How do you organize your collection?

[BluBonnet]

Very carefully, of course.

[Shogun MacArthur]

I try to organize my collection, but it always spirals out of control. There are remnants of reason throughout, Vinegar Syndrome releases get their section on the shelf, horror is put together, but as more gets added I now have Vinegar Syndrome blu-rays on the other side of the room and somehow non-horror movies ended up in the horror section. MASH got in-between a 6 movie Hellraiser DVD set and The Wraith, I don't know how it happened. The most honest answer to the organization question has become "wherever I have free space to put a new blu-ray". Someday I do want to actually clean it up, but that will be a major undertaking.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by PhysicalMediaMaestro

There are many ways to organize your collection of physical media. Some simply sort everything alphabetically. Some categorize their physical media collextion by standard genres (action, comedy, romance). Some create their own unique categories.

So how do you do it? How do you organize your collection of physical media? Please let me know. Describe your organization/sorting/classification strategies in as much detail as possible. Feel free to add pictures or video if you wish. Have a nice day.

You really like creating threads, don't you?

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Mr. Chaverria

You really like creating threads, don't you?

It's only 20 threads in their first 25 days on the forums!

[steel_breeze]

Chronologically by original release date. To look at my physical media library is to see the whole sweep of film history, from George Melies' "A Trip to the Moon" to Villeneuve's DUNE.

[Jay Mammoth]

Alphabetically, I’ve built 3 cases so far. One for my single movies, one for box sets of movies and shows, and then one for the fat special edtions.

[Mr Walker]

Alphabetically of course.

Any other way is unmanageable above a critical mass of movies.

[moreorless]

Via boutique lable mostly I spose, beyond looking nice it has the advantage its fairly easy and doesn't need a lot of work, don't need to worry about exact orders just putting shtuiff back on the right shelf.

[EvaDK]

Reminds me of -

[thenexus6]

I tend to organise by a theme or something.

Like all my Spielberg films, my Hong Kong action, Studio Ghibli, and so on.

[Juan de Internet]

• Animated: chronologically within each leaf category

  • Shorts
  • Features

    • Disney
    • Pixar
    • Ghibli
    • Other

• Live Action Feature

  • Before I was born: chronologically
  • After I was born: alphabetically

• TV Shows
• Documentaries
• Other

In all cases I make exceptions for box sets, sequels, and prequels, which I keep together. Both sequels and franchises (when placed together; see below) are chronological within the series. This is because box sets are almost always chronological, so it makes sense to follow that convention for all franchises rather than make an exception for or split up box sets. For box sets that are not franchise-based and/or not chronological, well, I just have to remember where the movies are - which is why I don't like those box sets.

Whether franchises are grouped together is on a case-by-case basis. Since Bond doesn't have any titles that start with "Bond" and thus make the franchise have a stable position, Casino Royale is filed under "C" and No Time to Die is under "N". But all the Star Wars are together. I don't own "Batman" otherwise Batman would also be together; as it is I own "The Batman", so if I put "The Dark Knight Returns" with it, TDKR would come first, which means the series starts with a "D" title in the "B" section - weird.

By "chronological" I mean chronological by first theatrical release, where "theatrical release" is usually defined by IMDb (unless I disagree with that site).

By "alphabetical" I mean according to the name on the spine in English lexical order, excluding initial "The", "A", and "An". That means:

• "Amelie" comes after "Amadeus"
• "Das Boot" comes after "The Dark Knight Rises"
• "El Mariachi" (and thus "Desperado" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico") comes after "Edge of Tomorrow"
• "Les Miserables" comes after "Léon: The Professional"

Note that "Les Miserables" is the reason I decided to only ignore English initial articles and not other languages'. Because Les Miserables is actually an Anglo production, and I think most English speakers alphabetize it with the "L"s.

So it's a bit arbitrary, but I'm just trying for something that is:

• Consistent
• Memorable (so I can replace discs easily after watching them)
• Convenient for my viewing habits
• Fits my collection within my limited shelf space without arbitrary breaks

[spider-neil]

With my OED I used to organise my cases by colour because I hated seeing the different coloured spines together. But I’ve since moved on most of my physical media to conserve space and a lot of what’s left, I’ve thrown away the covers and placed the disks in leather disk holders than can hold up to 20 disks.

[PinkyCarruthers]

Originally Posted by steel_breeze

Chronologically by original release date. To look at my physical media library is to see the whole sweep of film history, from George Melies' "A Trip to the Moon" to Villeneuve's DUNE.

THIS!!!

Chronological all the way. My movie collection represents for me above all a historical odyssey, both my own personal history via the titles I saw on release and the great span of film history stretching back to well before I showed up.

If you buy the amount of discs I do, however, this system is highly impractical as you're constantly having to slot stuff into drawers/cases/shelves that're already bursting to capacity. Awhile back the overflow started getting out of hand so I scammed a big trunk-like cardboard box from the supermarket, plunked it down on my already cramped bedroom/home theater floor and just started dumping new purchases into it helter-skelter. Finally reorganized everything a couple months ago and was so grateful to get rid of that bulky space-hogging monstrosity. Pure, clean chronological order restored! That was a couple of months ago. Guess what's back on my floor again? (June's been an insane month for purchases.) So not the most practical method but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[PhysicalMediaMaestro]

Originally Posted by Juan de Internet

• Animated: chronologically within each leaf category

  • Shorts
  • Features

    • Disney
    • Pixar
    • Ghibli
    • Other

• Live Action Feature

  • Before I was born: chronologically
  • After I was born: alphabetically

• TV Shows
• Documentaries
• Other

In all cases I make exceptions for box sets, sequels, and prequels, which I keep together. Both sequels and franchises (when placed together; see below) are chronological within the series. This is because box sets are almost always chronological, so it makes sense to follow that convention for all franchises rather than make an exception for or split up box sets. For box sets that are not franchise-based and/or not chronological, well, I just have to remember where the movies are - which is why I don't like those box sets.

