG-2, MOV, AVI, etc. almost any modern formats with whatever DVD you insert, be it old DVDs, newly released DVDs, 99-title DVD, oversized DVD, scratched DVD or DVD with bad sectors.
And this free DVD ripping software is superior to another famous tool – Handbrake because of its strengths in quality, speed, and file size. Thanks to High-Quality Engine, GPU HW acceleration tech, and advanced DVD compression algorithm, it enables you to get a resulting MP4 file from 7GB to 1GB, with 98% quality reserved and 47x real-time speed.
Thus, the scale of your old DVD collection can be narrowed from a whole wall down to a 1TB hard drive or handheld devices. And what to do with old DVDs? Well, the old discs can be sold for cash or recycled for DIY creative handicrafts if you don’t want to keep them any longer.
2. Store DVDs on the Staircase Wall
Make full use of the staircase wall for your DVD storage. Build a floor-to-ceiling shelf or floating cabinet on the staircase wall, where you can store hundreds of DVDs. You can also DIY or buy a bespoke DVD shelf from IKEA and store DVDs mixed with some decorations under the staircase to save space.
3. DIY DVD Storage Closet
The hallway is always easy to be underrated when it comes to creative DVD storage ideas. Indeed, it would be better to transform the hallway free space into a DVD storage closet, rather than a common shoe cabinet. Your old DVDs can be stored in a cool, dry and ventilated place, no direct sunlight and high heat. Plus, you benefit from showing your DVD collection to your friends once they enter your house. Maybe, you and your friends would like to begin a relaxing chat with old DVD collections.
4. Hidden DVD Storage Idea: Store DVDs under Bed or Bench
Your bed is multi-functional. It plays a role as a resting platform and a secret cabinet to store old DVDs out of sight. And so is your bench. Some have the hidden drawers for you to store DVDs (the below-left picture shows), and others have the box-style design (the right image shows). Generally, if there is an option, you’re advised to choose the drawer one, more convenient to store and organize your DVD collection. IKEA has an extensive broad of beds with storage for your stuff, price ranging from $400 to $500. You can consider to buy or order a bespoke one.
5. Store DVDs Using Corner Shelf or 360 Degree Spinning Shelf
DIY or buy a corner shelf if you don’t have. Or reuse your corner shelf to store DVDs instead of your green plants. As you can see, the corner shelf’s capacity is limited so that it suits your small DVD collection. In terms of the large old DVD collection, like 1000 discs, the 360-degree rotating shelf is the right option. One thing to be noted is that the 4-side spinning shelf will cost you an arm and a leg. For the budget-minded consumers, the below DVD storage solution might be more favorable in price.
6. Store DVDs without Cases But Binder Sleeves
This is an affordable DVD storage option for almost everyone. A 400-capacity DVD binder is priced $20-$30, much lower than the afore-mentioned DVD shelves. If you need several DVD binders, buy them with different colors or covers. Beyond that, before you ditch away DVD case and insert DVD disc into the sleeve, you’d better make a classification first, grounded on movie genres, movie actor, director, or alphabetical order.
Afterward, categorize the same group DVD discs into the identical DVD binder. Carve out some time to write some sticky notes for your DVD binders to later faster searching and locating.
What’s more, you can also resort to some free DVD catalog apps to help you organize DVD detailed info and keep track of your DVD collection by scanning barcodes with your device camera.
7. Store DVDs Using Organized Living Over-the-door DVD Holder
There is a wide selection of grid organized living over-the-door DVD holders on Amazon, priced $20 – $30 per item. Most of them are claimed to be made from epoxy coated highly durable steel, which can be used to store DVDs for a lifetime. Generally, a single grid DVD over-the-door rack can contain at least 25 DVD discs and be easily adjusted without any tool to address your changing demands. If your old DVD collection is around 100 or 200 discs, this DVD storage idea is worth considering, low cost, high efficiency, and easy to use.
There are also some other amazing yet creative DVD storage ideas like store DVD at the back of the door, store DVDs in attic or garage, etc. And you’re warmly welcomed to share with us about your creative ways to store old DVD collection.
