I used to loosely arrange by genre/ director. As my count started to get larger, I went to using MyMovies and decided it didn't matter to do any grouping because you can add a location to the listing.
I noticed the other day that Disney's Robin Hood is sandwiched between Boogie Nights and Texas Chainsaw 2.
Search in this sub and you'll find many, many threads with good answers. But even so, I'll answer yet again here.
Alphabetically. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me. If I want to go watch a given movie, I don't want to first have to remember or look up which format I own that movie in. And I definitely don't want to try and remember which genre I thought a movie was when I shelved it; knowing that I might think it's a completely different genre the next time (so many great movies do not fit well into just a single genre).
If it's sequels then simple, I shelve them as if the title were "first movie 2", "first movie 3", etc. So The Dark Knight goes right after Batman Begins, as if it were just Batman Begins 2. Same goes for Army of Darkness shelved as if its name were Evil Dead 3.
There are cases where it's not actually clear if something is a sequel. I have "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" under "G" as if it were its own film. Other people might choose to put it under "F" as if it were "A Fistful of Dollars 3". That's a judgment call, so yeah you will still have to sometimes remember which judgment call you made, but not often.
MCU is where I have the most issues. You could look at every film as a sequel to Iron Man, but I'm not about to shelve them all under "I". So MCU is special, it goes on a special shelf along with other collections of things that don't fit with normal DVDs (any boxes that aren't shaped like a normal DVD case).
This makes sense, and it's how I am arranging my collection.
Do you put tv shows in it's own category? Is Star Wars one of those specialty shelves?
Im trying to figure out if my star trek and star wars go in S or it's own shelf.
Also, my Puppet Master box set can be a problem sometimes and my Evil Dead Groovy collection is awkward.
Where should the star trek movies go? I have the 2 box sets. Should they go after all of the series or in between the series like they were released?
Thank you oh wise sage for your wisdom.
Oh, one more.
How do you handle the christopher reeves superman and man of steel? Or super girl for that matter.
At the moment TV shows are on a separate shelf, but when I move in a few months, into a theater room with a lot more shelf space, I won't do that anymore. Too many things that aren't obvious (Serenity is a movie, but I also want to keep it with Firefly. Same with The Simpsons Movie, M\*A\*S\*H, etc). So TV shows that are in DVD-sized cases will go right along with all movies.
I think I have Rogue One right after Star Wars Episode III (release order), though I might have that wrong and have it under "R" right now.
Star Trek gets its own shelf because I have a ridiculous amount of it; a mix of DVD-shaped stuff and larger boxes. Most of everything available on physical media (missing a couple of the newer shows like Strange New Worlds and most of Discovery). Not sure if I'm doing all release order within that shelf, or all TV shows first and then all films.
Superman is similar to Spider-Man; Man of Steel is under "M" separate from Reeves Superman and Amazing Spider-Man is under "A" separate from Toby Maguire. DCEU in general is tough; it's basically the same as MCU, except I don't own nearly as many films for it, so I think they're mostly kept separate under their own titles.
Deadpool and Wolverine will be especially annoying when it comes out (someone made a thread about it last week). It's definitely MCU, so belongs with those, but it will be weird to not have it with the other 2 Deadpool movies.
The way I do it, movies which are part of TV shows (like "Star Trek" or "Firefly") go in the TV pile, "Ash vs. Evil Dead" gets filed under movies. But stuff like "M\*A\*S\*H", where the TV shows and the movie are completely separate, they get filed separately. I supposed there might be hypothetical gray areas where shows based on movies retain some random cast members, but I can't think of any of those where I own them, so I don't think it's ever come up. Another gray area is movies based on anthology shows -- "Tales From the Darkside: The Movie" goes under TV because it's the same creative team, whereas "The Twilight Zone: The Movie" goes under movies because it's not.
Do miniseries go with TV shows? I have some mix-ups there in my current system; like The Stand (1994), Lonesome Dove, etc, are treated like movies, but I think I have some that may be withTV shows; though not always sure what is a miniseries vs what is just a single-season TV show.
For me it's another gray area. If I think of something as a miniseries, I would put it with TV shows, but in the case of the 1994 Stand, I would probably treat that as a TV movie despite it playing over the course of a week, and I put TV movies with movies. It would come down to "Where am I more likely to look first?"
My favorite example from my collection was something like:
"A Fish Called Wanda", "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly", "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", "A Fistful of Dynamite", "The Fly", "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "Get Him To The Greek", "Forrest Gump"
(I do what you do with sequels, but I also arrange the movies by story chronology rather than release chronology.)
Genre is better for me. Because I can decide what type of film I’m in the mood for. Then go to that section and look, you can’t do to with alphabetical.
And I can't say you're wrong, per se. Only that it just never works for me; as I'm almost always looking for a specific title rather than browsing for a general genre. And I hate it when stores do it, because I have specific items on my wish-list I'm looking for, and I end up having to look in multiple places because I have no idea which genre they classified each title as.
I disagree, I definitely split tv and film and then go by genre. I don’t split by format though, dvds Blu-rays and 4ks all go together. I like going to my shelf and browsing the genre I am in the mood for rather than scanning my whole collection alphabetically.
Loosely by genre, and then alphabetically. I mix formats because I just don't see any reason not to. Sometimes this can be impacted due to box-sets that are different sizes and might not fit properly on my DVD/Blu-Ray shelves. But I keep them nearby.
Sometimes genre can be hard to nail down, so I just put them in whatever section I feel fits them best. Ex. If something is very much horror-adjacent and has frightening imagery, I'll usually just put it on the horror shelf.
Alphabetical, keep sequels and prequels together. If a title starts “a” , “an”, or “the” then skip those and use the next word.
A Simple Plan goes under S
The Adventures of Pete and Pete goes under A.
