Storing Your CDs

There are many different storage alternatives for your CD collection. The factors for storage include how many CDs you own and how long you plan to keep them.

Below, you will find several alternatives for storing your CDs:

1. CD jewel cases You have probably owned these before, as they are the most common. They can hold your CD cover art and are very easy to line up on a shelf. Keep in mind that they do break rather easily and they take up quite a bit of space.

2. Plastic CD sleeves Plastic sleeves are cheap and thin, so they are easy to afford and easy on shelf space. Since they are so thin, they obviously don't offer a lot in terms of protection. For long term storage, they generally aren't recommended.

3. Paper sleeves For short term storage needs, paper is very cheap and doesn't use much space. Similar to plastic sleeves, paper is thin and doesn't offer very much protection.

4. Paperboard sleeves Paperboard sleeves are much thicker than paper so they will protect your discs. They are also inexpensive, although they can be hard to seal.

5. Tyvek CD sleeves Tyvek sleeves are cheap and they don't take up a lot of space. For long term storage, Tyvek is normally recommended.

6. CD-ROM disc cases These types of cases can hold a lot of CDs in a small space and they may even help to keep out dust. They do however, make reading labels a bit hard, they keep CDs out of site, and they will take up a lot of space.

7. CD spindles Spindles are cheap and they hold several hundred CDs in a small stack. Sorting through them is hard if you need one specific disk, which makes it something that isn't normally recommended.