Whether franchises are grouped together is on a case-by-case basis. Since Bond doesn't have any titles that start with "Bond" and thus make the franchise have a stable position, Casino Royale is filed under "C" and No Time to Die is under "N". But all the Star Wars are together. I don't own "Batman" otherwise Batman would also be together; as it is I own "The Batman", so if I put "The Dark Knight Returns" with it, TDKR would come first, which means the series starts with a "D" title in the "B" section - weird.

By "chronological" I mean chronological by first theatrical release, where "theatrical release" is usually defined by IMDb (unless I disagree with that site).

By "alphabetical" I mean according to the name on the spine in English lexical order, excluding initial "The", "A", and "An". That means:

• "Amelie" comes after "Amadeus"
• "Das Boot" comes after "The Dark Knight Rises"
• "El Mariachi" (and thus "Desperado" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico") comes after "Edge of Tomorrow"
• "Les Miserables" comes after "Léon: The Professional"

Note that "Les Miserables" is the reason I decided to only ignore English initial articles and not other languages'. Because Les Miserables is actually an Anglo production, and I think most English speakers alphabetize it with the "L"s.

So it's a bit arbitrary, but I'm just trying for something that is:

• Consistent
• Memorable (so I can replace discs easily after watching them)
• Convenient for my viewing habits
• Fits my collection within my limited shelf space without arbitrary breaks

Your methodology is the most interesting methodology I have aeen on this thread. Thank you for sharing.

[Juan de Internet]

Originally Posted by PhysicalMediaMaestro

Your methodology is the most interesting methodology I have aeen on this thread. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the kind words.

I think the reasons using my birth year as a cutoff works are that it's memorable and that I tend to be much more selective about movies I've sought out from a catalog as opposed to just happen to catch on TV, streaming, or in the theaters. Also, I was born in 1975, which happens to be something of a watershed in Hollywood, where the movies before and after that date are pretty different (at least, the ones in my collection). Before Jaws, action movies and francises were typically B or indie movies; after Jaws, they quickly became the industry backbone.

For a while I used to store everything chronologically, but, as others have said in this thread, that gets impractical at some point. Around a decade ago I started becoming unable to place newer movies back in their chronological position because everything in the last ~20 years runs together for me.

I've also tried storing everything alphabetically but I quickly realized that didn't work for me. I have my collection in two separate cases on opposite sides of the living room, so it's not great to have the collection just cut off at a random letter that keeps shifting as I buy more discs. My current organization happens to fit all the pre-1975 features in one case, and all the animation and post-1975 features in another. I'm rarely in the frame of mind where I'm wondering whether I should watch Disney animation or Late Spring, Sunrise or Superbad.

[JimboSpice]

I sort my physical collection the same way I organize my digital library — by format, category, and then alphabetically.

Movies:

• DVD
• Blu-ray (BD)
• Blu-ray 3D (BD3D)
• 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (BD4K)

TV Series:

• DVD
• Blu-ray (BD)
• Blu-ray 3D (BD3D)
• 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (BD4K)

Audio:

• DVD
• DVD Audio
• Blu-ray (BD)
• Audio Blu-ray (Audio BD)
• 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (BD4K)

Everything within these categories is arranged alphabetically for quick access.

[DeyoreW]

When I had a few hundred it was alphabetical order. But once you get into the thousands it gets convoluted. Criterion is all together as is a few other boutique labels like Arros and Vinegar Syndrome. Also DVD's have their own section within the garage storage but UHD and Bluray are intermixed.

So here goes:
Criterion (700 spines or so) is 3 groups...Foreign, US&UK, Documentaries. Then after that alphabetical by decade. So all the 1930's are first, then 1940's etc. That keeps it easy for me to look for the type of movie I want to watch. For instance, an old 30s Charlie Chaplin movie will be in a section of 30 movies or so of similar period.

For all the rest of the movies it is by genre... so comedies are all together, drama, tv, crime/thriller, family, classics (pre 1967), war, western, horror, etc.

Then after genre it is by studio alphabetically - 20th Century Fox to Warner.

Within studio, the titles are alphabetical.

I of course have a shelf or two of larger box sets. If it is deeper than a typical title it gets put with the box sets.
I have one shelf of "collections" here is where i have all the Star Wars, Star Trek, James Bond, MIssion Impossible, Harry Potter type stuff.
I have a superhero section which is all Marvel and DC. thats also for the kids.

My case in the garage I built holds 2200 movies and its 90% full. I have another 1000+ in my office on built in shelves, and the family movies are in drawers in the media cabinet for quick access for the kids. Duplicates kept get put into a box into a closet, other duplicates get sold off.

[jusmu]

Dvd, bluray and 4k:
Scifi, action, horror, comedy, tv-shows, music(and other random) on their own shelf

Laserdisc: alphabetical

Vhs: just throw it in

[apearson28]

I recently reorganized everything by decade and then alphabetically. Except for a separate section of Asian cinema.

[IanTheCool]

Originally Posted by apearson28

I recently reorganized everything by decade and then alphabetically. Except for a separate section of Asian cinema.

cool, i like that