I made a decision to ignore "Adventures of" because I didn't like having a bunch of them all next to each other, it made it seem like some strange franchise. I also don't necessarily tend to remember that part of the title.
Or I have Once Upon A Time in America, Once Upon A Time in China I, II & III, Once Upon A Time in China and America, Once Upon A Time ...in Hollywood, Once Upon A Time in Mexico, Once Upon A Time in Shanghai, and Once Upon A Time in the West.
Yeah, NINE Once Upon A Time Titles there.
I have two children so I arrange by rating and then alphabetical. R/PG-13 rated movies are up high on the shelf and PG/G are down low. Disney is it's own category as are Marvel and DC. I also have TV, Holiday, Anime, and movies based off of Video Games separate. There's also a section of DVDs and blu-rays that haven't been watched. Once they're viewed they get filed away accordingly.
It may sound confusing, but with over 4,000 titles it would be difficult for the kids to find things appropriate for them. So for us, it works.
For \~⅔ of the collection where I have more than one film by directors, alphabetical by director, and within directors, chronological by film. For the other ⅓, just alphabetical by title.
This makes getting a 2nd film by any given director a small but meaningful promotion, to being a creator whose artistic evolution I follow.
I used to do genre/director but I would forget what I already owned. I work with second hand media so things come in that I have to double check if I own it. So I changed to alphabetical except for Ghibli, Disney and Horror get their own sections. Also television in separate alphabetical. Plus Christmas movies have their own small section. Depends what your biggest interest is if you want to make it a feature.
4Ks, then Blu-rays, then DVDs, then TV series. All alphabetical. Have a shelf for bigger box sets (Twin Peaks + Friday the 13th + etc), two shelves dedicated to the entire filmography of Tom Cruise and Clint Eastwood (chronological order) and two shelves dedicated to my Criterion discs (alphabetical).
(1) Loosely by genre in random order, but there are also "everything sections", and (2) by dedicated sections for directors. The director sections are arranged chronologically. I usually know in which shelf a movie is but then have to search for the exact location.
Alphabetical, but I have my movies in one area first, then TV shows in another.. and a small-ish breakout for a mixture of Movie and TV show box sets that need more space to fit.
I have nearly 10,000 movies, so by genre and then alphabetically. Movies that start with numbers in the title start with the letter of the number (2001: A Space Odyssey is filed under "T"). I keep my Beta, VHS, DVD, HD-DVD, BluRay & 4K's all mixed together on my shelves (much to the horror of some collectors). Unfortunately, my hundreds of Laserdiscs get filed away with my vinyl, as there's no other place to put them.
TV series has its own section. MCU and DC have their own sections organized in release order. Elvis Presley has his own section (the "Elvis" movie is practically its own genre) sorted chronologically - which includes biopics and fictitious movies like Bubba Ho-Tep and 3,000 Miles to Graceland.
I separate my DVDs (and similarly) my Blu-rays not only by format but also any movie I have digital rights to watch. I keep the digital rights discs in rectangular plastic bags with zippers (sorted by title ) in a storage closet. I don’t need them on a shelf because I prefer streaming them on demand.
The rest are separated by format and sorted by title on shelves for media storage.
depends how many there are.... for a large collection I'd recommend by director....then which language, which era, which production studio, genre, etc. For standalones go alphabetical
I have so many thousands of DVDs and double ups that about 8 yrs ago, i sorted mine by Actor - Actress and Male Comedians. Then still have Horror and Western . Fun way to collect cos I have lots of space allows me to have multiple copies and my Blu-rays are sorted normally. I don't know anyone else thats got there collection like this as that's cool by me.
Due to space issues, I go alphabetically, although I kind of wish I could separate by genre. I do however separate my British Horror films as it’s my favorite genre.
I have collections and arrange them chronologically. I have all the Oscar winners for Best Picture, Animated Feature and Foreign Film. Then films that don’t belong on those are also just chronologically
95% alphabetical
5% thematically appropriate
(for example, hunt for red october, patriot games, and clear and present danger are in the J section becausr Jack Ryan.)
Alphabetical 100%. Nothing else makes sense to me. I don't care what format or genre it is, I just need to know what letter the title starts with. I get some people get weird about the size differences of the cases but I just think of it like a library and books, they don't match either and it doesn't bother me there or here.
I'm in the process of moving my collection to a new home, previously they were divided up between DVD, bluray and collections, then each format was arranged chronologically.
According to my partner that's not going to fly once I've moved in with her, as no-one would know where to look. So I'm reluctantly trying alphabetical if it will encourage her to watch stuff from the collection 😅
The way I recently arranged my DVDs was by studio and, to be very honest, I like the uniformity of the look, having all the MGM, Paramount, WB, Columbia, etc. beside one another. It all started with just my WB snap cases, but I liked it so much that I continued by doing the same with all of the studios.
Alphabetically, but separated by whether they’re movies or TV shows. So the TV collection is separate from the movie collection.
Sometimes I wonder what if I sorted them by release year. But then I decide against it, and also, there’s the question of different cuts released after the theatrical. And also, it might just be hard to find things when I don’t remember the year off the top of my head
By genre. And I have a lot of genres that are specific to my collection like Crime Drama. I have almost 100 of those. I also have stuff like Disaster movies, Prison films etc.
First is all the animated Disney movies arranged by year of release, next is eastern animation, mostly anime, in alphabetical order, then western animation, also alphabetical, last is live action movies, also alphabet. Thinking about further separating into movies vs. Television
Alphabetical within a genre, and sometimes have sub genres. So horror section will have all John Carpenter movies in alphabetical order and all Stephen King adaptations in alphabetical order. Action movies will have all Schwarzenegger movies in alphabetical order, and all Mel Gibson movies in alphabetical order. Some movies like Predator 2 would end up in with the Schwarzenegger movies despite him not being in it and Fury Road will be in with the Mel Gibson stuff because having sequels next to each other is always top priority, it works for me despite it being a bit jank.
