I bought a couple of 'CD Libraries' from Scotts of Stow; each holds 750CDs. A quick look at their website, however, did not look too promising. It could be that they're out of stock, but I couldn't locate the same product.

Lovely pic, IGI. I think if you listen closely, though, the CDs seem to be calling out to you...

Ron, I did IKEA once. ONCE. 

IGI, that is so impressive I want to weep, a la Eru. And somehow I knew your workspace would be pristine, organised and, and, and have orange walls.    I'll maybe inquire of Scotts. Thanks, all!

Blimey IGI - that's really organised!  Our CDs are in 3 seperate holders in different rooms!  There are some in the dining room (a.k.a. the music room, as the piano is there), some in the lounge (behind where I am sat now) and another holder is upstairs in our room.  They are the ones with the sliding open doors as Lynn thinks the spines of CDs look messy.  Mine are organised alphabetically, as are Lynns but it's a pain trying to keep them that way (although not so bad recently as I haven't bought any due to not working).  That will change...

I have a long-unanswered query concerning the storage of CDs. Perhaps it has been discussed before, if so, I apologise and perhaps someone could point me in the right direction.

To my mind it is an important question which I have rarely seen discussed, but I am sure that there are people here who are as obsessive about the care of their CDs as I am. (At least judging from the impressive photo above.)

I was a keen collector of LPs and knew the drawbacks of careless handling of them; the slightest scratch, perhaps caused by taking the record out of its sleeve, could leave a permanent aural reminder. (I must stop talking about LPs in the past tense; I know that many discerning listeners are still active collectors of them!) My care of LPs has continued into the CD era. I ignored all the initial hype about CDs being indestructible (clearly untrue) and, in particular, I am reluctant to buy CDs which are stored in little cardboard envelopes, rather than in plastic cases. Is there evidence that taking CDs in and out of these cardboard envelopes can cause damage? Not to mention being permanently in contact with the surface of the envelope while being stored. Surely rubbing the playing surface cannot be beneficial! There are some CD sets and series which I have refused to buy for this reason, examples being the John Elliot Gardiner Bach Cantata series and many bumper collections of reissued CDs. I have requested that CD Review and International Record Review give an indication of the package style, but, as yet, this information has not become available.

So my question to serious collectors of CDs is: Does the packaging matter? I am assuming that many people will think this a trivial question from an obsessive, but I imagine that they will not have read this far. If you are still reading and you have experience of this, please give me your views. I did once write to SDG, the label founded to issue the Bach Cantata series mentioned earlier. The reply, from Isabella de Sabata, said that they had not heard of any problems!

(My answer to those who consider CDs redundant and so the question is out-dated is that it will be many years before I abandon my CD collection and move exclusively to downloaded material.)

Has anyone tried switching to folders, like the ones CaseLogic manufactures? I've started doing this recently. There really isn't enough room for both the booklet and the disc in the pockets provided, so I have to reduce the capacity of each folder by placing CD and booklet in seperate pockets. Also, sometimes detailed track listings are only contained on thebacking strip, so I have to fold that and bung it in sometimes (especially for Naxos CDs). But it saves a lot of space, always an important consideration, and makes it harder for the demons, er cats, to wreak havoc. Most of my 2- or 3-CD sets are going into these folders too, but I'm not certain what my policy w.r.t. larger box sets is going to be.

The thing is, I like to browse sometimes, which involves standing in front of the CD shelves and trying to imagine some music I'd like to listen to, and then peering around to see if there's any actual music which corresponds to this, or just picking something at random. Hiding the CDs away in folders makes that difficult.

Ideally I would have something like this hooked up to a couple of thousand GB of hard discs with FLAC files of my CD collection on them, put all the CDs in the attic and do my browsing on the computer, but that will have to wait until, er, hell freezes over.