What is the best way to arrange a movie collection on the shelf? (1 Viewer)

[TheMovieDude]

I arrange by format (DVD, BR, 4k), Criterion has its own section, Actor's or Director's or genres with more than 5 films get grouped together, and I have a significant collection of Film Noir so that all gets grouped together. After that I have them roughly in chronological order by year it makes more sense to me that way. Alphabetical seems too arbitrary and I can never remember the names of everything I own but I can remember if it's a new or old film. Of course Hitch and Kubrick have their own sections also.

 

[JoshZ]

After that I have them roughly in chronological order by year it makes more sense to me that way. Alphabetical seems too arbitrary and I can never remember the names of everything I own but I can remember if it's a new or old film.

You can't remember the names of movies but you can remember the specific years they were released?

 

[Mark B]

I'm a chronological by studio kind of sorter.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Alphabetical by studio, with labeled Blu-ray box dividers inserted sideways to separate

 

[Kilgore]

DVDs, HD DVD's (yes, I still have 111) and Blu-ray separated, then alphabetical.

 

[Camps]

I arrange them by genre and then by year (chronologically) within each genre.

To each his/her own.

 

[RMajidi]

By height.

The Steven Wright methodology? He pairs socks by thickness.

 

[bugsy-pal]

I arrange my movies in a complex way, but it works for me. It's a combination of ordering by director, genre and date. The English-speaking films are in a tall wooden bookshelf with 6 shelves, and the shelves are deep enough to accommodate 2 rows of discs in their cases (that's a bit inconvenient, but it's necessary because of the number of disc I have - I therefore can't see every spine, but I know where they are).

• All discs are kept in their original cases/boxes
• DVDs, Blurays and 4Ks are all together, but DVDs are all kept in the rear row of a shelf
• As an example - my top shelf starts with silents and westerns, progressing to gangster films and films noir, with some other inserts - in amongst that, key directors are grouped, e.g. There's a group of John Ford Westerns arranged chronologically, a Raoul Walsh grouping, a John Huston grouping, etc. but Ford's and Huston's films are all on that row in chronological order, including non-noir, non-western genres.
• Alfred Hitchchcock, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder all have their own groupings
• I have a "musicals" section, which includes Vincente Minelli's musicals and non-musical films, among others
• I also have a section for British cinema, including a Powell and Pressburger sub-section.
• Horror and sci-fi are grouped separately, by director and date

On another set of shelves, I have about 4 double rows of films by directors in non-English-speaking languages

• These are grouped by country of origin, director and date
• If a director from one of these countries has made English language films, these are included - eg. all of Wim Wenders films are kept together.

It probably sounds crazy, but it's fun to keep fine-tuning the 'system'. If anyone else in the family tries to grab a specific film, they usually have a meltdown

 

[Dale MA]

I separate by format, one side of the room for DVD, one for Blu-ray/4K UHD. Alphabetical order, but also separate out my favourite release labels, such as Arrow, Criterion, Kino etc.

 

[Mike2001]

Alphabetical order here. I used to do chronological but my family could never find anything.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I separate by format, one side of the room for DVD, one for Blu-ray/4K UHD. Alphabetical order, but also separate out my favourite release labels, such as Arrow, Criterion, Kino etc. View attachment 252720

That’s a lovely room. Can I have it?

 

[TheMovieDude]

Alphabetical order here. I used to do chronological but my family could never find anything.

I think alphabetical makes the most sense with a larger collection. Smaller collections can get away with the other methods.

 

[Konstantinos]

Alphabetical by studio, with labeled Blu-ray box dividers inserted sideways to separate

View attachment 252685

Excuse me, you got that Columbia logo from the internet?
Is there any dedicated site that has Blu-ray labels/studios logos?
I want to get printed dividers too, and it would be a nice idea to include the logo, besides the name..

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Excuse me, you got that Columbia logo from the internet?
Is there any dedicated site that has Blu-ray labels/studios logos?
I want to get printed dividers too, and it would be a nice idea to include the logo, besides the name..