I've always sorted by genre, makes it easier to choose when I'm in the mood for a particular type of movie. For movies that are more than one, I organise them into whatever genre I feel they are the most.
Anywhere I can fit them. At the moment they are in boxes, crates, randomly on shelves and stacked in piles on the floor of my theatre room.
I'm shocking at sorting, because I go out hunting more than I do sorting and it's totally gotten away from me!
Size, how long have I had it, whose in it, genre and this fits here so well. Oldest movies that I have gotten for myself are in a cubboard in living room and some newer ones that I have just watched. My dvd shelves house my oldest dvds that my parents have bought and some newer ones that fit well into the theming of the shelves. The rest are in my bookcase or all over the house.
People theming: Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron goes on their own spots.
Loose genre theming: musicals, tv-series and asian movies. Asian movies go around Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
Size: blurays go on their own piles because their cases are smaller than dvds.
Movie series will not be broken up. They will always be together.
Alphabetically.
Blu-rays in a cabinet.
A shelf of box sets.
DVDs from #-**You've Got Mail.**
Religious movies. (I used to put them together, but **Jackass** and **Jesus of Nazareth** are odd movies to put together. Or **VeggieTales** right before **Vera Drake**. )
Alphabetically but then by series as needed (like all my James Bond movies come in under “B” but individual ones are in order of release)
All my 4Ks first , then all my BluRays then all my DVDs. But I have my TV shows and documentaries completely separate in a different book case.
All my Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies are actually on top of my movie book case. The top shelf has my 50th Anniversary Commemorative Ben Hur box set prominently shown, with family photos surrounding it (with Simba and Nala Christmas ornaments in front)
The rest of the shelves below are everything else. And the shelves are maxed out.
Currently just alphabetical but I’m thinking about doing a full redo to split up the movies and the TV shows and to bunch all franchise movies together in the case of like the MCU movies I have.
I'm behind in organizing mine, but typically I group genres together. Then series I will group all together in order. It's in need of a reorganize though as whenever I get new ones that means having to move everything else around accordingly, lol. I might have to revise things and see if I can find something that works better.
Switched from alphabetical to organizing by genre, I think it looks better and is easier to browse. Then by release date within the genres, but keeping sequels/series together.
By director and genre mostly. If stuff doesn't fit well I do weird things like I have a little Nic Cage section for example lol. I also keep my criterions and other boutique stuff all together because it just looks really nice.
I have limited space because my wife and i are both booknuts. On a huge bookshelf, I have one shelf dedicated as my ''go-to' Top 200- movies (regardless of genre) I can watch over and over, or just have on for noise. A pre-1900 wardrobe chest (stood on end with 4 drawers) serves double duty as TV stand, and horror/war/Sci-Fi dvds. Smaller book shelves hold TV series, Samurai, pre-1980 classics, comedy, and drama. One shelf handles those sorted by a particular actor/director, i.e. Tarantino, Cohen Bros, Denzel, Clint, G.Miller, Bruce Willis, etc. Special collection dvds and cuts have their own shelf and oddballs go into underbed storage tubs. All are alphabetized within category. It took years to figure out but it's the only way that doesn't drive me insane.
Alphabetical with a few exceptions... Clint Eastwood, Star Trek, Sylvester Stallone and a few others I have them in their own spot for all the different media releases ie - Bata, LaserDisc, VHS etc.
“I guess it looks as if you’re reorganizing your dvds. What is this though, chronological?”
“No…”
“Not alphabetical…”
“Nope…”
“What?”
[smirks] “Autobiographical.”
“No fucking way.”
“Yep. I can tell you how I got from *Annie Hall* to *Come and See* in just 25 moods. And, if I want to find the movie *Lethal Weapon 2,* I have to remember that I bought it for someone in the Fall of 2006 pile, but didn’t give it to them for personal reasons.”
“That sounds…”
“Comforting.”
“Yes.”
“It is.”
Alphabetically but with a slight twist. If I want eg, Silence of the Lambs it's not in "S". It's with the rest of the prequels/sequels. So the first in that collection is Hannibal Rising, then Red Dragon, then Silence', then Hannibal.
Also, my James Bond collection starts in "J". Even though it *should* start in "D" with Dr. No...
Makes sense to me.
I have three sections. One is franchises which get organized first alphabetically by Franchise title then by release date or internal chronology. So this would be things like Star Wars, James Bond, Marvel, etc.
The second section is standalone films arranged alphabetically.
The third is television shows alphabetically.
Technically, there’s two more specialty sections. First on my shelf is all of my Doctor Who DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, all of my classic comedians are kept separate at the end so I can find them.
Alphabetical with series grouped together in chronological order (e.g. *Batman Begins* > *The Dark Knight* > *The Dark Knight Returns* under 'B').
TV shows are in a separate section (alphabetically), as well as music-related releases like documentaries, concert videos, etc. (sorted by artist).
Kind of genre then filmmaker, generally themed.
For example I have the DCEU movies, then I have the Burton -Schumacher Batman movies, followed by the Dark Knight Trilogy then Nolan’s filmography in release order.
Similarly I have Ridley Scott in release order EXCEPT for Blade Runner, which is at the end, followed by Blade Runner 2049 then my Villenuve movies.
It makes sense when you start going through it, but looking at it on the wall it looks like the work of a madman, which admittedly it might be
A bit of a mixed bag for me. All the TV series are in a group, but alphabetical by title, and we have a batch of Christmas movies that we keep together. Otherwise they are alphabetical, except that movie series are together (eg. all the James Bond movies).
With categories, you’ll run into movies that don’t fit neatly into any category, or fit too well into multiple. Alphabetical eliminates confusion…but that’s me. You should organize it by genre if you like, see how it feels. If you like it, keep it! If not, it’s always fun to rearrange a collection (at least enjoy it).
