The DWR Cubitec modular shelves are great too (the 13.25 depth).

I just keep mine in a bookcase with adjustable shelves.

I can't figure out why you would pay $13 for a milk crate.

We keep ours in a couple of victorian linen press cupboards - the shelves are just the right depth and in the UK you can pick up good quality pine ones for a couple of hundred pounds. The overspill of the collection is however dumped in various areas all over the house!

Totally agree - anyone who doesn't know how to walk by a bodega and pick up one of the dozens of milk crates lying around belongs back in the suburbs.

Visited a friend just before New Years who has a console phonograph (pre stereo) and a ton of LP's/records. I'd take that any day over a wall of books.

I'd prefer to know how to unload my box of records clogging up the junk room since I gave away my turntable before I moved last year. I already tried selling what I could to Amoeba records a few years ago. Once they've turned up their noses at them (well used), what's the next step ? Would love to know how to give them away to someone who wants them.

I'm in the middle of trying to figure out record storage in my (tiny) condo... ideally I'd wind up with something that was about a yard wide and two shelves high, and which goes in my sliding-toward-'warm industrial' living room. I'm looking around, and also considering making something. This was very timely, though not particularly applicable aesthetically!

@sfgirl - Advertise them on Craigslist? We've unloaded some that way.

Try selling them as lots on craiglist. This works well if you group them by genre.

I bought some maple plate racks from the container store and they are perfect for our record collection. Each one has about 4 slots which fit 4-5 records, which makes organizing and rearranging them really easy. Perfect for converting any type of shelving for record storage. Also great for magazines.

We have our records in one of those glass door cabinets that an 80's-90's cabinet stereo system would go in (sans the humungo stereo components) & it's sooo perfect. We already had ours, but I see them *all the time* in thrift stores, people's garages, on curbs...

Some great ideas! The retro crates are always a good choice. Anyone have good ideas for Blu Ray/DVD storage? Hubby's a huge movie fan and it's taking over our bookcases....

I think the Expedit is an excellent suggestion, but I have seen way too many pictures of ones that crumpled from the weight of so many records! Be sure to reinforce the shelves so they can bear the weight.

We have four double Expedits (I know, lotsa vinyl...) for our records and they work great! Three are upright, and one is on its side as a room dividing console. We love them.

But what do you buy for the 7" records? Anyone have some good box storage shelves or small bookcases or chests of drawers that work well for them? I think my husband has 10 - 2' long boxes full of them.

We keep ours in a few of the low Ikea PS lockers on wheels. If you just don't put the divider shelf in, they're perfect, and really sturdy too.

Standard square milk crates are generally too small for 12" records. It's also a little bizarre to accuse people of being "suburban" for sourcing places to buy something rather than stealing it. Why buy anything? Just go where people have some and take them. Tah-dah.

I have six vintage Giotto Stoppino record holders... I love the way they look! I really like having my albums more out in the open instead of hiding them away. Plus, it's really nice to be able to divide my collection a bit throughout a room, instead of just putting them in one location. And bonus: since my collection isn't all that huge, I'm able to use one as a magazine rack.

As far as the Speedy Modular set from CB2, I've heard from multiple people that they're really flimsy. When it comes to storing something that's really heavy, you honestly need to just get a storage item that will be sturdy enough to handle the weight over a long period of time.

Or freecycle maybe.

One solution is to get rid of them and accept that they are inferior sounding and sound worse with every playing.

A great set of resources. Records can be tricky to find space for at the best of times, why not then have a compact, dedicated space for them?

This could have not been posted at a better time. My boyfriend just brought boxes and boxes of his records home and I have been scouring apartment therapy for a post. :)

Also check out the record cabinets from Symbol Audio! Solid wood, made in the USA with a unique tilting bin that allows quick browsing.

I would recommend Half Priced Books, if you have one in the area. They may not give you a ton of money, but the buyers will take everything off your hands and out of your junk room.

Sometime in the 70s, the dimensions for standard milk crates changed, and as a result the milk crates of today that are designed for actually holding milk are too narrow to fit LPs. I found this out when I was a young teenager just starting to buy records about 15 years ago and l took a milk crate home from the restaurant where I worked for my (then tiny) collection of music. So it's not quite as stupid as it sounds to pay $13 or whatever for a "milk crate" from an actual store, if that's what you want. Anyone who snags one from the alley behind a restaurant like I did is going to be disappointed when their albums don't fit.

I've used peach crates in the past, those wooden slatted boxes that you see at Farmer's Markets and produce stands, and those work pretty well if you don't have many to store. Right now I have an 8-cube Expedit clone from Target, I'll need to buy another one soon (or quit buying records) since my overflow records are leaning against the shelf on the floor, but it works well and looks nice, and it's the perfect height to put your turntable on.

I just picked another 2x4 EXPEDIT, I got rid of my 5x6 one years ago, and threw a set of Ikea sofa legs to get it up off the floor. Takes a bit of finangling, but it's worth the trouble.

Nice bit of retro here. Outside of DJs, I am surprised people still have album collections. I kinda miss stacking albums or 45s on the spindle, replaying a specifc part of a song (try doing that on an iPod!), blowing dust off the needle (what?), and all the other stuff that went along with records and record players. Someone broke in to my apartment in the 80s and stole my turntable - what nerve. I didn't bother to replace it and then sold all my albums.

didn't read all the comments to see if this was said, but sleeve city has a variety of boxes for 7" records as well. That's how we store all of ours, and we've moved them twice with no problems. As for shelves, expedits are pretty much the standard and work fine, but we got very lucky and purchased a very large mid-century modular wall unit made for records from an estate sale. For $12. 12ft of records for $12!

I am gathering you live in SF by your tag and the Amoeba reference. You can donate your old albums to Scrap-SF. It is an artist/teacher resource center out on Toland. Use it as a tax write-off. At least you know your albums will be put to creative use and not a junk pile.

I use the bottom shelves of a 4x4 and 2x4 Expedit units. They work great for me. As was mentioned, if I was going to fill up all the shelves with albums, I would reinforce the back.

I currently store my LP collection in an Expedit unit, but find it tedious to look through because they are sideways. I'm thinking of using a 1x5 Expedit unit turned 'face up' on a base with castors so that I can flip through the collection like at a record store (remember those?)

One could also use a 'fruit crate', as someone suggested, but put it on castors so it's more easily moved about. (or those cheap moving dollies from Harbor Freight (cheap in price, not construction)

I would love to use milk crates as they are sturdy & portable, but alas, whoever designed them did NOT consider LP sizes! :-/ (would a quarter inch have killed them?!?)

@sfgirl: I got rid of most of my albums and singles using online boards such as craigslist. The best one is a local college one because of the types of adults and younger people who tend to look at it. I sold many of them as lots by category: such as disco, soundtracks, etc. That way I was finding people who had an interest, but not dealing with selling one at a time. I kept a few and will probably soon get rid of those...then I can feel good about getting rid of my 20 year old stereo system (because I will no longer maybe someday need the turntable!).

I'd like to see creative ways to store CDs. I hate the media cabinet I have, but it is the best use of space right now as it stores in the cabinet and the doors.

People who shop the Container Store do not have a grasp on what things should cost... For this reason they will spend $13 for a milk crate...

I use the Ikea Hemnes sofa table. The bottom shelves are perfect for a small record collection and it's better looking (in my opinion) than the Expedits.

Great post! My collection keeps growing (hard to pass on the "we need the space so these are on sale at 50 for $5) and I've been on the look out for appropriate storage. As others have mentioned, milk crates just don't cut it! As the quality of my collection grows, I need to invest in something more permanent than filmsy boxes-thanks!