Trevor

Just the reason I listed. To have a thorough database of every exclusive with scans of the ad pics/descriptions.

No stock or employment, they just were my introduction to exclusive bonus discs. I actually use to save other store flyers when they had exclusives too, just not as religiously.
Just threw away ~700 of mine a few hours ago. It was a little sad. Many I never read, or just glanced through. Always imagined I'd at least thoroughly read each one before tossing, but when you get a few free magazines every day, it's hard to keep up.

kd5

Trevor, it's too bad you didn't have more time, I'm sure there are collectors out there who would've been thrilled to learn of your treasure and would've been more than willing to pay $$$ for alot of that stuff, or even just to get it. You call yourself a hoarder, I'd say you were/are a collector, it's a shame that you had/have to throw that stuff away. I only collect vinyl LPs and DVDs, I'm not sure that I'd ever want to part with my collections. I can only imagine how you must feel as you throw that stuff away. -kd5-

Trevor

I need to officially admit that I'm a hoarder. Should probably go to a therapist. Might not ever really go to one, but I do recognize that I could use some help or advice. Not sure if this thread is appropriate, or a separate one, but I do feel like DVDTalkers can help me. I know that many of you at least partially understand what I'm going through, and have either changed your hoarding behavior or learned how to work with it at least.

It's hard to imagine getting rid of much of my collections (films, comics, and video games mainly), and I really want all of them to keep growing. But the truth is that I've been out of space for a long time. My wife and I plan to buy an actual house someday, smallish townhouse now, but that may be years away. I have 15' by 10' of storage sites now, mainly holding my 50 plus boxes of DVD exclusives and other stuff that I want to keep, but don't have room for.

The townhouse has one small bedroom devoted to my boxes, about half of it comic boxes floor to ceiling and the other half 50+ bankers boxes of DVDs. The office, bedroom, and living room have a few bookcases/entertainment center/desk each to try to store my "stuff" somewhat neatly; but of course they are overflowing and barely able to handle just certain aspects of my collections.

I don't know what to do. Jen knew I was a hoarder/collector, and that I didn't plan to fully change, but wasn't really prepared for this amount of stuff in her house. She's trying to be patient, but with 60-80 work weeks (including my commute), it's hard for me to make any real progress on getting things organized.

I feel like I need to take drastic steps in how I organize things to save space. I know that many would tell me to get rid of stuff, but that is incredibly hard for me, and I don't think I can do that anytime really soon. For now, I just need to figure out how to best make use of space.

I've tried binders, and moving DVDs to thinpacks, but neither seem to save as much space as I want. And because of my OCD, and the desire to someday have the space to display everything "properly", I need to keep all the original cases.

I'm rambling, but just can't figure out what to do. I'm paying for climate controlled storage sites now, but probably don't need that if I only keep DVDs or cases and non-valuable items in storage, right? The comics were the main reason I went climate controlled, but I actually have almost all of them in the townhouse now.

I'm thinking something extreme, but temporary with the DVDs. Put everything in spindles or maybe 10 DVD cases, with all of the disc art and inserts in plastic page protectors. But how much space would that save? Would 5000 page protectors in binders be a feasible way to browse my collection?

Again, I'm at loss on what to do, but need to do something extreme.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

The technique I heard was to put things in a sealed box. If you don't touch anything in it for 6 months or a year, don't open it but just get rid of it. You went that much time without using it, so it's not that useful for you.

milo bloom

My collection was never that extensive, but I've had luck by simply getting rid of stuff I don't have that much need for. I dumped 90% of my comics recently (admittedly, only four boxes), I've thinned a lot of crap from DVD collection (like stuff I would buy at video rental stores that were going out of business, or when Gamestop would do "buy 2 get 4 free) stuff that I only bought because I felt like I was getting a bargain but I otherwise would never have purchased.

As for the DVD collectibles, well, I've basically just stopped buying them. The only exception would be something like a steelcase version over a regular case, since it would take the same amount of space on the shelf.

It may not be easy to get started, but once you start unloading things it's really a great feeling.