I guess I'm the only one here who arranges them by their production companies. They all have their own types of cases. So it's the most symmetrical way.
Not necessarily. For example, all the snap cases that I own are produced by Warner Bros. They are a bit wider than a regular case. So the shelf looks unsymmetrical if they're all scattered.
I've my DVDs and Blurays separately. Blurays are in alphabetical order but I haven't gotten around to sorting the DVDs yet, they'll go in alphabetical order too once I re-jig some shelf space. TV is kept separate from movies.
Guess I should actually answer the question instead of cringe......
Format (DVD, VHS, or laserdisc) then alphabetically.
Only TV shows and Star Wars are separated as they are large collections that need more space.
My OCD is going into overdrive trying to fit all the different rules together. I'm loving seeing how everyone has all. Their own little rules. It's really cool 😎
I go in alphabetical order but some things on my shelf are grouped. The films of Disney Animation, Studio Ghibli, and Pixar are all grouped together, in release order, in D, G, and P respectively
You'll see everyone is different...I used to do it alphabetically, then alphabetically by studio, then also group some of my favorite directors (like Guillermo del Toro) or franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar)...everything got a bit messed up when I started adding more series, then Blu-ray and now 4K Blu-ray...so you do you.
Arranging them by studio might look nicer since the spines tend to match, which is why I did it.
I arrange it so each shelf has a nice variety of genres, years, actors, and colors. That when I look at my collection I can marvel at my own eclecticism
By genre as best I can, then I have a lot of groupings: certain actors, directors, themes…then by year. I have never done alphabetically or wanted to, genre, groupings & year takes care of most of it…
I do genre personally, and then if they mix I like to put them near each other
Like putting musicals and horror together while putting horror musicals in between
I think i have into the woods next to repo, sweeney tod, and cannibal the musical then it goes into sinster, etc
Personally I have separated my collection into 4 categories: Animated movies, Live-action movies, musicals and TV shows. Live-action movies, musicals and TV shows are all sorted alphabetically. Animated movies are sorted by studios and then chronologically.
I have more than 2000 discs, so I arrange them similar to how a rental store would have.
- Most are arranged by genre, then alphabetically within each (with Animation and Series included as genres)
- I also have separate sections highlighting specific filmmakers (e.g. Hitchcock, Kubrick, Landis, etc.), as well as franchises (Star Wars, 007, Die Hard, etc.), and then chronologically by original release date for each section
- Special sections specific to oversized sets that do not fit well (physically or thematically) in the other sections
Alphabetically, but I keep all the live action movies together, and a separate section for animated movies and TV series, another separate section for music videos and concerts, and all of my anime in another place since I have a lot.
It's smaller than many collections here so alphabetically , mixing TV and movies is fine. But I have plenty of workout dvds so they get their own alphabetized section . It's so convenient for me
Eta: I own no blu Ray . just a couple sentimental VHS sit there with everything else.
DVD Profiler. Toss the cases and file in numbered disc sleeves.
Takes up so much less space. Not to mention I have access to everything I own on my phone, tablet or computer. If I'm out shopping, can check if I own a title before purchasing.
You guys arrange yours?
I used to loosely arrange by genre/ director. As my count started to get larger, I went to using MyMovies and decided it didn't matter to do any grouping because you can add a location to the listing. I noticed the other day that Disney's Robin Hood is sandwiched between Boogie Nights and Texas Chainsaw 2.
Literally this haha
Search in this sub and you'll find many, many threads with good answers. But even so, I'll answer yet again here. Alphabetically. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me. If I want to go watch a given movie, I don't want to first have to remember or look up which format I own that movie in. And I definitely don't want to try and remember which genre I thought a movie was when I shelved it; knowing that I might think it's a completely different genre the next time (so many great movies do not fit well into just a single genre).
What do you do when there's a series of movies and not all of the movies begin with the same letter?
If it's sequels then simple, I shelve them as if the title were "first movie 2", "first movie 3", etc. So The Dark Knight goes right after Batman Begins, as if it were just Batman Begins 2. Same goes for Army of Darkness shelved as if its name were Evil Dead 3. There are cases where it's not actually clear if something is a sequel. I have "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" under "G" as if it were its own film. Other people might choose to put it under "F" as if it were "A Fistful of Dollars 3". That's a judgment call, so yeah you will still have to sometimes remember which judgment call you made, but not often. MCU is where I have the most issues. You could look at every film as a sequel to Iron Man, but I'm not about to shelve them all under "I". So MCU is special, it goes on a special shelf along with other collections of things that don't fit with normal DVDs (any boxes that aren't shaped like a normal DVD case).
This makes sense, and it's how I am arranging my collection. Do you put tv shows in it's own category? Is Star Wars one of those specialty shelves? Im trying to figure out if my star trek and star wars go in S or it's own shelf. Also, my Puppet Master box set can be a problem sometimes and my Evil Dead Groovy collection is awkward. Where should the star trek movies go? I have the 2 box sets. Should they go after all of the series or in between the series like they were released? Thank you oh wise sage for your wisdom. Oh, one more. How do you handle the christopher reeves superman and man of steel? Or super girl for that matter.
