Hit 500 cassettes in my collection last Saturday and it got me thinking about storage

I was just stacking some new finds from a thrift store in Cleveland and decided to count everything. Ended up at 503 tapes total. Never really kept track before but seeing that number made me realize how fast these things pile up. About 120 of them are still sealed which I guess is cool but also takes up space. Now I'm trying to figure out a better shelving system than the milk crates I've been using. Anyone else hit a milestone count and have to totally rethink their setup?

3 comments

3 Comments

reed.eva1mo ago

Milk crates work fine until you hit that 400 mark, then everything gets out of hand. I switched to using those skinny wire shelves meant for CDs that you can find at garage sales for cheap. They hold tapes perfectly and let you see the spines instead of digging through stacks. Another trick is to sort by label or color so you can eyeball what you have without pulling everything out. Spinning racks from old media stores work great too if you can find one for under twenty bucks. Just watch the weight load on anything you buy, those sealed tapes get heavy fast.

finley_lopez981mo ago

Oh man, "everything gets out of hand" is the truth lol. I hit like 350 tapes and my milk crate tower nearly took out my whole shelf. I actually scored one of those old CD spinners from a closing Blockbuster for like 15 bucks and it's been a lifesaver. Those wire CD racks are clutch too, I found a doublewide one at a thrift store and it holds about 200 VHS tapes perfectly. And yeah sorting by color is underrated, I do mine by the spine labels and can spot what I need in seconds now. Just don't put your heavy clamshell boxes on the top of anything flimsy, learned that the hard way.

webb.jordan3d ago

Read a piece online a while back about how tape collectors in Japan use those narrow wooden crates meant for vinyl LPs but turned sideways so they stack like little cubbies... sounded brilliant but then I looked up the shipping cost and noped right out of that idea. Ended up finding an old metal locker at a garage sale for twenty bucks and it holds around 400 tapes on the shelves if I pack them tight. The sealed ones are a real pain though, they take up almost twice the room and I just keep mine stacked on the floor under a table.