I just got through a two-day project of organizing all my CDs and DVDs. Since I moved to Milwaukee a little over a year ago my music has been mainly on my computer and when I need a CD I grab it out of a box in the basement. I finally bought a CD rack and organized my CDs and consolidated them with my wife's collection. I went with strict alphabetical order. I did that for DVDs as well. For DVDs I had thought about separating music CDs and documentaries from movies and TV but in the end my collection isn't large enough to worry about distinctions like that.

garbage bags
recycling bins

almost all are in storage bins in my basement closet.


Need to build a decent shelf in the next year.

I was surprised at how easy it was to get through a year without them. With everything digital now it wasn't a big deal. However, I did find a lot of stuff I hadn't thought about in a while when I was sorting through everything so I think it'll be nice to have the actual CDs out to sort through and might expand my playlists a bit.

Mine used to be kept alphabetically. Now, they're kept willy-nilly. It's time to weed out what I don't want anymore.

I went out and got a rack that holds 1050 cds, and used that at first to whittle down a collection, then I ended up buying another shelf from a used book store to hold cds. That one probably holds double. At first they were alpha, now its a mash of alpha a willy-nilly.

I've put all my CDs in bins. I haven't listened to a CD in months, maybe even years.

Stored in Case Logic books. Organized generally in the order I procured them.

some storage space, some in my car, some in a shelf in my bathroom, some on the table, some on the nightstand, some in books, some at friend's houses, some at my parent's house.

various ikea shelving. albums are alphabetical by artist, then chronological. singles and compilations are alphabetical after the proper albums.

I've had various systems over the years but alphabetical is the best, its just a pain in the ass to file all your new CD's in. I buy roughly 100 CD's a year so I file the new ones about twice a year. The recently bought CD's just sit on top of my hifi and speakers until the day comes when they join the main colllection.

I have my 'artist' albums alphabetically in bookcases but my bookcase capacity had run out now, so there's about 150 CD's just snaking across the floor but its not putting me off from buying more.

Compilations are just piled higglty-pigglty on a shelf that's virtually U shaped now. There's going to be a big bang one night.

classic willy-nilly stile....

box in the basement, i think

Exactly.

bout 4600 alphabitized against my wall in racks....

looking to pair it down by at least 1500 in the next year or two....

originals in a safe deposit box, copies at home. equal amounts of money each into a 3-year, 2-year, and 1-year time deposit. From this point on, i hit maturity every year, at which time i re-invest at a 3-year term.

like this! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

At this point, I think that I would just make various sections, based upon genre, and file new CDs willie-nillie within its section.

You give me collection envy. (I think I'm at about 2/3 of that).

Alphabetical, or I would never find anything. I have 1200-ish cds all on nine cheap IKEA cd bookshelf things. (If I ever need more, I can just pick up another cheap.)
I like having them on display and often run into something I haven't heard in awhile that would be nice to hear. When scrolling through my mp3's I don't seem to "run into" old stuff as much.

haha, you are sagging

Solid oak shelves in the living room. They are organized alphabetical within genres. Genres include "Hall of Fame" (Dylan, Neil, Stones, Van Morrison, Dead, Joni, Hendrix... well you get it), then Rock, Americana, Post Rock, Jazz (organized chronological, not alpha), Soul, Ambient, Electronic, World (sub-genres: Latin, South Asian, Middle eastern, African, Asian, Celtic), and then over a quarter of my collection is "classical" organized chrono. Then "current" disks are in a different place by the players. The genres create questions when filing ... e.g. Juana Molina? Where is she put... (in the Post Rock section).

my wall is almost identical....down to the picture frames sitting above...I'll take a pic and post tonight....

i'm getting old.

i go alphabetical by artist and in order of release for multiple records by the same artist.