Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my physical media. My home has always been filled with books, CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records. While space restrictions have forced me to downsize my collections, keeping these items in my space is incredibly important to me. Contrary to popular belief, not all organizers are minimalists! I don’t just love to have them available for viewing, reading, and listening, but also as part of the decor that makes my apartment feel like home. You can stay organized while holding onto the things that bring you joy, you just need systems that work for you.

Pick Your Database

Not everyone will want to catalog their media. It is a time-intensive process that may not be right for you, but it is a great option. I love spreadsheets almost as much as I love physical media, and Airtable has allowed me to marry these two loves into an incredibly functional and beautiful catalog of the media in my home. I highly recommend keeping your catalog in the cloud so that you can access it from anywhere – with a large collection it is very easy to forget what you have and what you may want to add. I love Airtable because it’s easily searchable and has a great mobile app. Discogs is a user-generated database for tracking, purchasing, and selling media. If you would like to have a dynamic collection and connect with other media lovers, that may be the right option for you!

If you want to track your media socially, you can also join apps like GoodReads and Letterboxd. You can create lists of the media that you have in your collection and log when you have read or watched them. Letterboxd also has a feature that allows you to see where your favorite movies are streaming if you are ready to let go of some of your physical media.

Different Media, Different Strategies

You do not need to organize all your media in the same way. For example, you may love to look at your books, but don’t go back to them very often. Styling a bookshelf by color or book type could be the most pleasing and functional option! Be sure to consider the different audiences that are consuming the media in your home as well. Books and movies for kids should be stored somewhere that they can reach and browse them.

If you are referencing your collection and looking for specific items often, we recommend sorting first by genre and then alphabetically by artist or title. Genre allows you to break down your collection into smaller pieces, while alphabetizing is the quickest way to find exactly what you are looking for. If you have many pieces of media from one artist you can also subcategorize their work chronologically or alphabetically. 

Get Visual

There are many different types of dividers and labels to help make your organized media collection easy to navigate. There are beautiful wooden placeholders and genre or alphabetical markers from many sellers. Koeppel Design has high end storage options for Vinyl records and there are a variety of different styles of dividers for all media on Etsy.

If you are considering storing media long-term outside of your living space, be sure to purchase weatherproof bins that will protect it from the elements. This is especially important for books and vinyl records that can become moldy and unusable if exposed to the wrong conditions. These bins are generally pricey but absolutely worth the investment in your collection.

For those about to rock, read, and watch - we salute you!