AFAIK, there isn't a dedicated site for studio logos. I simply Google'd a particular studio logo then took the image and uploaded it to my software and created the label.

 

[dana martin]

I separate by format, one side of the room for DVD, one for Blu-ray/4K UHD. Alphabetical order, but also separate out my favourite release labels, such as Arrow, Criterion, Kino etc. View attachment 252720

You still have empty shelf space , think some of us would just be happy for that at this point.

 

[Jeff Fearnside]

That’s a lovely room. Can I have it?

No kidding! @Dale MA, are those custom-built shelves? I love how they go from floor to ceiling.

 

[Dale MA]

No kidding! @Dale MA, are those custom-built shelves? I love how they go from floor to ceiling.

Yeah they’re bespoke shelves from a very good carpenter who helped with my cinema room too.

Many years ago, I did have a thread on HTF going through it all, I’ll have to resurrect it when I get a mo as been through many changes since then. Many of which took place this year!

It was @Ronald Epstein and other guys who posted on here, who had a passion for collecting physical media, back in the Golden Age of Warners DVD box sets and the like, that got me addicted and really launched my passion for all this.

Trying my best to bring HTF back into my daily online cycle again!

 

[Jeff Fearnside]

@TheMovieDude, you're close to how I arrange my collection, and @bugsy-pal, you're even closer! It's complicated, and my wife can't find a thing with how I have it arranged, though I understand it perfectly and can find whatever I want without issue. I, too, arrange by format, DVDs and Blu-rays separate--for the most part. At least for English-speaking, non-genre films. Horror, Noir, Science Fiction, and Westerns I keep grouped separately, as well as animated films and foreign-language films, which I order by country. Within these broad categories, everything is chronological. However, actors and directors with large/significant filmograpies get grouped together as well. So Charlie Chapin, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Tilda Swinton, etc. all get their own groups, as well as Alfred Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, Jean Renoir, John Sayles, Kelly Reichardt, etc., everything chronological within groups. It's not perfect; I have to make judgment calls sometimes. Do Grant's films with Hitchcock go under Grant or Hitchcock? (I file them in the latter group.) As @bugsy-pal says, it's fun to keep fine-tuning the system!

 

[JohnRice]

On occasion I worry that I might be a little OCD. Then I read a thread like this and realize I'm just fine.

I do keep DVDs separate from 2/4K discs, but I'm thinking of even getting away with that separation, as the number of DVDs I have declines. Otherwise, it's pretty much TV shows together, and movies together. All arranged alphabetically. There are some small variations. Such as, I put Star Wars and Marvel movies together, outside of the other movies. So, with a movie like Prometheus, is it with the other Alien movies? Maybe. It might be under "P", but I know it's in one of those two places.

 

[bugsy-pal]

@TheMovieDude, you're close to how I arrange my collection, and @bugsy-pal, you're even closer! It's complicated, and my wife can't find a thing with how I have it arranged, though I understand it perfectly and can find whatever I want without issue. I, too, arrange by format, DVDs and Blu-rays separate--for the most part. At least for English-speaking, non-genre films. Horror, Noir, Science Fiction, and Westerns I keep grouped separately, as well as animated films and foreign-language films, which I order by country. Within these broad categories, everything is chronological. However, actors and directors with large/significant filmograpies get grouped together as well. So Charlie Chapin, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Tilda Swinton, etc. all get their own groups, as well as Alfred Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, Jean Renoir, John Sayles, Kelly Reichardt, etc., everything chronological within groups. It's not perfect; I have to make judgment calls sometimes. Do Grant's films with Hitchcock go under Grant or Hitchcock? (I file them in the latter group.) As @bugsy-pal says, it's fun to keep fine-tuning the system!

Jeff, I relate to the way you're thinking! I think my system evolved from being a big fan of Andrew Sarris - his movie reviews and essays are so beautifully written, and he was a big booster of the auteur theory. I'd love to know how he would have arranged a large collection of movies.