How do you organize your collection?

[critterdvd]

My organizational method is kinda OCD and it honestly drives most people completely crazy when they come over to look at my collection. Firstly I have everything broken out by format: DVD, Blu-Ray, 4k, Laserdisc/VHS (TV Series are kept Separate as well). From there I have everything Alphabetized but I have all of my "Boutique Label" discs separated: Criterion, Shout, Warner Archive, Kino, Vestron and Disney (Movie Club). I also tend to keep the larger box sets on the top shelves on my cases. It works for me, but like I said it drives everyone else batty.

I also keep the a shelf within one of my bookcases strictly for new purchases. Once that shelf gets full then it's a whole Saturday integrating everything into the correct place and moving things around to fit.

[canucksam]

Standing up, mostly, spines facing outward.

[chuway]

I arrange a horror/thriller shelf alphabetically. Then I separate everything by boutique labels, 4K's (alphabetically), DVDs, TV Shows, Digibooks, non-horror/thriller regular blu-rays, and steelbooks. Makes it easier to find these.

[DNSK]

All of mine go in alphabetical order with the exception of franchise movies like Batman Begins. That goes in D with the other Dark Knight movies as an example. TV shows and DVD’s do get separated. I’ve thought about categorizing but it gets too complicated with too many movies fitting into too many different categories. Plus in alphabetical order I can find any movie in seconds. I can also spot when someone puts one of my movies back in the wrong spot almost immediately which happens at times in my house.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by Leslie Dame

I did the organized by genre once and it was in my opinion the worst way to organize my collection. I have movies that defy genres, and there are a few psychological horror or thriller movies that drove me nuts. I ended up doing Psychological Horror, Psychological Thriller and then Psychological Horror Thriller. Then I did Psychological Horror / Thriller, but wasn't happy about it. It was like splitting hairs, very frustrating.
I never felt comfortable putting Jaws to Horror and it never felt right putting it to Thriller either.

You overthought your genre's which is what lead to your problem. I hate that we live in a time where everything needs to be categorized a hundred different ways as it makes things far more difficult as you mentioned.

Organizing by genre's works great if you keep things simple and then adjust to your own collections needs. I tried to envision how a modern day mo and pop video store would group things and came up with the following for how my movie room is organized.

-New Arrivals (These are films I recently acquired so that they are easy to see and review immediately as you walk into the room)

-Family (Anything that you'd call a family film ends up here. Disney, Pixar, karate Kid franchise, ghostbusters, goonies, ET, Dreamworks animation, etc)

-Holiday (A single shelf currently that shares the same unit as FAMILY films.. these are Christmas/Halloween/Thanksgiving specials and films so that they are easy to locate during that time of the year)

-Action

-Comic Book Action (I wanted to separate modern comic book films from what I consider their superior counterparts the 1980's Arnold/Stallone/VanDam action films so this houses anything comic book inspired or from video game franchises)

-Martial Arts

-Fantasy (Harry Potter franchise, Labyrinth, JAWS Franchise, King Kong/Godzilla Movies, and anything else that doesn't fit neatly into Science fiction or Action)

-Science Fiction

-Horror

-Comedy (this is the not so kid friendly stuff like Revenge of the Nerds, Porky's the Jackass Films, etc)

-Romantic Comedy/Romantic

- Thrillers (For stuff that's neither full on action or Horror)

-Drama

-War

-Religion

-Documentary

-Television

Everything is then alphabetical within each section for easy access. VHS/DVD/BD/3DBD/UHD all mixed together as when looking for a film I typically am less concerned about the format. I generally don't sell older editions of films either so this method allows for them to be lined up together. The only real downside to this is that I couldn't tell you what 3D films I have on the whole, but since 3D BD is a format and not a genre it made sense to just intermix them.

I previously had everything grouped together alphabetically but that took forever to peruse when trying to find a film and became more and more cumbersome as I bought more films and had to incorporate them into the shelving units. Now I have plenty of built in space and I can focus my attention on one section at a time like I would at a video store when looking for a film to watch.

If I'm in the mood for horror I don't want to wade through hundreds of BD's from other genre's.

[yourmomcalled]

alphabetized box sets / alphabetized steelbooks / alphabetized everything else Blu-rays / alphabetized DVDs

[canucksam]

Like HBK just wrote, that's the way. General, but organized enough you can find things without having to go through all of it.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by canucksam

Like HBK just wrote, that's the way. General, but organized enough you can find things without having to go through all of it.

Maybe my question is out of place: I agree with what canucksam says, and I have a system in place for that, but how do you guys decide what to watch when you have such an extensive collection? For me nothing beats going through the spines of the boxes, which makes the importance of some sort of customisation of the font or at least easily readable from some distance key. I usually skim them quite quickly even though I should stop at least for 5 seconds each to process what the movie is about and the kind of movie and if it suits my current state of mind. Is there a thread for this?

[Deromax]

I store my movies on a first-come first on the shelf basis. In other word, in the order I bought them. I put a small label on the case, number them and input the number in the Comment field in my blu-ray.com collection. It's sortable, so I can browse the collection in shelf order if it's needed.

One issue with this is when a single movie eventually have a sequel or worst, become a full-on franchise, as I want to group them toghether. I have to renumber the case, edit the collection and displace titles to make room for the new movies. Sometime I have to displace another franchise (several titles) that may be bigger than the needed slots, so I end-up with holes that I must remember and plug with new purchases.

