How I changed organizational NIGHTMARE to a pleasantly casual dream sequence

Posted by Bambi B (A) on April 15, 2010 at 11:35:50

In Reply to: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) posted by Record Squid on April 13, 2010 at 20:54:54:

Record Squid,

I have about 3,000 LP's and 600-700 CD's. In the mid-late 80's, becoming aware of the gradual decline in the number of LP's released I bought heavily and quickly, once spending $900 in two hours at a Towers Records in NY. The nice thing then was everything was heavily discounted to make way for them new-fangled "Perfect Sound Forever Silver Cookies".

To avoid buying duplicates in that pre-home computer age I simply made a notebook and added pages for every composer and for LP's with mixed contents- "Guitar", "Renaissance", "Harpsichord" and so on. Whenever I bought a record, it would be listed by composer and mixed contents items were cross-referenced additionally by composer. This of course would be more useful and precise done in a database- also portable if it's on a laptop- you could take it shopping the way I used to do with my notebook/binder lists. If I can find it, I'll send you the name of the catalog software we used at my old radio station - it was a specialised database that had fields for every detail. However, that would be amazingly time-consuming for home use

Then the physical arrangement was on inexpensive Ikea shelves, alphabetically by composer and then by the mixed categories- "Renaissance" would be after "Rameau" and before "Rimsky-Korsakov". I didn't bother to do much arrangement of works within the categories as I could just scan down and read the labeling on the spines, an exception being that I put Symphonies in order and grouped multiple versions of the same works together, but not further arranged by artist or whatever. I found that big box sets are great to punctuate the arrangement as it's easy to see the titles on the wide box. I have two complete sets of Mozart Piano Concertos (Brendel and Perhia)that I use as "bookends" for all the Mozart Piano Concertos- and the singles are set randomly in between.

In the house I live in now I was able to do something I wanted to do a long time, which is to line the back wall with the LP and CD shelves, left a 2'8" corridor and then lined up the audio racks out n the room (26" X 17'). This makes it wonderfully easy to fuss with cables from the back and also puts the speakers well away from a back wall.

My arrangement is a bit casual, but of course, I'm familiar enough with what's there- plus I've bought only about 30-40 LP's since my 80's binge.

Good luck- it appears you have quite a job ahead.

Cheers,

Bambi B

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - Record Squid 20:54:54 04/13/10 (34)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - apollo66 19:30:37 04/18/10 (1)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - Bill the K 04:49:32 04/20/10 (0)

How I changed organizational NIGHTMARE to a pleasantly casual dream sequence - Bambi B 04/15/1011:35:50 04/15/10 (0)

IPad for books - tomjtx 06:07:32 04/15/10 (0)

RE: A nuke would work - tomjtx 05:59:33 04/15/10 (0)

use the tentacles! - jefe 23:05:00 04/14/10 (0)

Entropy. nt - DragonEars 21:45:36 04/14/10 (0)

keep it that way.... - jeromelang 20:23:22 04/14/10 (0)

A comforting disarray - Bill the K 20:15:27 04/14/10 (0)

An inspiring post, with many responses - Sordidman 19:48:29 04/14/10 (0)

You have a very understanding sig other. - FenderLover 19:17:55 04/14/10 (0)

That room is a treasure. - abel mccain 18:55:46 04/14/10 (0)

You could use a Noguchi-type system - flatmap 18:39:29 04/14/10 (4)

That is actually an excellent system to remove unused stuff - Elizabeth 04:51:39 04/15/10 (1)

Right! - flatmap 09:25:40 04/15/10 (0)

Oh thank goodness. It has a name. Noguchi !!! - DragonEars 21:42:19 04/14/10 (1)

Software changes everything. - esande 21:57:50 04/14/10 (0)

You CAN leave things as they are ... - Mike K 17:17:59 04/14/10 (0)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - jpbeckaudio 14:59:51 04/14/10 (0)

How big is your audio room? - richardl 14:00:22 04/14/10 (0)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - Glen B 12:17:31 04/14/10 (0)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - steve.ott@kctcs.edu 12:12:30 04/14/10 (0)

Looks like my Dad's office! - DustyC 12:06:35 04/14/10 (0)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - AudioDwebe 11:59:34 04/14/10 (0)

Cable show - Hoarders - Steelhead 10:42:36 04/14/10 (0)

Congratulations are in order - I love it! - Ned 09:12:23 04/14/10 (0)

RE: Organizational NIGHTMARE ( May Be TO Scary For Some) - mikel 06:38:19 04/14/10 (0)

Check out the TLC Network tonight at 9:00PM... ;)) //nt - MaxwellP 06:37:10 04/14/10 (0)

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step... - RickeyM 05:55:18 04/14/10 (0)

I thought that was a book shop nt - dave c 23:40:51 04/13/10 (0)

It looks fine to me - Frihed89 22:39:31 04/13/10 (1)

yes, random order is just as good as any other form of order...nt - Elizabeth 23:05:56 04/13/10 (0)

An Organizational Specialist... - Djhymn 21:32:00 04/13/10 (0)

The timing of your inquiry is spooky. - free.ranger 21:20:49 04/13/10 (0)

Follow Ups

How I changed organizational NIGHTMARE to a pleasantly casual dream sequence - Bambi B 04/15/1011:35:50 04/15/10 (0)

How I changed organizational NIGHTMARE to a pleasantly casual dream sequence

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