Store CDs and DVDs on a Spindle

Thrifty space saving tip for campers who don't want to give up their music and movie collections.

We just recently moved from our house to become full time campers. Moving from a 2400 sq. ft home to a 256 sq. ft home requires some strategy and sacrifice. I am a huge music lover. Over the years my husband and I have collected around 200 music CD's. That takes up a lot of space that we didn't really have for "just" music. But it pained me to think I'd have to give them up.

Since we learned about analog TV becoming extinct (and because we decided we did not want to buy that special box), we decided to "beef up" our DVD movie collection (including getting our VCR movies on DVD). But 200 DVDs take up a lot of space and it pained me to give up all those movies.

In the end I came up with an idea that allowed me to keep all my music and movies and have it take up very little space in our camper. Using our local Freecycle group (look it up on yahoo groups), many people were willing to pass along to us CD spindles that almost everyone throws away. These are the spindle cases that blank CDs are packaged in when you buy them in bulk of 25 or more (typically). In the end, we were able to put 100 CDs or DVDs in one (100 size) case and it took up the space of 10 inches high and the diameter of just more than 1 DVD/CD. We keep the CDs up by the driver's seat and the movies back in the bedroom.

This is also an ideal suggestion for those soon going to college and wanting to take more DVDs and CDs than their dorm space would normally allow.

By Amy from CO