Trevor

Thanks guys. I know that I should get rid of stuff, and I do see the possibility of making drastic changes someday; but I don't think today is that day. I guess a large part of my enjoyment of these hobbies is the process of buying and organizing it. I do enjoy the items themselves, but for me, collecting is the thing. It's always been something; from baseball cards and bottle caps as a kid to all my current things.

For example, I know that I shouldn't want to own every Official Xbox Magazine and DVD from issue #1 to now; but it's hard to imagine not keeping them all forever. When I think it through its crazy, I've barely looked at half of them, and rarely game anymore; but I love the collecting and knowing that I have them all. And that's just one small example, I could list dozens of other small 'collections'.

milo bloom

We have a run of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) that runs for over ten years or so sitting in boxes in our garage. I have not touched them since putting them there in 2005. As soon as I can move enough of the crap out of the way that's sitting in front of them, they're going to the recycling center, except for the couple of issues that my wife had some freelance articles published in. There's just really no need for the rest. It's old info, and anything important has been reposted to the internet.

Dimension X

Why wait? Pretend a house is a one-of-a-kind exclusive, and buy it now, before it goes OOP and the price goes up.

Travis McClain

Trevor, I guess the first question you have to answer is: Are you trying to find a way to keep all your stuff, or are you looking to begin paring down what you have?

LJG765

Trevor, it sounds like one of things you'd like to do is to reorganize without getting rid of stuff. If you're able, you might want to look into hiring someone to help you with the organizing. There are people out there that can teach you the best way to store things and whatnot and it seems like that would be a good first step in reclaiming space in your house. I totally understand the collector mindset, having it myself. It's really hard for me not to have EVERY single item in a collection. I get it honestly from my father.

I like organizing things and reordering them and it bugs me when I have a gap in my collection. But I have learned over the years that I don't always need stuff. I've been able to slowly get rid of things I really haven't touched in years. But it's always hard to take the first step to convince yourself that it's not needed anymore.

I doubt I will ever live someplace that's not cluttered though! I doubt I'll ever get rid of my books or movies and a lot of other things that take up lots of space.

Trevor

I could never do that; but speaking of methods I'm trying to get better about using the OHIO method.

Only Handle It Once.

Instead of putting stuff in piles and waiting to act on mail or emails or packages; you should deal with the item completely thoroughly at that time. Filing it or deleting it or putting it where it needs to be. I'm very good about putting things in bags/piles/boxes to get to "next weekend", then never opening the bag or box again.
Thanks, I am starting to see things I can get rid of. My problem is wanting everything to go to a good home. I don't care about getting any cash for my dozens of old Xbox and Gamecube games, I just want to find a family or something that would really appreciate the games, and not just sell them for a few bucks.
Yeah, I do see some hope for me because I have gotten rid of a few one-time "permanent collections" like my hundreds of gaming mags. I went through them and pulled out a few articles and the Hsu and Chan pages, recycling the rest.
My wife liked this post.
I do admit that I prefer to keep almost everything. I'm just looking for tips on consolidating or advice on how to stop buying so much. I'm buying about 20% or less of what I used to buy pre-marriage, but when you're already out of space it's still a problem.
I'm amazed at how much I've accumulated in my life, having a fairly mediocre salary all of my life. One thing I've always done is skimp on things like food, clothing, and lodging; pouring all of my spare $ into my collections.

I think a couple extra rooms would be enough to display everything somewhat nicely, but perhaps I'd just fill any new space to overflowing again.

mike07

Trevor: What's the size of your spare bedroom? About how many DVDs do you think you own?

What would stop you from building some tall & wide shelves to store them all? Even if this means setting up rows of shelves like an old video store, at least you'll have them set up so you know what you have. And it shouldn't take more than a weekend to do.

Trevor

Pictures could help I guess, but I think I can describe it thoroughly and briefly enough to give you a good picture.

The spare bedroom that is "my storage" is very small, 10 by 10 if that, no closet either. Right now, I have my 40 or so comic long boxes stacked way too high on one side of the room, and 50 or so bankers boxes of DVDs stacked way too high on the other side. There is a small "corridor" between the two that has misc stuff, but should be empty to allow space to even get to what's stacked on the sides.

