Organizing DVDs on the Cheap

I used to organize my DVDs in binders (affiliate). While that was a great idea, over the years, the binders (affiliate) got so full that I needed to purchase more and more of them.  So, when I couldn't find them any longer, I decided I needed a system that would work without using so much space. The image below shows how we used to organize DVDs in our home.

Keep in mind that when organizing DVDs on a budget, you need to be creative. I purchased these items from the office supplies store and found the bins at Target.  Here's how I created the 'Easy Way to Organize DVDs' system.

Jump to:

• Before:
• Use Paper DVD sleeves.
• Make Labels for the movies
• Use ABC labels
• The result!
• How much did it cost to organize these CDs?
• UPDATE:

Before:

These are my binders (affiliate) for my family's DVD collection. Each family member had their binder (affiliate) with their beloved movies inside. Since the kids would often pull items from their binder (affiliate), they needed a binder (affiliate) that they could place in their room, so the other child wouldn't have to hunt for their DVDs. I developed this system about five years ago, and while this system worked for some time, the issues were:

• The children are teens now, and their movie interests are pretty much the same as ours.
• The binders (affiliate) were full, and we needed to add more binders (affiliate), which were expensive and weren't easy to find anymore.
• We wanted to find movies by name and not by the person who owned it.

Use Paper DVD sleeves.

So, I decided to gather all the movies together and put them in ABC order by Title. It took about 2 hours to place the DVDs in the paper sleeves and sort them by title.

Make Labels for the movies

Then, about an hour or so, making sure they were in the right place and creating labels (affiliate) for each paper sleeve. I used the Avery return address labels(affiliate) that hold 80 labels (affiliate) per page. To make this quickly move along, I had my daughter read the titles to me while I typed them on the label (affiliate). And, with my lightning fast typing, we were able to transfer them onto the labels (affiliate) fairly quickly.

Use ABC labels

After these labels (affiliate) were printed, I bought Alphabet Avery tabs(affiliate) and 100 pack paper DVD Sleeves from Staples. (Affiliate: You can click on the link and order them from Amazon (affiliate).) They just didn't have one with a # sign on it for the movies that start with a number, so I had to create it myself.

The most challenging aspect of this process was finding bins that were affordable. After visiting three major discount chains, I finally found something at Target that worked for the 275 DVDs in our collection.

The result!

And here is the result. So, we knew what movies we had, I decided to copy the list and add it to a family page in OneNote.  I then printed it out and placed it near the DVDs just in case someone wanted to know if we had a movie.

How much did it cost to organize these CDs?

The total cost = $57.94 =$4.99 Tabs (affiliate) + $6.99 x 2 for bins + 12.99 x 3 +$0.00 for return labels (affiliate) I already had.

UPDATE:

We have been using this system for at least five years now, and it continues to work.  Woohoo! We're so happy we found a way to organize our massive collection of DVDs. Good luck with your DVD organization.  Leave a comment below and let me know how you manage your DVDs.  I would love to hear from you.

Feel free to check out our other DIY projects!