What do you do with the boxes, etc?

[Chrome]

The thread about cleaning jewel cases got me thinking ... what does everybody do with boxed sets that don't have jewel cases for individual discs? And that got me thinking about what everyone else does with all of the extras.

I always end up buying empty cases and using them for the discs. This also gives me a chance to noodle around on the computer to come up with my "own" CD art, track listings, etc.

Usually when I get a boxed set, I put the discs on the rack with my individual CDs, put the booklets on a "music-only" bookshelf, and let my kids use the actual boxes for school projects, storing toys/stickers, stuff like that.

I know some of the packaging is pretty cool, but I just don't have the room to keep all the boxes around.

Anyone else?

[Claude]

Except for those Mosaic sets which include many different sessions, I usually compile and burn CD-Rs with the individual album track order, so I can listen to one session at a time without having to check the booklet first. I have those CD-Rs in my CD shelf and use them most of the time. They serve as a backup too.

[GregK]

I keep them as they came when I bought them, the discs in the box, and I listen to them only (no copying)

[jazzbo]

With Mosaics and most conventionally packaged box sets I put the boxes away somewhere out of the way, keep the booklets separately on a bookshelf, and keep the cds in with the general cd chaos in my "archive."

[street singer]

Well...it depends on the type of box, I guess. For the large boxes (Mosaic, etc), I usually take the discs (along w/ jewel cases) and put them on a CD rack with the rest of my CDs - otherwise, I wouldn't listen to them as much if I had to dig them out of a box everytime. I put the box (along w/ the booklet, which stays inside the box) on a bookshelf.

For the smaller sets (Mosaic Select, Miles Columbia Boxes, etc) - I usually keep these discs in their boxes and put them at the bottom of my CD rack.

When a box set consists of full albums, I'll usually burn these onto separate CD-R's since I prefer to listen to the songs in their original album sequence.

[Out2Lunch]

I put them in bookcases in their numerical catalog numbers, so I usually can find them quickly. The rest of my cd collection is a haphazzard mess but the Mosaics are all in order!

[Jazzmoose]

Mosaic jewel boxes are filed with the rest of the CDs, with the boxes (and booklets) stored in "cubes" (lp sized Sauder thingies).

Sets like the Sinatra singles set, Armstrong Hot Fives & Sevens, etc. (the tall 'book-like' ones) are stored away as well, with the CDs in slimline jewel boxes on the CD shelves.

Sets like Coltrane's Complete V.V. and the Parker Complete Dial & Savoy stuff have the boxes stored with the CDs, but the discs themselves are next to them in slimline jewel boxes for easy access.

[Brad]

I keep everything in the box (isn't that what they're for?) and, except for the Mosaics, which I keep in a separate area, if it's a box like a Select, I put in my with all the other cds, which I keep in alpha order.

[Shrdlu]

With sets like those Columbia Miles sets, there is a sizeable risk of damaging the CDs when removing them from, or inserting them into the original cardboard or paper sleeves, so I always put them into jewel cases. Also, if the CDs stayed in the original covers, they might fall out while a person was reading the notes. The outer box covers gather dust on top of a bookcase.

I think "custom CDrs" is also a good way to go, though I haven't done that. When I take out an OOP Mosaic CD to play it, I often feel that I should really back it up and just play the CDr.

With Mosaics, I always leave everthing in the box. I was sad to read that one poster does not get the books out. Mosaic goes to a lot of trouble to prepare these, and not to use them is to miss out on a treat. I like to have the notes open when listening, especially when the notes are by someone good such as Dan Morgenstern. The notes for the new Mulligan set, by Bill Kirchner, are excellent, by the way. They have a lot of information, and yet lack a patronizing, arrogant or pedantic attitude. They get my award for notes of the year for 2003.

[Jazzmoose]

I think I'm the one you're referring to, Shrdlu, but rest assured that when I say "stored" I don't mean as in "stored away never to be seen"; I keep all my vinyl in the same Sauder cube. I'm just afraid that if I don't keep the booklets with the boxes, they'll get lost, or a cat will get to them or some other tragedy will occur. While I am not a big liner note fan, I'll agree that the Mosaic books are something special and a big part of why I'm willing to spring for the sets.

[Jazzmoose]

er...make that "same Sauder cubes"; if it was all in one cube everything would have to have gone through a trash compactor first!

[Sundog]

I keep um' as is. Too lazy to do otherwise. The only exception is the Charlie Christian box. What Einstein dreamed up that packaging?

[Out2Lunch]

I think it was the same guy who invented that Rubick's Cube

[Soulstation1]

i store my weed in my mosaic boxes, the cops wouldn't ever look there.

Edited January 12, 2004 by Soulstation1

[couw]

if they bring a drug detecting dog, your boxes will be ripped to pieces though. pity.

[patricia]

i store my weed in my mosaic boxes, the cops wouldn't ever look there.

     

Laughing like a crazy person. Brilliant!!!!!

I don't keep my CD's on a shelf. They are stored [but played often] in four carved Chinese trunks, which have glass inserts on top and double as coffee-tables. There are four rows of CD's, on their ends, in each of four trunks now They are alphabetical, which used to be a problem, before I zeroed in on the type of music I wanted to collect. Now, the non-jazz is a small number and in with the jazz.

I keep them in their original jewel-cases, or boxes, alphabetically, left-to-right in the trunks. So, although the order is not obvious to anyone but me, given the separate containers, it works. The only exceptions are the 12" square Bear Sets, which are stored, on end, on the bookshelf, because they take up too much room where the other CD's are.

All the CD's then have their liner-notes with them and I do read them, at least once, when I buy the CD, and occasionally afterward.

The problem, for me, with music-storage was how to store my vinyl. My books are stacked all over my apartment because their shelves now have records [alphabetically] on them. Aside from moving to a bigger apartment, the only solution is to either cull my books, cull my records or build more shelves. It's a quandry.

Edited January 12, 2004 by patricia

[Jazzmoose]

Aside from moving to a bigger apartment, the only solution is to either cull my books, cull my records or build more shelves. It's a quandry.

Well, duh; obviously you build more shelves!

[patricia]

Aside from moving to a bigger apartment, the only solution is to either cull my books, cull my records or build more shelves.  It's a quandry.  

Well, duh; obviously you build more shelves!

Easy for you to say. Just because my father was a cabinet-maker doesn't mean I know how to build shelves. So DUH right back at ya.

But, you're right. The stacks of books everywhere, and under everywhere should go on shelves. I kept taking them off, and replacing them with my vinyl, as my collection grew. I had every intention of getting more shelves, but haven't yet.

So, my apartment is like those ones in fancy decorating magazines, that have books in stacks, for show, that nobody reads. Problem is that I do read them and they don't look the way the ones in the decorating magazines do. So. SHELVES. Check.

Edited January 14, 2004 by patricia