h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I guess this one answers many unspoken questions of mine

Congratulations!

Excellent entry.

My rather worrying collection is divided by genre. Classical, pop, non-pop vocal, Christian and the main section for cast recordings and soundtracks. This is then arranged alphabetically by main composer, with those with multiple composers sitting at the end. Within each composer, it's alphabetical by show/film, and if I have multiple recordings of the same show (which I often do, cos I'm a musical theatre ), they're arranged chronologically by the date of the recording.

Of course, it means that anyone other than me would have a hard time locating many of the CDs. But it's a system for my convenience, so phooey.

Wasn't that interesting?

Actually, it was.

Thank you both.

Yes I like!
But for me finding my CDs by colour code doesn't take long - I am visually oriented, and know my CDs by their sleeve...

Alpha by band and ordered by release date. But the X-mas music has its own box.

It freaks out my lovely wife that I can find a CD (out of 500-plus) in the dark. I argue that she's just not organized....







Then I grab my pillow and go sleep on the couch.

About 500 ish CDs on wooden shelf unit, alphabetically arranged, by band name/artis surname, then chronologically by (first/origional) release date (not the date of which the CD was first produced, as this is often differnt). Without looking I can put my hand within one or two CDs of any given CD I'm looking for on the five or so shelves of the unit full with CDs I keep meaning to rearrange it though, in reverse alphabetical order, i.E., from Z to A (though I'm not sure what do then do about the chronological order), as that would seem an even better way to organise it I used* to order them by style of music, when I only had a small collection, but that soon got too awkward, I'd have albums by the same artis, some in 'jazz', some in 'rock' some in 'pop' etc which got very weird very quickly. Actually. I wonder if I shouldn't reorganise the entire collection on the basis of food type related to by the album title/songs title of the album.

I've gone with the rather uninteresting alphabetical for artist, then chronological for album. I do however have seperate stacks for classical by composer, classical compilations by instrument, and then a misc pile for random compilations, soundtracks, singles and promotional CDs.

I have thought that maybe I should arrange them all in order of how much the artist or 'frontman' of the band doesn't look like Peter Sissons.

A good entry, I enjoyed it... I have a terrible habit of ordering mine on a 100disc spindle for ease of carrying to work... I'm horribly disorganised but find the element of chaos it naturally includes in my listening experience is good for the soul... There is a tendency to discover a CD you forgot you ever had or realise you havent listened to in ages while in search for something else... I'm a very follow yer nose kinda girl...

Thanks for all the comments!

Mine are in a vaguely favourite order. But they're in a vertical rack - if I had shelves for them (to which I aspire ) they'd be alphabetical by artist/band then chronological by release date.

Talking about shelves versus other storage methods, My 'grand plan', which I'll one day put into effect (when I finally get round to redecorating the front room), is to utilise the big wall at the far end of the room, which will have the hi fi in the middle at the bottom in a unit, and the two speakers either end on stands, with no other furnature on the floor, is to have one, long shelf going from one end of the wall to the other, about 5 foot up from the floor, with all the CDs in just one big row mind, don't know where I'd put all the vinyl

You can build your own CD shelf actually, like a small bookshelves thingie. Just the depth of CDs, and with a system allowing you to move the shelves around to get the height you want (usually one CD+2 fingers ). You can build it the right dimension to fit anywhere in your room, too.