But it works for me. I have the computer and smartphone near to find a title's number quickly.

[profholt82]

By height

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Deromax

I store my movies on a first-come first on the shelf basis. In other word, in the order I bought them. I put a small label on the case, number them and input the number in the Comment field in my blu-ray.com collection. It's sortable, so I can browse the collection in shelf order if it's needed.

One issue with this is when a single movie eventually have a sequel or worst, become a full-on franchise, as I want to group them toghether. I have to renumber the case, edit the collection and displace titles to make room for the new movies. Sometime I have to displace another franchise (several titles) that may be bigger than the needed slots, so I end-up with holes that I must remember and plug with new purchases.

But it works for me. I have the computer and smartphone near to find a title's number quickly.

Well, one thing's for sure: It's a system for you and only you.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Maybe my question is out of place: I agree with what canucksam says, and I have a system in place for that, but how do you guys decide what to watch when you have such an extensive collection? For me nothing beats going through the spines of the boxes, which makes the importance of some sort of customisation of the font or at least easily readable from some distance key. I usually skim them quite quickly even though I should stop at least for 5 seconds each to process what the movie is about and the kind of movie and if it suits my current state of mind. Is there a thread for this?

Generally speaking I have an idea of what I want to watch (usually something from the horror genre or one of my new arrivals) so that significantly cuts back on the amount of titles I have to look over these days. However in the event I have no idea at all, I've found that having things organized by genre has actually significantly cut back on the amount of time it may take to find something as I am no longer having to comb through genres I have no interest in.

More than that though, as horror makes up about 60 - 65% of my collection the horror shelves themselves are the largest and have been organized by the letter in the alphabet so browsing those movies is even easier as each shelf is it's own set of films which makes for quick browsing. I'll be the first to admit though that part of the fun of a big collection is not knowing what to watch and just taking my time browsing through everything to see what strikes me on a given evening.

[formula_nebula]

I organize by genre, studio, and packaging. I'll also try to organize by actors, and director. Nothing is alphabetized.

[Leslie Dame]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

You overthought your genre's which is what lead to your problem. I hate that we live in a time where everything needs to be categorized a hundred different ways as it makes things far more difficult as you mentioned.

Thing is, I'm a sucker for sub-genres rather than just using the standard genre label. For example, I think it makes a collection more interesting having something like Fright Night in the "Horror / Vampire" section rather than just "Horror". I like a bit of diversity. But yeah, those things can get complicated.

[Michael24]

Originally Posted by Deromax

I store my movies on a first-come first on the shelf basis. In other word, in the order I bought them. I put a small label on the case, number them and input the number in the Comment field in my blu-ray.com collection. It's sortable, so I can browse the collection in shelf order if it's needed.

One issue with this is when a single movie eventually have a sequel or worst, become a full-on franchise, as I want to group them toghether. I have to renumber the case, edit the collection and displace titles to make room for the new movies. Sometime I have to displace another franchise (several titles) that may be bigger than the needed slots, so I end-up with holes that I must remember and plug with new purchases.

But it works for me. I have the computer and smartphone near to find a title's number quickly.

I sometimes wish that's how I'd done it, just filling one shelf at a time as I bought things but keeping them individually alphabetized. Sucks when I get a new Blu-ray that starts with A or B and have to shift everything to fit it on the top shelf.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Well, one thing's for sure: It's a system for you and only you.

I don't understand, or, I don't agree. You cannot speak for anyone but yourself

Reading the posts after mine makes it clear that I think it's down to personal choices. Which was always obvious. However I think that while I always kept my collection in order of purchase (which is often order of publication), one of my original plan was to number them in order or purchase to then allow any sorting but always being able to go back to the original order.
But then what order would that be? Alphabetical doesn't make sense in my book although it might be the only one. Genre is not really possible and many movies do not fit one only. Actor/actress neither because what do you do if multiple actors you like are in it? Sometimes I thought of putting them in order of color of spine to make it look pretty, but it would make it hard to put new purchases in the same order, also same reason why any order is not sustainable because you will always have to rearrange to make room for new ones in the middle of your racks. That's why the only one that can work in a way is order of purchase. For me.

[TheBluRayBandito]

Genres. Digibooks and collection packs for non-regular sized blus.

[mikey horror]

Straight alphabetical. Simple and practical.

[koover]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

I don't understand, or, I don't agree. You cannot speak for anyone but yourself

Reading the posts after mine makes it clear that I think it's down to personal choices. Which was always obvious. However I think that while I always kept my collection in order of purchase (which is often order of publication), one of my original plan was to number them in order or purchase to then allow any sorting but always being able to go back to the original order.
But then what order would that be? Alphabetical doesn't make sense in my book although it might be the only one. Genre is not really possible and many movies do not fit one only. Actor/actress neither because what do you do if multiple actors you like are in it? Sometimes I thought of putting them in order of color of spine to make it look pretty, but it would make it hard to put new purchases in the same order, also same reason why any order is not sustainable because you will always have to rearrange to make room for new ones in the middle of your racks. That's why the only one that can work in a way is order of purchase. For me.

I normally don’t speak for someone or come to their defense but he’s right and so are you. It’s personal choice like you said but you are truly the only person in this thread AT THIS TIME, that organizes this way. So.... this is a system for you and only you. Maybe someone else will follow suite but at this time? .....

[DandyDancing]

By label than spine/alphabetical within each label