damn, i've got about 400-500 cds and it takes me about an hour to two hours to organize them...

peace.

I am up over 700 CD's now and it takes me a very long time. Plus with CD's I have 10 in the car, 7 in my bag for work, 3 that weren't unpacked from the trip, 2 case logic type binders and jewel cases for all in different locations. I clear off my coffee table and pile it all up for the matching process. Then and ONLY then can I put them back in their alphabetized slot on my shelves.

Ugh, don't even want to think about it, although I enjoyed reading Mark's very logical and satisfying reorg. There are many questions to be answered, as in do you break it up stylistically or go straight alphabetical? I have ended up with everything lumped together alphabeticaly, other than reggae/Caribbean, blues, and Christmas have their own sections. I also separate out collections, but when you're filing collections do you go strictly by the title, or differentiate stylistically? I have ended up with an unsatisfying hybrid to my collections/soundtracks/multiple artist sets.

So all of that is in pretty good order, but then we get to everything that has come out in the last year-and-a-half: I have 2002 in a separate case (about 1500 CDs) and in no particular order at all, and 2003 is sitting in various piles surrounding me as I write (at least 1000).

This doesn't take into account my traveling DJ collection, which I keep ready to go for when I DJ live (5-10 times a year) or a vast number of 12" singles I picked up about a year ago (maybe 2000 of them) that I have barely gone through let alone begun to organize.

Forgetting the 12" (I have another few thousand filed appropriately), I am guessing it will take me about a week to file 2002-03 and I don't know when the hell that's going to happen. I need an intern.

A final note - I don't actually count what I own, but periodically I do estimate by measuring the space it takes up and we are definitely over 20,000 combined vinyl albums, singles, and 12" singles, and CD albums and singles. Yeay me, but here is some perspective: I have one friend who has 400,000 vinyl records alone, and another with over 100,000 - it's all relative.

...so i take it when you guys have to move all of your friend are mysteriously on vacation? ;-)

Right now all but a couple hundred CDs are at my office, didn't even bother to try to move the big collection to the new house.

I can't believe that some of you are still keeping your CDs in jewel boxes. I've been using binders for over 10 years b/c they provide much greater portability and organization. I recently added one of these Odyssey cases, which I use to hold CDs in those little individual plastic sleeves.

That would annoy the bejezus outta me

Michael: yeah I used to use binders.... until $3,500 worth of CD's magically disappeared late one night. I was left with a few hundered empty cases and a shattered passenger window.

I used to organize my CD collection, but I have somewhat given up on it. Now it's in 3 piles
1.) All time favorite albums (maybe 150 CD's)
2.) Keepers (maybe 1000 or so)
3.) Crap to sell on ebay (well... in my room there's about 400-500, but in the garage there's almost 10,000. no joke... it's a long story)

All my vinyl is just stashed away in a corner.

Again my focus is off point: I used to think I was doing good with my (what I realize is now miniscule) collection of 800, plus the graces of hundreds of singles I dont count as being part of my collection. I have some major catching up to do...

Back on Point: All my cds are choronological in the order that I purchased them, seems to work best for me because I can remember where and why I bought it. I use Case Logic only and store the cases on Bookshelves (which is another collection in its self, not to mention the actual books and apartments are not bookcase friendly) And also there is software out there as well. For instance I am quite fond of Collectorz.com, for pack rats like myself this software helps organize the tracks, purchase price, list price, location, basically anything you want to remember or file is at the touch of a button. You can just put the cd in your comp and it will search the internet for info, the only thing you have to fill in is whatever you want to track, for example: location.

But if your collection is knocking pass the thousands I'm guessing thats more than you want to load.

And yes Eric you do need an intern :-)

Wow Dew, I admire your level of organization, and you answered the question about packaging that always bugs me about folders. I still want the liner notes, track info and all of that together with the actual CD.

I think chronological by purchase is a great way to organize if the collection is of manageable size, and only one person has to be able to find anything. I actually have my 2002 shelves in roughly the order I received them.

Organization is actually a huge topic that relates directly to file sharing, digital music in general, and even the way people think. I'd like to see a post on that.