CD shelves

I have been thinking for a while to unload my CD collection from the binders and put them out on shelves. This is a big mental change for me. It is part of accepting that I am settling down. By the time I moved from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara in 2004 I transferred all my discs into big binders and got rid of the jewel cases. At the time I was in a mindset that valued mobility and efficient use of space. I wanted to create a future for myself where I could easily move from one to another when/if I want to and take along my valued possession. I radically reduced the amount of objects I owned, but did not get rid of my CDs. I even kept the inserts, neatly organized in small photoboxes.
But recently I noticed that I have been listening to much less music than I used to. I think part of the reason for that is that the CDs are less accessible this way. I also feel proud of my collection and wanted to have them out, so I could show them whoever comes to our house. So for these reasons, and because I will probably not move in the foreseeable future (having moved 6 times in the last 4 years) I started to think about what would be the ideal solution for displaying the collection.

We narrowed down the choices to three possibilities. I found a metal cabinet with drawers I really liked.

The advantage of this is that it is solid, modular/expandable, you don’t have to tile your head to the side to read the spines and by being closed it protects the CDs from dust. However it is expensive and might be too industrial looking to have it in the living room, or even the office.

Then we found this nice wood piece.

It is also expensive, but it can store much more media. And it looks nice in the living room, albeit it would take up a lot of space. We were also eying this which has a useful countertop.

But for this we would always need to kneel/bend down. And it doesn’t store as much. The main argument against these was that they are made from composite wood. I do not trust that material; I saw too much crappy furniture from that, which broke at the first sign of stress. So considering all of these factors we decided these pieces are too costly for us right now, so we’d wait a few months, when we are more secured in our finances.

Just for the fun of it I checked craigslist too. There I found this simple piece for $75.

It is not baby-proof and not big enough, but would satisfy my initial need to display at least my favorite discs. So I went ahead and got it. It is in my office now, that we will either keep closed or put a baby-gate on it to prevent our future toddler playing with the discs.

Once the jewel boxes I ordered will arrive I will start filling the shelves. That’s when my real fun will begin.