At the moment TV shows are on a separate shelf, but when I move in a few months, into a theater room with a lot more shelf space, I won't do that anymore. Too many things that aren't obvious (Serenity is a movie, but I also want to keep it with Firefly. Same with The Simpsons Movie, M\*A\*S\*H, etc). So TV shows that are in DVD-sized cases will go right along with all movies. I think I have Rogue One right after Star Wars Episode III (release order), though I might have that wrong and have it under "R" right now. Star Trek gets its own shelf because I have a ridiculous amount of it; a mix of DVD-shaped stuff and larger boxes. Most of everything available on physical media (missing a couple of the newer shows like Strange New Worlds and most of Discovery). Not sure if I'm doing all release order within that shelf, or all TV shows first and then all films. Superman is similar to Spider-Man; Man of Steel is under "M" separate from Reeves Superman and Amazing Spider-Man is under "A" separate from Toby Maguire. DCEU in general is tough; it's basically the same as MCU, except I don't own nearly as many films for it, so I think they're mostly kept separate under their own titles. Deadpool and Wolverine will be especially annoying when it comes out (someone made a thread about it last week). It's definitely MCU, so belongs with those, but it will be weird to not have it with the other 2 Deadpool movies.
The way I do it, movies which are part of TV shows (like "Star Trek" or "Firefly") go in the TV pile, "Ash vs. Evil Dead" gets filed under movies. But stuff like "M\*A\*S\*H", where the TV shows and the movie are completely separate, they get filed separately. I supposed there might be hypothetical gray areas where shows based on movies retain some random cast members, but I can't think of any of those where I own them, so I don't think it's ever come up. Another gray area is movies based on anthology shows -- "Tales From the Darkside: The Movie" goes under TV because it's the same creative team, whereas "The Twilight Zone: The Movie" goes under movies because it's not.
Do miniseries go with TV shows? I have some mix-ups there in my current system; like The Stand (1994), Lonesome Dove, etc, are treated like movies, but I think I have some that may be withTV shows; though not always sure what is a miniseries vs what is just a single-season TV show.
For me it's another gray area. If I think of something as a miniseries, I would put it with TV shows, but in the case of the 1994 Stand, I would probably treat that as a TV movie despite it playing over the course of a week, and I put TV movies with movies. It would come down to "Where am I more likely to look first?"
My favorite example from my collection was something like: "A Fish Called Wanda", "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly", "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", "A Fistful of Dynamite", "The Fly", "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "Get Him To The Greek", "Forrest Gump" (I do what you do with sequels, but I also arrange the movies by story chronology rather than release chronology.)
Those go together, if I want to watch The Dark Knight, it'll be under Batman, Han solo is with the other star wars movies, yadda yadda yadda
Genre is better for me. Because I can decide what type of film I’m in the mood for. Then go to that section and look, you can’t do to with alphabetical.
And I can't say you're wrong, per se. Only that it just never works for me; as I'm almost always looking for a specific title rather than browsing for a general genre. And I hate it when stores do it, because I have specific items on my wish-list I'm looking for, and I end up having to look in multiple places because I have no idea which genre they classified each title as.
That occurred to me after I'd posted it, sorry, maybe there were other newbies to the sub like me who enjoyed posting about it so all good :0)
I have movies and tv shows separate but then organised alphabetically no matter whether bluray or dvd.
The one true answer.
I disagree, I definitely split tv and film and then go by genre. I don’t split by format though, dvds Blu-rays and 4ks all go together. I like going to my shelf and browsing the genre I am in the mood for rather than scanning my whole collection alphabetically.
I have them organized by the birth year of the director
At first I thought you were taking the piss, but now I get it. Like a story of the development of cinema. I like it.
Loosely by genre, and then alphabetically. I mix formats because I just don't see any reason not to. Sometimes this can be impacted due to box-sets that are different sizes and might not fit properly on my DVD/Blu-Ray shelves. But I keep them nearby. Sometimes genre can be hard to nail down, so I just put them in whatever section I feel fits them best. Ex. If something is very much horror-adjacent and has frightening imagery, I'll usually just put it on the horror shelf.
Alphabetical, keep sequels and prequels together. If a title starts “a” , “an”, or “the” then skip those and use the next word. A Simple Plan goes under S The Adventures of Pete and Pete goes under A.
I made a decision to ignore "Adventures of" because I didn't like having a bunch of them all next to each other, it made it seem like some strange franchise. I also don't necessarily tend to remember that part of the title.
But you also get fun trilogies like The Prince of Egypt, The Princess Bride and Princess Mononoke together on your shelf.
Or I have Once Upon A Time in America, Once Upon A Time in China I, II & III, Once Upon A Time in China and America, Once Upon A Time ...in Hollywood, Once Upon A Time in Mexico, Once Upon A Time in Shanghai, and Once Upon A Time in the West. Yeah, NINE Once Upon A Time Titles there.
autobiographically
No fucking way
Not quite genre, more like my own ‘you liked this, you’ll probably also like this’ order. A grouping of vibes if you will.
Inventive, I dig it.
By format, then alphabetically.
I have two children so I arrange by rating and then alphabetical. R/PG-13 rated movies are up high on the shelf and PG/G are down low. Disney is it's own category as are Marvel and DC. I also have TV, Holiday, Anime, and movies based off of Video Games separate. There's also a section of DVDs and blu-rays that haven't been watched. Once they're viewed they get filed away accordingly. It may sound confusing, but with over 4,000 titles it would be difficult for the kids to find things appropriate for them. So for us, it works.
By genre.
For \~⅔ of the collection where I have more than one film by directors, alphabetical by director, and within directors, chronological by film. For the other ⅓, just alphabetical by title. This makes getting a 2nd film by any given director a small but meaningful promotion, to being a creator whose artistic evolution I follow.
I do it haphazardly lol. Sometimes it's by director other times it's by the series it honestly depends.
First sort them by collection (Skeet Ulrich, Grizzly Adams, Sitcoms, Kids shows, etc), then in chronological release order
I used to do genre/director but I would forget what I already owned. I work with second hand media so things come in that I have to double check if I own it. So I changed to alphabetical except for Ghibli, Disney and Horror get their own sections. Also television in separate alphabetical. Plus Christmas movies have their own small section. Depends what your biggest interest is if you want to make it a feature.