My ultimate goal for this room is for it to be entirely comics. All the long boxes stacked more safely, a couple bookcases of graphic novels, some posters, a reading chair perhaps.

So that means I have to find room for everything else I own in shared spaces. We have a fairly small townhouse, 1200 square feet or so iirc. The bottom level is just kitchen and living room and tiny dining room. We have an entertainment center and I can maybe get away with one bookcase down there, so I can store a very small part of my film and game collections, but not much really.

The middle level is Elise's bedroom, laundry room, and a pretty small bedroom used as our office. Here I have most of my "real books" and a computer desk, can maybe store some boxes of DVDs or something in the closet, but not much really.

That "comic book room" and the master bedroom take up the third level, and the bedroom is where I pretty much have to store all of my DVDs. Jen is a saint and has let me put my 10 or so bookcases stacked two high throughout the edges of the bedroom. These bookcases can currently hold all of my TV sets, all of my blu-rays, all the Criterions, and a few other "special collections" like a Godzilla shelf and a couple of MST3K shelves.

Can't imagine where the 50 bankers boxes of my core film collection can fit. Some sort of extreme binder and spindle system seems my best option. I know some similar systems were discussed earlier in this thread iirc, I'll look back on it....

As for how many DVDs, I honestly can only guess. It's got to be at least 5000 titles, but it could be 10,000 I guess if you count my exclusive freebies that I used to hoard.

Dimension X

How high can you stack long boxes without crushing the bottom boxes? For some reason, I've never stacked them higher than three. I was thinking about going to four so I could put more of mine in my "library," but some of them are really heavy. (I guess if I put some effort into it, I could pick out the heaviest ones and put those on the bottom.)
Don't set an "ultimate goal" for that room. I was serious in my post about buying a new place sooner rather than later. Summer's coming up, and that would be a good time for your step-daughter to move (so she won't have to start at a new school midway through the year). The three of you should be able to look around and find a bigger place somewhere that will make you all happy (maybe a place that is closer to your job, and not too far from your wife's, so that your commute will be shorter and you can spend more time with the family), and give you a larger personal space/den/man room for more/most/all of your stuff.

Trevor

I've read, iirc, that 5 high is the limit. I think mine are 6, but maybe just 5. I'm so limited on space right now (to sort boxes still spread all over), that I felt like I had to go that high, hoping that it would be just for a few months.
You're completely logical there, but I'm not sure how feasible that is for me. Even minor change is tough for me, and buying a house seems almost an impossible task. I'm sure we can afford it financially, but their could be a snag on my credit. I have a couple dings from 5-6 years ago from laziness, not ability to pay, and need to figure out how to clear those up. But my to-do list is pages long and I'm pretty overwhelmed with work overtime and this new-found responsibility of husbanding and fatherhood. The thought of buying a house anytime soon makes me want to curl up in a ball and scream.

But seriously, thanks to you and everyone else for the input. I heart you.

Dimension X

Yeah, I don't know why I've always stopped at three. I figured I could go a lot higher with half-boxes, so I recently ordered some from my long-time comic book supplier (who, judging by the fact that I don't have my boxes yet, has put me way down on his priority list since I quit buying monthly comics). I guess if I get the urge I'll go through some of the stray long boxes in the other rooms, pick the lightest ones and go up to four high. That'll clear out a bunch of my more obvious clutter.

I know where you're coming from; years ago, I had a lot of late payments because I would throw bills to the side and forget about them. It's easier to stay on top of them now that I can have almost everything charged to my credit card and just pay it off online each month (plus I get cash back).

GenPion

Can I find this on Amazon? Where's it exclusive? Link please.

mrpeavey

I've been reading this exchange started by Trevor with some interest, as I completely understand where he's coming from.

This would be my own advice. Two things I've done that have helped me save space without - technically - getting rid of items are . . .

