How do you organize your collection?

[bonehica]

Originally Posted by svenge

How do you guys handle titles that start with numerals? Do you:

• Treat the digit as spelled out using words (e.g. About Schmidt before 101 Dalmatians before 28 Days Later)
• Smallest to largest initial digit, alphabetical style (e.g. 101 Dalmatians before 28 Days Later before About Schmidt)
• Smallest to largest complete number (e.g. 28 Days Later before 101 Dalmatians before About Schmidt)
  

I go with the latter, but it's a pain in the butt to alphabetize them in my Excel list. What I have to end up doing is making a separate sorting column with enough preceding zeroes to make them line up the way I want them to.

Smallest to largest as well

Then you have movies like The 'Burbs which has the definite article "the" AND an apostrophe before you even get to a letter. I assume most of us who alphabetize ignore "a" or "the" in a movie title, but what about that damn apostrophe?! I ignore it too and put that particular movie in the "B" section, however DVD Profiler will stick it at the very top even before the numbered movie titles. Annoying...

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I treat the number movies as if the numbers were spelled out. 28 Days Later is under Twenty, for example. My wife once said this was "weird."

Your wife is a wise woman.


Anyways, as to my collection, at present? I have no system. Let me explain.

When I first started out, everything was organized by director, alphabetically by last name. But I didn't have many to organize, obviously. But as my collection grew, and as I started to get titles other than those directed by say Coppola or Godard or Ridley Scott or ... well, you get the idea, it became quite difficult to remember who directed the more "minor" titles. For instance, I would just zone out on who directed Excision (Richard Bates, Jr).

So, as my collection grew and as my memory just got worse due to age, and other factors, I decided to go with alphabetical by title. I did (and do) separate my Criterion titles. And the one shelf of DVDs I have are barely organized; but come on, one shelf -- pretty easy to find something, were I interested in doing so. Oh, and I've always kept my TV collections separate. But seeing as I hardly ever watch them, what's the difference?

But the collection grew and grew, shelf space became more and more precious, and I started just putting new titles in piles. Now everything is just a mess. I need to clear out at least two, if not three shelves of books into boxes. Then I can get things back into shape, though I still haven't decided exactly how I want to do it.

The DVDs and TV titles I will keep separate. I will also keep the Criterion titles separate. And alphabetical by title would be the best system to easily find things, for sure. But there are 19 directors where I have 5 or more titles, and it would be cool to keep most or all of those somehow organized together. But how?

Ugh. I don't know. It's all very confusing, and add in the fact that I'm lazy and this becomes a very slow process.

I'm sure that's more info than anyone was interested in, btw. Heh.

[greyghost1241]

I am going to have to start packing my blus into plastic crates and slap labels on the outside that gives me lists of what is inside to be able to find a movie. Are there any dependable bar code readers available that could quickly give me lists that I could print out? Or another Idea, I may just label boxes #1,#2.ect. and put my movies in the computer by box number. Anyone done that before?

[Phillip c. Niethe]

I'm a bit strange with my collection, Blu-ray is mostly Alphabetical in order except for: reboots like Spider-Man which I keep in "S" numericaly but it goes Spider-Man, Amazing, Homecoming. Also in the Alien Franchise I go with Prometheus, Covenant, Alien, Aliens. I skip "The" and "A". All numbers I act as though they are spelled out. Hobbit is kept next to LOTR in the "L" section. Fantastic Beasts is Kept in front of the Harry Potter collection in "H" Section, A fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly (Kino) are kept in The "M" Section for The Man with No Name Trilogy Heading, Sherlock, SHERLOCK Holmes, and Mr. Holmes are all in the "S" section and I'm currently at Odds as to where I am placing Unbreakable, Split, And Glass... Although I will most likely keep all three of those in a 3 disc case and store it under "U" with a custom cover and spine that says,"Unbreakable Split Glass" I only own SG1, Castle, and Doctor who on DVD which is segregated to their own section, luckily classic Doctors Who is now sold in Blu-ray Sets so Castle and SG1 will be all the DVDS I have left. 4K, Steel, Box sets, and Customs are all mixed in. I am thinking of separating UHD vs Blu but I often upgrade so I'm not sure if it would be worth the time.

[blufellas]

Criterions, DigiBooks, Regular Blu-rays, Pixars, Bond, box sets, tv shows, in alphabet order.
Screenshot (4).jpg

[THUNDERSTRUCK]

Alphabetically.

