How we solved a storage dilemma

Boats are similar to RVs in many ways especially when it comes to storage space. When we moved onboard our trawler to start years of fulltime cruising our extensive collection of DVDs and CDs was to come along. We enjoy watching a classic movie again from time to time and of course the same goes for the songs on the CDs. It turned out that while we were anchored in remote areas we swapped and lend from our DVD collection or borrowed from other boaters much like you do with paperback books.  In the meantime much has changed with the increased use of e-readers and downloading of movies stored on flash-drives. These days we travel with our camper and although things don’t get thrown around in a cupboard of a camper as they do sometimes in a boat, the storage capacity is likewise restricted. We still keep buying DVDs, and if we want to keep them handy and not throw them into a pile in a basement storage box, we have the same dilemma.  

The simple solution for us was to purchase a DVD storage binder.  The one we purchased holds 144 discs. Online I saw an advertisement for a similar binder that stores 208 discs in about the same format.  Painstakingly my hubby sorted all the DVDs in alphabetical order by title and inserted them into the pockets. We then purchased a binder with clear plastic pouches into which we inserted the covers from each movie in the same order.  It is easy now to browse through the binder to select a move, read who is in it etc. and then quickly find it in the other storage binder. 

In addition, we keep a handful of spare cassettes on hand in case we want to swap or lend the move out.  Just to give you an idea of how much space you save, if you were to put 144 movies in their cassettes on top of each other, the pile would measure 7 feet! The same amount of DVDs in these two binders takes up a space of 5-1/2 inches!

I might add that if the DVD binder is stored properly out of heat, sunlight or humidity, the discs should last as long as they do in their original packaging.  All the original DVDs and CDs have a longer lifespan than the ones you burn yourself because the reflective layer is aluminum which doesn’t degrade as rapidly as the organic dyes used for the writable DVDs.

So now that you gained all that extra space for additional movies you can go ahead and rummage around in that discounted DVD bin for some hours of entertainment. ;-))