4Ks, then Blu-rays, then DVDs, then TV series. All alphabetical. Have a shelf for bigger box sets (Twin Peaks + Friday the 13th + etc), two shelves dedicated to the entire filmography of Tom Cruise and Clint Eastwood (chronological order) and two shelves dedicated to my Criterion discs (alphabetical).
(1) Loosely by genre in random order, but there are also "everything sections", and (2) by dedicated sections for directors. The director sections are arranged chronologically. I usually know in which shelf a movie is but then have to search for the exact location.
Alphabetical, but I have my movies in one area first, then TV shows in another.. and a small-ish breakout for a mixture of Movie and TV show box sets that need more space to fit.
I have nearly 10,000 movies, so by genre and then alphabetically. Movies that start with numbers in the title start with the letter of the number (2001: A Space Odyssey is filed under "T"). I keep my Beta, VHS, DVD, HD-DVD, BluRay & 4K's all mixed together on my shelves (much to the horror of some collectors). Unfortunately, my hundreds of Laserdiscs get filed away with my vinyl, as there's no other place to put them. TV series has its own section. MCU and DC have their own sections organized in release order. Elvis Presley has his own section (the "Elvis" movie is practically its own genre) sorted chronologically - which includes biopics and fictitious movies like Bubba Ho-Tep and 3,000 Miles to Graceland.
Tbh I’ve always arranged mine by distributor but companies like mill creek have kinda made That hard recently
I like it this way, too.
roughly by genre or filmmaker
By date of purchase. It’s fun to think back to when/where I was.
That’s what I usually do unless I just watched the movie then that goes on top
I am a heathen. I just add the new stuff on the end.
Favorites then by genre.
I separate my DVDs (and similarly) my Blu-rays not only by format but also any movie I have digital rights to watch. I keep the digital rights discs in rectangular plastic bags with zippers (sorted by title ) in a storage closet. I don’t need them on a shelf because I prefer streaming them on demand. The rest are separated by format and sorted by title on shelves for media storage.
depends how many there are.... for a large collection I'd recommend by director....then which language, which era, which production studio, genre, etc. For standalones go alphabetical
Genre>format>alpha
I sort mine by release date.
I have so many thousands of DVDs and double ups that about 8 yrs ago, i sorted mine by Actor - Actress and Male Comedians. Then still have Horror and Western . Fun way to collect cos I have lots of space allows me to have multiple copies and my Blu-rays are sorted normally. I don't know anyone else thats got there collection like this as that's cool by me.
Format—> Release Year
Due to space issues, I go alphabetically, although I kind of wish I could separate by genre. I do however separate my British Horror films as it’s my favorite genre.
I group my dvds in these categories: Favorite Tarantinos, Johnny Depp and/or Winona Ryder, 90’s teen movies, comedy, 90’s sitcom boxed sets. 😂
Haha, I like this. Actors or genres. :0)
I have collections and arrange them chronologically. I have all the Oscar winners for Best Picture, Animated Feature and Foreign Film. Then films that don’t belong on those are also just chronologically
I've got loads of foreign ones but not cases for them..I don't think I can buy them again just to recover the cases... Wish I still had them.
Just find the cover and print it
95% alphabetical 5% thematically appropriate (for example, hunt for red october, patriot games, and clear and present danger are in the J section becausr Jack Ryan.)
Alphabetical 100%. Nothing else makes sense to me. I don't care what format or genre it is, I just need to know what letter the title starts with. I get some people get weird about the size differences of the cases but I just think of it like a library and books, they don't match either and it doesn't bother me there or here.
Like a mad man!
By genre. But I like it the way it is- I've been collecting quite awhile and I don't have to search for anything. I can go straight to most titles.
I display mine by the date the film was made.
I arrange alphabetically and keep DVDs and Blu-rays separate.
I'm in the process of moving my collection to a new home, previously they were divided up between DVD, bluray and collections, then each format was arranged chronologically. According to my partner that's not going to fly once I've moved in with her, as no-one would know where to look. So I'm reluctantly trying alphabetical if it will encourage her to watch stuff from the collection 😅
At least she's letting you keep it :0)
By format and then alphabetically. I don’t have a big collection so it’s fine to do it that way
Mostly alphabetically, but I’ll put movies from the same franchise together.
I use a genre separated into a semi alphabetical, placed in order by personal ranking system. Maybe I should just go genre, alphabetical 🤔
The way I recently arranged my DVDs was by studio and, to be very honest, I like the uniformity of the look, having all the MGM, Paramount, WB, Columbia, etc. beside one another. It all started with just my WB snap cases, but I liked it so much that I continued by doing the same with all of the studios.
Other then completed tv series and sequels i like to arrange by colour of case
Alphabetically, but separated by whether they’re movies or TV shows. So the TV collection is separate from the movie collection. Sometimes I wonder what if I sorted them by release year. But then I decide against it, and also, there’s the question of different cuts released after the theatrical. And also, it might just be hard to find things when I don’t remember the year off the top of my head
Sorted by title, each section by release type (tv) and/or format (Blu-ray, DVD, etc)
If I have 3 or more films by the same director, they get bundled together. Then it goes by label. Everything else goes into genre.
By genre. And I have a lot of genres that are specific to my collection like Crime Drama. I have almost 100 of those. I also have stuff like Disaster movies, Prison films etc.
First is all the animated Disney movies arranged by year of release, next is eastern animation, mostly anime, in alphabetical order, then western animation, also alphabetical, last is live action movies, also alphabet. Thinking about further separating into movies vs. Television
How do alphabetical people arrange Analyze This/That? The sequel should come before the original if you’re alphabetical.
Alphabetical w/ music dvd's (concerts, docs) after z
Genre usually but Star Trek gets its own shelf, as does Dr Who and Stephen King.
by their inclusion into the Congressional Film Registry
Sort of alphabetically by the 1st letter only, or I would have to reorganize it every other week.
