Advice/opinions for the obsessively neat media consumer

Here's the conundrum:

I have a jumble of bookcases along one 12' wall in my apartment that contains books, a plasma TV, A/V equipment, LPs, 7" singles, CDs, DVDs, chunks of art, etc. I've moved beyond the IKEA and found-furniture part of my life for the most part, and I'm looking for an affordable way to neaten up this whole media-soaked area.

I've looked at inexpensive shelving systems that my wife hates and custom designed furniture units that run into the thousands and beyond my budget.

Any opinions or experiences in tackling a similar mess, or am I doomed to continue down a 21st century media-death-spiral, Collier Brothers style?

custome doesnt have to be that expensive. just make it a simple design and pick your paint job and use cheapest wood:p. and you can't tell the difference.

i got a shoe rack made for about 100 bucks. and display thing for antiques for about the same price.

edit: nm contractor made it at cost for me lol since i was doing renovation with him.

The Carnivores and we both got shelves from this place in Park Slope called The Cabinet Shop. Discussion in this thread: http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=466 We painted and finished ours to look pretty custom, at Ikea-esque prices.

The photo links are probably dead, so here are some new ones:
http://flickr.com/photos/bradamant/89413297/in/set-72057594051808067/
http://flickr.com/photos/bradamant/89413270/in/set-72057594051808067/
http://flickr.com/photos/bradamant/89413206/in/set-72057594051808067/

I have to say that The Cabinet Shop was very nice and they really do have some nice stuff.

If you are even a little handy its very easy to make your own I did two and it cost about $350 for materials
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39465010@N00/130532791/

I would be more than happy to explain it in more detail if you want to try.

I too have an overflowing CD and vinyl collection (and a lot of cassettes!). Recently I picked up a tension curtain rod at Bed Bath & Beyond, stuck it inside the top shelf of my tall CD shelves, hung a subtle flowered curtain, and tada!-- my CDs are hidden. Now if I can only find a way to hide the milk crates of uncataloged CDs, the piles of overflow CDs from the main shelves, the mess of old records....

Stacey, your shelves are really impressive! In fact, the whole reno (I peeked at your other Flickr pics) is really bangin'. Nice!

personally: CDs and DVDs in books. forget keeping them in their original packaging. that stuff takes up too much space. then just get nice shelves that can hold larger sized books - devote a shelf to the binders.

I'm all about leaving lots of space for books. I love books.

btw, I keep a several CDs and DVDs in their original packaging if I can't strip it out easily. but they're relatively few compared to the whole gigantor collection.

Screw storage. Home build a rockin Media Center PC with a 500GB hard drive, load all your music, scan in all your art work, mount the plasma to the wall and then use it to display your art work and play your music using a remote control.

Oh wait... inexpensive...
never mind.

alafairnadia wrote: personally: CDs and DVDs in books. forget keeping them in their original packaging. that stuff takes up too much space. then just get nice shelves that can hold larger sized books - devote a shelf to the binders.

I'm all about leaving lots of space for books. I love books.

I jettisoned the jewel cases a couple years ago and did the binders.

Books are overflowing with four shelves in the bedroom, two in the livingroom and a box or two in storage. Add to that about 5000 comic books under the bed and in two closets and there's some serious storage issues I'm bumping up against.

Thanks for everyone's tips!

Gasp! all of you tossing away your CD cases?!! Blasphemy. Have you no reverence for the whole package, the full art -- it's all part of the album. For shame...

Get yourself some ISS shelving: http://issdesigns.com/

I store my DVD collection in a set of shelves I built with their gear. It's not cheap, but it's not thousands of dollars. And it looks very nice.

I dig that ISS stuff, but for the size of my space and volume of stuff it would easily creep to $2000+...I'll keep it in mind...thanks!

Shredder wrote: Gasp! all of you tossing away your CD cases?!! Blasphemy. Have you no reverence for the whole package, the full art -- it's all part of the album. For shame...

I keep the liner notes/art, but toss the plastic...it all goes in nifty and neat binders.