How do you organize your collection?

[sextonseven]

Originally Posted by Verisimilitude1984

I searched and couldn't find a thread on this but I'm sure there is one, so happy to be directed to it by someone.

I'm just curious what everyone does?

Option One: Alphabetical
Option Two: By genre (E.g. Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller)
Option Three: By director
Option Four: By latest movie
Option Five: By media type (E.g. all blu-rays together, all 4Ks together, all DVDs together)
Option Six: Don't care.
Option Seven: Something else?

Also, if you have any TV series do you mix them in or have a separate shelf?

Option five first. 4Ks are separate from Blu-rays which are separate from DVDs. Then the Blu-rays are separated by genre (I don't have enough 4Ks and DVDs to warrant this), the genres being live action films, animated films, anime, music video and TV. Those genres are then organized in alphabetical order.

On top of that, director box sets (4K, Blu-ray & DVD together) have their own section in alphabetical order by the last name of the director.

Looking at this now, it all seems a little haphazard.

[HD Goofnut]

I've stuck with alphabetical within genres for a long time now and I still prefer it to anything else I've done. Like so:

Action/Adventure
Christmas
Comedy
Drama
DVD
Foreign
Horror
Marvel
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
TV
War
Western

[Verisimilitude1984]

Originally Posted by DTSBOY

Until 1 stack becomes wobbly then I start a new stack.

Gravity is a film collector's greatest enemy (although Disney is running it close)

Right, just organised my collection upstairs. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I think I've settled on all blu-rays and 4Ks together in alphabetical order (films + TV) and a small selection of DVDs in alphabetical order at the bottom (which I'm slowly trying to whittle away as and when they get released on blu-ray or 4K).

[GenPion]

When I was much younger, I used to alphabetize everything. Keep it all alphabetical. At some point, I got sick of it. I realized I spent way too much time figuring out where to put away movies and then have to re-adjust other shelves to put away more things and it just got too cumbersome for me.

Now I mostly just toss them on shelves and look over my movies when I want to watch something. I keep DVD's separate.

I have some organization by label (keeping Criterion, Kino, Vinegar Syndrome, etc. mostly together). I have a shelf with almost all my 4Ks and another for my 3D's. Somewhat organized but not as time consuming.

[HotRats]

Leave 'em where they land and trust to luck.

[lilboyblu]

Alphabetical by format - 4K, Blu-ray, DVD - with three exceptions:

1) Box sets are kept together regardless of format
2) TV shows are kept together regardless of format.
3) 4K and Blu-ray are separated into Old Hollywood (1969 and earlier) and New Hollywood (1970 to present).

I take one weekend a year (usually in January) to organize and alphabetize the previous years purchases and to fill in the gaps of purged items.

[Splatterhouse 5]

I have a weird thing about keeping all similar spines together. I keep all the boutique label releases together, all box sets together, all imports together, all multi-movie/disc releases together, most slip cover additions together, etc.

And then I arrange them by the color of their spine within their own groups. For instance, all BDs with a yellow spine are all next to each other, and then the oranges, and then the reds, and so on. Kinda like a color wheel effect.

It seems really disorganized if anybody else wanted to look for a particular movie, but it’s easy on the eyes. Plus, no one ever looks thru my collection anyway, so it’s just done in a way that I can dig. I just sometimes have to remember the color of some spines.

[JasonMichael]

Originally Posted by Stanis

My sister once stayed at my house and alphabatized my whole collection, my system set her ocd off lol

How did you dispose of her body after coming home and seeing how she "fixed" it?

[mikey horror]

Straight alphabetical. Anything else is just chaos.

[Thomas Veil]

Alphabetical for everything and all together.

Too hard to do by genre because so many are more than one so wouldnt feel accurate.

I never understood separation of DVDs because its still a movie and I still like them. Its not like I dislike the actual film or show just because its DVD. Also most of them look pretty decent upscaled. Some of my favorites are still on DVD and may never get to blu-ray so putting them separate seems like I would be treating them like second class stuff which their not.

I considered putting TV stuff separate but some like the Tremors series are connected to the movies so I would rather have them together.

Interesting the way people do stuff, no right or wrong, just whatever fits your vision.

