Tag: storage

Our Possible CD/DVD Storage Solution
Brandon and I are still weighing our options for CD and DVD storage, but we think we’ve settled on the perfect solution for us. Thank you for all of your suggestions and advice!

As I had mentioned, we’re not ready to go 100% digital. We’re probably about 40% there… Brandon has 34 GB of music on his computer, and I have another 22GB on mine. We do have most of the music we currently listen to on our computers, but we still play CDs all the time. And Brandon is a movie person. I think I have 10 or 15 DVDs, but Brandon has about 700. PLUS video games. Here’s where they’re all stored:

Those are Billy bookcases with doors in Brandon’s office, but we’ve filled them to capacity. Overfilled them, actually. And we don’t have any more room in our house for additional storage… unless we can use the dead space under the stairs leading to the second floor. The room looked like this when we moved in:

We just lined up the bookcases to block that big open space. If we got a couple of media cabinets from Can-Am though, I think we could install them so they seem built-in.

Brandon and I are both crazy about the way Rearranged Design stored their CDs. If we get the same CD sleeves and these DVD sleeves, we could fit everything into one tidy space. The only problem? This will not be an inexpensive undertaking. BUT…
- The CD sleeves show the spine of each CD insert, so they’re still browsable.
- The DVD sleeves hold the covers without cutting or folding them, and they hold two discs.
- This setup would solve our storage problem and we’d still have room to grow.
- Alphabetization would be easier to maintain with sleeves than with a binder.
- Taking out a few CDs at a time with their corresponding sleeves seems easier than grabbing a bunch of loose discs from several different binders.
- The cabinets have a safety feature to prevent toppling by only allowing one drawer to be pulled out at a time. Brandon was almost crushed by a filing cabinet once, so he’s all too familiar with the danger. We will soon have a curious toddler, so this feature is a big plus for us.
- The drawers can be locked. Again, with a curious toddler on the way this is another big plus.
- We could FREE UP SOME SPACE in the rest of the house.
Now we’re just trying to decide if we want to tackle this whole project at once, or if we should do it in phases. We could start with the CDs first, storing them in boxes that we already have. And when we move on to the DVDs (and outgrow the boxes), we could find an affordable dresser instead of the cabinets to save money. Or do we just spring for it all now? It’s a little crazy, but it would be so nice after it’s finished.
August 10, 2009
CD Storage?

Yesterday, Brandon said something that made me very happy: “Let’s get rid of all these CD cases.”

Right now, we have most of our CDs in the five BENNO towers that are in my office to the left and right of my EXPEDIT. We also have several hundred more in my office closet though, and in the stacks and stacks that seem to accumulate throughout the house.

We need to condense our music library, but we’re not ready to go 100% digital. These Semikolon boxes look really nice, but I think we’d need too many. Plus, I already have a million IKEA KASSETT boxes in pink (which seems to be a discontinued color), so I could just use those. Maybe if we transfered all of the CDs into paper sleeves that would make boxes more of a practical option? Or these CD/booklet display sleeves so we can store the liner notes too? Or maybe the CD binder route would be better — I think that’s what Brandon wants.

How do you store your music? Or have you guys gone completely digital? And while we’re at it, what about DVDs and video games? ‘Cause we’ve run out of space for those too.

July 31, 2009
Washed, Folded, Sorted, Labeled, Stored

Brandon thought it was very funny that I had to go to the trouble of labeling these bins of baby clothes. “Can’t you just open them up and see what sizes are inside,” he asked.

Yes, but this makes me so much happier. ;)

March 31, 2009
The Library Alcove’s New Storage

As my shop (Pink Loves Brown) has grown, so too has my need for more storage. The library’s alcove is right outside of my studio, so it’s a perfect place to store some of my inventory and supplies.

The alcove used to be more pared down and it looked nice, but it didn’t really serve any function. I put four bookshelves with doors together in an ‘L’ shape, and it’s a much better use of space. The unit in the corner is only half-accessible, but it’s working out just fine.

The knobs on the doors were from Anthropologie. I bought them when we moved in for my closet before we decided to use sliding doors, but they were so pretty that I decided keep them. I had never found the right spot for them until now.

Also, note that I finally found an Orla Kiely pitcher (that I’m using as a vase) in green! I thought it was going to be yellow from the photos I had seen, but the green is nice.

And because I know someone will ask if I don’t source them… Those are dried billy buttons in the vase. I bought two big bunches a while back, and they’re always showing up in various spots all around the house.

March 9, 2009
Toy Storage / Play Area

The nursery has very strange little alcoves at each end. One side is setup as a closet, but the other side is just open. It looked like this when we moved in:

I had painted the woodwork white and sewn white curtains to close the space off when we had the room setup as a guest room. It looked much better, but there was still no purpose.

When we talked to the girl that grew up in this house, she mentioned that she had kept her bed down there. We thought that was a good idea for a kid’s room (what kid doesn’t like sleeping in a fort?), but we still wouldn’t be able to use it for several years. Then I started thinking about how well the TROFAST system from IKEA would fit, and I realized that the area would be great for toy storage.

I was lucky enough to have a toy closet as a kid for a few years, and I remember spending hours in there playing. It would get hot and stuffy, but I didn’t care because it was my secret little world.

I carpeted with FLOR tiles, but I could see adding a fluffy little rug and a bean bag chair down there for comfort. I had planned to close off the left half of the opening and build shallow shelves for books, similar to the Catalina Magazine Rack.

Now that we’ve built the crib though, it blocks that whole side. Maybe we should still do it and just leave the shelves empty for now?

I know we won’t be able to use it much at first and we’ll have to put up a child safety gate, but I hope our daughter will eventually love her little play area.

January 15, 2009
Pink Painted Dresser

The dresser for the nursery is finally finished. I never took a true ‘before’ shot, but it was a lovely wood dresser with a poor finish. It was in our garage for a while and then it sat primed in the basement because I wasn’t sure what color to paint it. White would have been a nice, safe choice, but I think pink is much more fun (especially since we left the walls of the nursery neutral).

The doors in the front open to reveal two more drawers. They’re still the original wood color for now, though Brandon thinks they’re a good opportunity to add another (brighter/bolder) color.

I lined the drawers with the crazy lady floral wallpaper that I bought for the dining room (and did NOT use). The teeny tiny baby clothes look really sweet against the lining.

January 14, 2009