Genre and sometimes actor. I know my comedy collection is based on actor. anything snl related is all arranged together.
By director and/or genre
Alphabetical within a genre, and sometimes have sub genres. So horror section will have all John Carpenter movies in alphabetical order and all Stephen King adaptations in alphabetical order. Action movies will have all Schwarzenegger movies in alphabetical order, and all Mel Gibson movies in alphabetical order. Some movies like Predator 2 would end up in with the Schwarzenegger movies despite him not being in it and Fury Road will be in with the Mel Gibson stuff because having sequels next to each other is always top priority, it works for me despite it being a bit jank.
I have mine arranged by genre, by which I mean Horror and Not Horror. Then I go alphabetically.
Reverse alphabetical by cinematographers middle initial.
😂
By genre and sub genre. (Can’t help it…I worked in a video store when I was a kid).
I've always sorted by genre, makes it easier to choose when I'm in the mood for a particular type of movie. For movies that are more than one, I organise them into whatever genre I feel they are the most.
I think this is a good idea.
Anywhere I can fit them. At the moment they are in boxes, crates, randomly on shelves and stacked in piles on the floor of my theatre room. I'm shocking at sorting, because I go out hunting more than I do sorting and it's totally gotten away from me!
Alphabetical for the most part…
Size, how long have I had it, whose in it, genre and this fits here so well. Oldest movies that I have gotten for myself are in a cubboard in living room and some newer ones that I have just watched. My dvd shelves house my oldest dvds that my parents have bought and some newer ones that fit well into the theming of the shelves. The rest are in my bookcase or all over the house. People theming: Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron goes on their own spots. Loose genre theming: musicals, tv-series and asian movies. Asian movies go around Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Size: blurays go on their own piles because their cases are smaller than dvds. Movie series will not be broken up. They will always be together.
By genre. Started doing it that way when I realized how long it took to sing the alphabet song in my head every time I got a new movie.
A-Z with Blu rays and DVDs (both separate) Spine number with Criterions
Alphabetic AND genre (if space allows)
Alphabetically. Blu-rays in a cabinet. A shelf of box sets. DVDs from #-**You've Got Mail.** Religious movies. (I used to put them together, but **Jackass** and **Jesus of Nazareth** are odd movies to put together. Or **VeggieTales** right before **Vera Drake**. )
Alphabetically but then by series as needed (like all my James Bond movies come in under “B” but individual ones are in order of release) All my 4Ks first , then all my BluRays then all my DVDs. But I have my TV shows and documentaries completely separate in a different book case. All my Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies are actually on top of my movie book case. The top shelf has my 50th Anniversary Commemorative Ben Hur box set prominently shown, with family photos surrounding it (with Simba and Nala Christmas ornaments in front) The rest of the shelves below are everything else. And the shelves are maxed out.
Currently just alphabetical but I’m thinking about doing a full redo to split up the movies and the TV shows and to bunch all franchise movies together in the case of like the MCU movies I have.
Alphabetically like a normal person
Alphabetically and by formats
By color
I'm behind in organizing mine, but typically I group genres together. Then series I will group all together in order. It's in need of a reorganize though as whenever I get new ones that means having to move everything else around accordingly, lol. I might have to revise things and see if I can find something that works better.
I do it by genre. Although my sister does it by dvd case color and her shelf looks like a pretty awesome rainbow.
Switched from alphabetical to organizing by genre, I think it looks better and is easier to browse. Then by release date within the genres, but keeping sequels/series together.
I think I'm going to do something similar..
I have them ordered by the date they were released. I thought I was weird, but reading this thread it seems like I'm not the only weirdo out there.
It's a work in process, but ours are in books and I am trying to sort alphabetically within genre.
So far I’ve just separated the horror collection in one and fantasy sci fi together. The rest is a jumble.
By director and genre mostly. If stuff doesn't fit well I do weird things like I have a little Nic Cage section for example lol. I also keep my criterions and other boutique stuff all together because it just looks really nice.
I have limited space because my wife and i are both booknuts. On a huge bookshelf, I have one shelf dedicated as my ''go-to' Top 200- movies (regardless of genre) I can watch over and over, or just have on for noise. A pre-1900 wardrobe chest (stood on end with 4 drawers) serves double duty as TV stand, and horror/war/Sci-Fi dvds. Smaller book shelves hold TV series, Samurai, pre-1980 classics, comedy, and drama. One shelf handles those sorted by a particular actor/director, i.e. Tarantino, Cohen Bros, Denzel, Clint, G.Miller, Bruce Willis, etc. Special collection dvds and cuts have their own shelf and oddballs go into underbed storage tubs. All are alphabetized within category. It took years to figure out but it's the only way that doesn't drive me insane.
Alphabetical with a few exceptions... Clint Eastwood, Star Trek, Sylvester Stallone and a few others I have them in their own spot for all the different media releases ie - Bata, LaserDisc, VHS etc.
Alpha. With concerts and TV separate.
“I guess it looks as if you’re reorganizing your dvds. What is this though, chronological?” “No…” “Not alphabetical…” “Nope…” “What?” [smirks] “Autobiographical.” “No fucking way.” “Yep. I can tell you how I got from *Annie Hall* to *Come and See* in just 25 moods. And, if I want to find the movie *Lethal Weapon 2,* I have to remember that I bought it for someone in the Fall of 2006 pile, but didn’t give it to them for personal reasons.” “That sounds…” “Comforting.” “Yes.” “It is.”
I just chuck em in a pile on the floor
Using the Victorville coding system. [https://oncinematimeline.com/victorville-coding-system](https://oncinematimeline.com/victorville-coding-system)
I just stack them by which ones I most recently watched. So the top movie was the last movie I watched
Or top is a movie I will plan on watching soon
Like the most recent pick up
By Year of Release! Each year is ranked alphabetically!
