The Best Solution to Easily Organize DVDs & CDs

Tired of digging through messy DVD cases? I was too! That’s why I came up with a simple, budget-friendly way to organize DVDs (and CDs, too) and keep movie nights stress-free.

Our family loves a good movie night, but nothing ruins the fun faster than digging through stacks of DVD cases or opening one up to find the wrong disc inside.

If you’ve been there too, you know how frustrating it can be!

That’s why I set out to find a simple, space-saving way to organize DVDs (& CDs) so they’re easy to grab when it’s time to press play.

The best part?

This solution takes up way less room and keeps everything neat and tidy.

Who watches DVDs anymore?

If you’re like us, you probably still have a stash of family favorites lying around.

Even though most of our movie and TV watching is now done with streaming, we are not going to get rid of our DVD collection.

We occasionally pull them out at home and use them when we set up the projector for an outside movie. 

Ready to see how we got rid of all those stacks of plastic boxes?

Here’s our simple solution to organize DVDs and save space.

Use the 6/P strategy to organize DVDs

I have a wonderful strategy that I use to organize every room in my home, and we are going to use that same process and tweak it a bit to organize our DVDs.

1. prep

Sort the DVDs you want to keep into categories. Make a separate pile for the ones you no longer want or won’t watch again.

Suggestions for sorting your DVDs

• Alphabetical-put each of your DVDs in alphabetical order.
• Genres-this is a great way to organize if you usually pick your movie based on your mood. For example, “I need a good laugh, I’m in the mood for a comedy!” Then look through the comedy section!
• Rating-If you have a large age range in your family and you don’t want younger children watching adult movies, you can put differently rated movies into separate storage containers.

2. Purge

Make a plan for the DVDs you will not watch again. Decide if you will sell or donate them. Don’t procrastinate, get them out of your house right away!

If you removed the DVDs from their cases, recycle them!

3. Polish

If you are keeping the DVDs in their cases, dust them before you put them back on a shelf.

If you decide to put the DVDs into sleeves, then alphabetize each category to organize them, so you can easily find what you want! 

During this step, you should take time to make an inventory of all of the DVDs. I suggest typing it and putting a copy with your movies.

4. Personalize

Determine how you will contain the DVDs. 

You can use baskets, boxes, or bins and put them on shelves, inside drawers, or in file folders.

But I think the best solution to organize your DVDs and CDs is to purchase a specialty organizer.

At first, I thought I could store the DVDs in the drawers of our TV console table.

I soon discovered a big problem…you could not see or get to the DVDs in the back of the drawer.

This just was not going to work! I had to find a better way.

After doing some research, I discovered these plastic sleeves.

I was so happy because this would take up so much less space without the cases.

5. Place

Place the DVDs in your storage container of choice. We’ll be using the baskets inside our TV console table.

6) Put Back

The only way to keep this in working order is to put the DVDs back, or it will never stay organized. 

Train yourself to put a DVD back as soon as the movie is done!!

Repeat the 6/p strategy to organize CDs

You can use the 6/P strategy to organize our CDs just like you learned to do with the DVDs.

How we organized our DVDs

These are the steps that I used to organize all of our DVDs!

sort the DVDs

We decided to sort by genre. Here are the categories we came up with.

• Action
• Animation/Disney
• Animation/Other
• Comedy
• Drama
• Favorites
• Fitness
• History/War
• Holiday
• Kids
• Musicals
• Nature
• Sci-Fi
• Super Hero

Make dividers to separate genres

I cut several pieces of cardstock in half and used my label maker to print the titles of each section.

Remove DVDs from cases

Next, I removed the DVDs from their cases and took out the jackets.

Then I placed the jacket inside the sleeve and put the DVD behind it.

I had to cut a few of the larger jackets to make them fit!

Put DVDS inside Baskets

I put the divider cards I made inside the baskets and added all of the DVDs!

Each genre is in alphabetical order!

Store Baskets

The last step was to put my organized baskets into the TV console table.

I am so excited to have the DVDs out of sight!

I think the baskets look great inside my console table!

How we organized our CDs

We used the same steps as above to organize our CDs.

We chose to purchase these great CD zippered cases to store them in.

Then we put the cases in a basket and stored the basket inside the TV console table!

Each case has a different type of music.

Can you believe we were able to fit all of those DVDs into two baskets!!

Amazing how much less space that is going to take up!!

So glad to have this task done!

I think using plastic sleeves and zippered cases is the best solution to easily organize your DVDs and CDs!

I highly recommend both products!

Final Thoughts

I hope this simple solution inspires you to finally tackle that stack of cases and give your collection a fresh start.

When you organize DVDs this way, you’ll save space, cut the clutter, and actually enjoy movie nights without the stress of searching.

It’s such a small change, but it makes a big difference in how your home feels—and how much fun you have when it’s time to press play!

Blessings, Donna and Rich

Pin It For Later

Don’t forget to pin the image below to one of your Pinterest boards (hover over the picture and click the red Pin button in the top left corner).

More Organization Inspiration

If you need help organizing other areas of your home, click on the links below!

• 5 Secrets to Maintain an Organized Living Room
• How to Beautifully Organize Pet Supplies
• Six Easy Steps to a Fall Coffee Bar
• Master Bathroom Organization Made Easy
• How to Organize Every Entryway to Your Home

Get the Look

For your convenience, we have provided links to the products we used in this project. If I could not find the exact product, I chose something similar!