My DVD Liberation

For many years, and in various different residences I've stared at DVDs. When space is short and your films share your sleeping quarters, it can make a small room feel like a branch of Blockbuster. It's not too much of an issue when you're in your 20's, in fact it's kind of cool to show them off I guess. These days though I've entered my 30's but my fortune is lost in the post, and so space is still not in abundance!

But why as collectors do we often feel it's so important to hold on to everything? I have done this all my life, so much so that I will even keep that protective film you get on screens on until either I'm unable to see through it, or it falls off by itself. But the fact remains that when it's time to move on to higher business, you take any of it with you.

This weekend a wind of change blew through my several hundred DVDs. I was simply fed up with looking at them, and frustrated with how much space they took up. For a moment I contemplated giving them away, or putting them on eBay. Sadly though in this age of data they are for the most part worthless and my frustration wasn't extreme enough to donate them. Another idea struck, which I now understand as being fairly common in people less clingy than myself. Losing the boxes was to be the best solution. 

I got started at sorting them into piles straight away, but only 5 films in and I was struggling, so I pulled out my favourite solution - compromise! Anything considered a 'classic', box sets and my favourites would be lucky enough to keep their homes. The rest would now live in a case. I visited the supermarket and purchased a 300 disc case for under £10, returned home and did the deed. I was happy, but still felt a little sick. I remedied this by saving all the inserts from the cases, hole punching them and putting them into a file for reference. You can do a similar thing with a database on your computer, even scanning them in with your phone, but the decent programs cost money and I was on a budget. 

The result then is fantastic. 2 bookcases of DVDs are now 'some' DVDs, a DVD case and a folder of inserts - all of which fit into 2 drawers of a the cabinet under the TV. Oh and there are 2 bin bags of plastic cases in the shed, but I'll get to that later!