[1] Switching to blu-ray. The cases are shorter and thinner, and more often than not, significant extras are ported over from the standard discs. Every now and then, too, are little bonuses. For instance, when I replaced my Thirteen Ghosts DVD with the blu-ray, not only was the case smaller but it also came with a second blu-ray disc of The House of Wax. Plus, it was one less of those old-school snapper cases that I never liked.

[2] Go through your collection and identify titles that have since been repackaged. I'd suggest starting with Warner Brothers DVDs. How many individual single disc titles have been re-released under the 4 Film Favorites line? These tend to retain extras, and the content of 4 DVD cases are now housed in 1 case. This was great for me when I substituted most of my Nightmare on Elm Street discs for the 4 Film Favorites editions. Also, a lot of older TV series season sets in cardboard containers have now been repackaged in much thinner plastic cases. Frasier is a good example.

In either case, as long as you've been careful with the discs, you can sell the ones you've replaced as "like new" online. You can still cash in on Ebay with large lots if you don't want to waste time listing and sending stuff individually. It's surprising how a dedicated approach to replacing titles can save space for a large collection like yours.

That'sAllFolks

Though you say the money does not enter into it, with me it does. I have blind bought alot of stuff over the years ... most of it I have never gotten to. With so much going OOP, I have sold off some blind buys when the price hit 40-50 bucks. Very few movies are worth that much to me and I know if I do open it, the selling price will drop as much as 80%. Some of these have even been re-released. I don't sell everything that is OOP and expensive (I own 2 copies of the Anchor Bay Greatest American Hero Tin set), but for marginal purchases, I do get rid of them. Even if you have opened it, weigh the value to whether you really want it against the value / problems with storage. BUT THAT IS MY OWN PERSONALCHOICE OF HOW I DEAL WITH IT.


ABOVE ALL, DO NOT BE CONDEMENTED ABOUT YOUR CHOICES. EVERY ONE on this board has some perimeter that they choose not to cross. With some, they only buy stuff they REALLY WANT and will sell off what they haven't touched in six months. With some, they buy almost everything and every variation that is connected to their favorite movie. With some they have to own every Criterion,Midnite Movie or Troma.

WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE, just rest in your choices and dont assign psychological diseases that some doctor somewhere has made up because he believes it is out of the norm.


It might even go a long way to getting you that new house!

Trevor

How much of a tax deduction can one get for donating DVDs to Goodwill, etc?

wishbone

"Assume the following items are in good condition and remember:  prices are only estimated values."

http://www.goodwill.org/wp-content/u...tion_Guide.pdf

If it's a significant number then you should probably consult an accountant.

SterlingBen

Buy a shadow box and a hot glue gun and you have an interesting wall piece.

milo bloom

Does anyone know where I can get just a few pages for a Mainstay brand DVD binder? They're just plain white pages holding four discs per side. I only need four more pages to finish my MST3K collection.

tks

mrcory

Trevor,

Although I may not post a lot on these boards I'd like to say that buying a house is amazing. I was a little scared at first, but I love it.
You can get so much more room and do whatever you please with your space. I would suggest if you can to find a house with a basment. They are typically wide open and have tons of room for storage.
You could buy rolling shelves that are on a track and save a ton of room for that stuff you want to keep but access often. Or you could build shelves however deep you needed and display all your stuff. Ou could even dedicate certain spaces in the basement to different types of collections so everything is organized and easy to access without taking up "live able" space.

Just my $.02

Trevor

Thanks to mrpeavey and DimensionX and everyone else posting here. I'm slowly buying less and getting things organized, but still have a lot of work to do.
Thanks! Once I'm done I'll probably have at least 1000 DVDs to dump, but hope to sell/give most of those to local friends. The stuff I can't get rid of, less than 100 hopefully, I'll probably donate.
That's a good idea.
Thanks mrcory! I know I should, but I'm sort of afraid that with more space I'll just let myself stay out of control, and just have a basement full of boxes. Better than two storage sites full of boxes perhaps, but still....

Right now, my current plan is to put up floor to ceiling elfa shelving on one wall of my bedroom, about 14 feet. With pruning and compaction methods, that may someday fit my entire collection. I may start this project next week actually.