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

alphabetical and random piles in bags and boxes (which, eventually get added in order, once room on the shelves is made)

[ben6543]

My top shelf is stuff I don't watch frequently IE my Sons Of Anarchy dvd's and some of my comedy blu ray's

Second shelf is my Doctor Who DVD's but I am thinking of putting my who dvd's away in storage to turn the shelf just for my MCU movies.

3rd shelf are my Superhero/Franchise movies Evil Dead MCU DCTV etc

4th Shelf is mostly my Cartoon dvd Box Sets/ some live action stuff IE all my batman stuff is together Transformers sans Bay movies etc. Power Rangers X-men too

I don't do it Alphabetically. That is what I have blu ray.com for with my movie collection

[meremortal]

There's really not much organization at all since I ran out of room a while back.

[Member-222782]

My current setup is DVDs and Blu-rays arranged alphabetically but only by letter, meaning all the A titles are together, B titles are together, etc, but that's it. It makes it a little harder to find stuff sometimes but there ARE only 26 letters in the alphabet so it's not a big deal. I experimented with putting box sets together, packaging type, by label - everything, but this current setup is ideal for me.

[malakaheso]

Alphabetical order, but I have two shelves. Shelf 1 contains standard cases whereas shelf 2 has boxsets, digi's etc

[reaperx187]

Right now since we moved into a new place only been here a few week's maybe a 1 month or so all movies are in boxes and plastic tubs but want to get shelves for the basement and display all of my blurays, DVDs and also 4Ks too!.

[RockySullivan]

I organize by genre, and within each genre I go in chronological order. All blu-rays, dvd's and 4k's are mixed together because the film is what's important. When a franchise begins, I'll put the whole franchise there before returning to chronological order. So for example, in my action/adventure section I'll get up to Independence day, then Mission Impossible, followed by MI:2,3,GP,RN,FO; then return back to say, Starship Troopers and proceed from there. I also keep certain series or directors in separate sections, such as all Star Wars, all Bond films, or all Spielberg films. Works for me.

[Majin Blu]

Current setup

On Top of Bookcases: Various Box sets.

Top Shelf of First Bookcase: Dragon Ball DVDs (Blue Bricks of DB, Dragon Boxes of Z, Green Bricks of GT, and the 13 Dragon Ball Z movies)

Two shelves: The Criterion Collection (Digipaks alphabetical. Standard CC cases alphabetical)

Two Shelves: Steelbooks together. Digibooks together.

The Rest of the shelves: Everything else in alphabetical order.

[SlayersCouncil]

I have 3 categories, all alphabetical.
1. TV
2. Non-kid movies
3. Kid movies

To fill in space between these categories, and because "out of sight, out of mind", I have DVDs (both TV and movies) thrown in. I try to keep the DVD movies alphabetical, but the TV shows go where they can fit.

Oh, I also have the MCU movies separated out in order of release except the last handful as some make more sense in a different order (i.e. Ragnarok directly before Infinity War with Black Panther placed earlier). However, that topic is for another thread.

[eiknarf]

I organize em by the second letter of the director’s spouse’s maiden last name

[El_Fez]

My collection is organized in the geological stratification method. New stuff towards the top of the piles scattered around my room, older stuff towards the bottom. Unless I stumble, then its whatever the fates determine.

[slm]

I'm mostly organized by genre. My Criterions and Twilight Times are separate, though. I'm thinking about integrating them into their appropriate genre sections. For those of you that organize by genre, do you mix in your Criterions, Twilight Times etc? I can't decide...

[Starchild]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

I organize em by the second letter of the director’s spouse’s maiden last name

Now that’s a dedicated kind of quirky!

[slm]

Originally Posted by greyghost1241

I am going to have to start packing my blus into plastic crates and slap labels on the outside that gives me lists of what is inside to be able to find a movie. Are there any dependable bar code readers available that could quickly give me lists that I could print out? Or another Idea, I may just label boxes #1,#2.ect. and put my movies in the computer by box number. Anyone done that before?

I do that with decorations and it works really well. Every plastic bin has a # and I keep a spreadsheet listing everything and the bin # they are in. If I add an item, get rid of something, or move it to a different bin, then I just change it on my spreadsheet instead of having to change a contents label on the actual bin. I think that approach could work well for movies. You could also color code your labels by genre.