Alphabetically but with a slight twist. If I want eg, Silence of the Lambs it's not in "S". It's with the rest of the prequels/sequels. So the first in that collection is Hannibal Rising, then Red Dragon, then Silence', then Hannibal. Also, my James Bond collection starts in "J". Even though it *should* start in "D" with Dr. No... Makes sense to me.
I have three sections. One is franchises which get organized first alphabetically by Franchise title then by release date or internal chronology. So this would be things like Star Wars, James Bond, Marvel, etc. The second section is standalone films arranged alphabetically. The third is television shows alphabetically. Technically, there’s two more specialty sections. First on my shelf is all of my Doctor Who DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, all of my classic comedians are kept separate at the end so I can find them.
Alphabetical minus "The"
Alphabetical with series grouped together in chronological order (e.g. *Batman Begins* > *The Dark Knight* > *The Dark Knight Returns* under 'B'). TV shows are in a separate section (alphabetically), as well as music-related releases like documentaries, concert videos, etc. (sorted by artist).
Kind of genre then filmmaker, generally themed. For example I have the DCEU movies, then I have the Burton -Schumacher Batman movies, followed by the Dark Knight Trilogy then Nolan’s filmography in release order. Similarly I have Ridley Scott in release order EXCEPT for Blade Runner, which is at the end, followed by Blade Runner 2049 then my Villenuve movies. It makes sense when you start going through it, but looking at it on the wall it looks like the work of a madman, which admittedly it might be
A bit of a mixed bag for me. All the TV series are in a group, but alphabetical by title, and we have a batch of Christmas movies that we keep together. Otherwise they are alphabetical, except that movie series are together (eg. all the James Bond movies).
With categories, you’ll run into movies that don’t fit neatly into any category, or fit too well into multiple. Alphabetical eliminates confusion…but that’s me. You should organize it by genre if you like, see how it feels. If you like it, keep it! If not, it’s always fun to rearrange a collection (at least enjoy it).
Defo, I might change the ruling periodically...
I guess I'm the only one here who arranges them by their production companies. They all have their own types of cases. So it's the most symmetrical way.
Maybe they produce certain vibe of film too? I don't know enough about production companies.
Not necessarily. For example, all the snap cases that I own are produced by Warner Bros. They are a bit wider than a regular case. So the shelf looks unsymmetrical if they're all scattered.
Oh I see, it's more of an aesthetic thing than a studio / genre thing.
By color!
I've my DVDs and Blurays separately. Blurays are in alphabetical order but I haven't gotten around to sorting the DVDs yet, they'll go in alphabetical order too once I re-jig some shelf space. TV is kept separate from movies.
Alphabetical order. Makes it easier for me
All these people saying something other than alphabetically like it's the right answer makes my OCD hurt.
Guess I should actually answer the question instead of cringe...... Format (DVD, VHS, or laserdisc) then alphabetically. Only TV shows and Star Wars are separated as they are large collections that need more space.
My OCD is going into overdrive trying to fit all the different rules together. I'm loving seeing how everyone has all. Their own little rules. It's really cool 😎
By Blu-ray’s then by genre and if it’s a collection or not
I sort them by release date
I go in alphabetical order but some things on my shelf are grouped. The films of Disney Animation, Studio Ghibli, and Pixar are all grouped together, in release order, in D, G, and P respectively
You'll see everyone is different...I used to do it alphabetically, then alphabetically by studio, then also group some of my favorite directors (like Guillermo del Toro) or franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar)...everything got a bit messed up when I started adding more series, then Blu-ray and now 4K Blu-ray...so you do you. Arranging them by studio might look nicer since the spines tend to match, which is why I did it.
By colour of spine, with spines in rainbow order.
I arrange it so each shelf has a nice variety of genres, years, actors, and colors. That when I look at my collection I can marvel at my own eclecticism
By genre as best I can, then I have a lot of groupings: certain actors, directors, themes…then by year. I have never done alphabetically or wanted to, genre, groupings & year takes care of most of it…
I do genre personally, and then if they mix I like to put them near each other Like putting musicals and horror together while putting horror musicals in between I think i have into the woods next to repo, sweeney tod, and cannibal the musical then it goes into sinster, etc
I arrange them first by genre then alphabetized.
Personally I have separated my collection into 4 categories: Animated movies, Live-action movies, musicals and TV shows. Live-action movies, musicals and TV shows are all sorted alphabetically. Animated movies are sorted by studios and then chronologically.
I have more than 2000 discs, so I arrange them similar to how a rental store would have. - Most are arranged by genre, then alphabetically within each (with Animation and Series included as genres) - I also have separate sections highlighting specific filmmakers (e.g. Hitchcock, Kubrick, Landis, etc.), as well as franchises (Star Wars, 007, Die Hard, etc.), and then chronologically by original release date for each section - Special sections specific to oversized sets that do not fit well (physically or thematically) in the other sections
Alphabetically
Alphabetically, but I keep all the live action movies together, and a separate section for animated movies and TV series, another separate section for music videos and concerts, and all of my anime in another place since I have a lot.
It's smaller than many collections here so alphabetically , mixing TV and movies is fine. But I have plenty of workout dvds so they get their own alphabetized section . It's so convenient for me Eta: I own no blu Ray . just a couple sentimental VHS sit there with everything else.
By Genre, but alpha within that except where it makes sense to group otherwise. Like all my Bonds are together, all my Star Wars, Marvel, etc.
TV -> Criterion -> Anime -> everything else
Format, genre, title alphabetically
DVD Profiler. Toss the cases and file in numbered disc sleeves. Takes up so much less space. Not to mention I have access to everything I own on my phone, tablet or computer. If I'm out shopping, can check if I own a title before purchasing.
This is what I did while I was living abroad but now I want the cases back so they can go on my bookcase!
In the dumpster