I live in a loft in Brooklyn, a recent transplant to Greenpoint (love my neighborhood!). I work as a freelance writer, blogger, stylist, gilder, and crafter. I curate a daily personal lifestyle blog called the Haystack Needle (http://www.thehaystackneedleonline.com). I'm also one half of the shop Cabin 7 (http://www.shopcabin7.com) — a collection of gilded objects for the home. I started out in magazines, working in the home department of Real Simple magazine and later worked as the home editor of Redbook. I love to scout cool finds for the home — everything from an amazing loveseat to a green laundry detergent that really works. I'm a new mama to our baby girl, Juniper, who amazes me every day with her curiosity for life and big smiles.
I live in a loft in Brooklyn, a recent transplant to Greenpoint (love my... More »
When my husband and I moved in together, he came with a huge movie collection. Of course, I loved having access to hundreds of films and TV shows on DVD, but I did not like the idea of displaying (or finding space to hide) all the jewel cases. So we got rid of the jewel cases in favor of a simple, streamlined system of DVD binders. Here, the binders that are my space-saving solution, plus a bunch of other attractive binders that would look right at home in your living room.
Here's a peek at our DVD binders. I use big, heavy-duty binders by Russell + Hazel.
More binder tricks
I use different colored binders to separate television shows on DVD from movie DVDs. This saves time when I'm searching for something specific.
Add a little japanese washi tape on the binding to label what's inside the binder (TV shows, films, documentaries, etc).
What do you do with all of those DVD jewel cases? You can ship off your jewel cases to Greendisk, an electronics recycling service that takes your technotrash (for a small $10 fee) and disposes of it in an environmentally responsible manner.
Russell + Hazel's binders have a book-linen spine, which come in so many chic, on-trend colors. I love the metallic silver! A thick rubber band wraps around the binder to keep it secure (since we all overstuff our binders.) You can also feel good knowing these binders are made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content.
Kolo is known for their fabric photo albums, but they also make smart binders. Try adding a liner sheet of your favorite film in the window pocket to make it easy to identify the "movie" binder.
You'll need to get DVD/CD liner sheets for your binders. The liner paper inside jewel cases takes up a lot of space and can scratch your DVDs. We recycled our liner sheets to make it easier to slide the discs in and out.
Back in elementary school, you had brown bag book covers. Now there are binder jackets that come in many varieties of cool, patterned fabrics (and they're sized to fit your binders.) Think of them as binder slipcovers — you can change up the patterns when you tire of one.
I love the binders when you have a couple of hundred DVD, but if your like me and have over 1500 DVD (big movie junkie) the binders just dont work. But never fear cleverly concealed DJ CD boxes, do the job in the smallest of apartments. It just means you have be a bit organised and remmeber to put things back in the right spot
@erinandvictor: I included one set of disc sleeves in the ideabook from Muji, but you can also find them at the Container Store or most office supply stores. They're designed to fit three ring binders — so that's a standard size that will fit.