[RFK]

Media type (16mm, VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray and UHD) followed by grouping together most of my favorite directors work. Unfortunately that only amounts to a fourth of my titles so after that its memory or a bit of searching.

[Member-839946]

I'm just thinking out loud, but if I had to access my physical media, I think I'd do something this:

Put QR codes on each shelf (not shelf unit, each shelf). Then write an app that could scan the UPC code on the case and the QR code of the shelf I'm putting the case on. This (UPC, shelf QR code) tuple would serve to locate each bluray / DVD (to the shelf, anyway).

Media could be moved around at will, stored anywhere a QR code can be placed, and searched programmatically. I know it sounds complicated, but it really wouldn't be.

ETA: a couple of optimizations....

* Make sure the app can scan both the UPC code and QR code at the same time (both in frame)
* Not required, but keeping each shelf's contents rough sorted in alphabetic order would speed up search within a shelf. Just on first letter would be fine.

Bet you could find a given title in less than 15 seconds, regardless of size of collection (well, if it's really big, you'd have to walk to the shelf. )

[Phillip c. Niethe]

Current layout: Hitchcock collection is in Chronological order with 4K & Blu mixed.
Doctor who: Docs 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,&11 collection (Blu upgrades)
40ish Blu-ray films in Alphabetical Order awaiting 4K upgrades
4K films in alphabetical order (except sequels which are chronological)with tv series, Criterion, Kino, and Shout mixed in.
Custom made 12 film Van Damme Blu-ray collection case, Custom Marvel 4K collection in massive mega case. Custom Terminator case 1,2,4,& 6 4K&Blu…
That’s how it’s ordered at the moment lol, I’m still desirous to create a Nolan collection in chronological order but can’t seem to separate the Dark knight trilogy from the Batman section which is in chronological order.

[amputd]

This is actually very complicated. I generally try to separate everything into sections- film noir, action, crime, sci-fi, etc. But then I do try to keep certain labels together- Criterion, Arrow, etc. as the spines can be attractive when displayed that way. The result is a labyrinthian patchwork of different areas. I can navigate it well, but I doubt it’s intuitive to anyone else.

[drush9999]

I keep my favourite directors and actors together in filmography order, no different to ordering music by artist and year of release. Film series and spinoffs are always kept together. Everything else is alphabetical within genre.
Of course there's the debates over whether something is a thriller or an action film. Then there's keeping Alien with the other Alien films, and not filing under Ridley Scott etc.

[Ben_R]

I’m the process of rejigging mine, again. Hopefully for the final time as it’s now a monumental task. You would have thought I would have figured this out by now

Apart from keeping Amicus and Hammer separate, i’m going back to a more basic (for me) genre and packaging. Main collection, Digi followed by Steel with boxed sets at the very top.

I made the mistake micromanaging to an obscenely OCD point. Making it too specific, so searching for a title was an impossible task for anyone other than myself.

[Trekkie313]

I'm anal about slipcovers and spine colors, so I organize by genre and how good it looks on my shelf.

[Vilya]

By format, and then alphabetically by title. Been doing it that way since the laserdisc era.

My family and friends reflexively search by title only, so this arrangement is easiest for everyone to quickly find what they want.

[JFizDaWiz]

format (2K and 4K separate) then alphabetical (franchises together and chronological order, ex. Child's Play/2/3/Bride of Chucky or Evil Dead/2/Army of Darkness)

However my Vestron releases I recently pulled out and put them together in release order (number on spine)

[gardengirl1331]

I'm weird, I would do straight alphabetical but we often do fests by theme, and when we're in the mood for a movie I want to instinctively look for something by what it's about not it's title, so I do genre and group similar titles together, like all possession and demonic movies are together, all spy action are together, all dystopian future movies are together etc. But I also keep them in (gasp) archival binders so they look like leather bound books since we only have space in the living room to store them all. I've also always worked in either a book store or a library and my husband is a librarian. So that might be part of it, even though he doesn't agree with my organizing, I think he'd rather they be by straight genre (horror, action, comedy) then alphabetical, but when you do that then things like Temple of Doom and Raiders of the Lost Ark aren't next to each other.