"Buy Back" Your DVDs to De-Clutter

Sometimes you need to trick yourself into getting rid of your old stuff. That's why The Closet Trick, where you turn the hangers of your clothes around as you wear them, is so popular on Apartment Therapy. Well here's an Unplggd version of the closet trick: We call it the DVD buy-back. Grab a friend and $20 (you won't really be spending it!) and get started.

If your collection of DVDs, video games or—gasp!—CDs is as intense as the one in this picture, you could benefit from a little de-cluttering session. But we know that even with the ability to digitize our collection, it can be tough to let go of the collection you've been hoarding.

Luckily, our pal came to the rescue with a tip for cleaning out the media cabinet for good: He calls it the DVD Buy-Back.

Grab a rational, movie-loving friend to help you out and run to the ATM for some cash. Then ask your pal to go through your DVD collection one at a time and offer to sell each title to you for $1.

Depending on how small you want to shrink your collection, you could have started with $15-$50 in your hand to "buy back" your DVDs with, forcing you to limit your library to only the movies that mean the most to you.

Even if it's just pretend, when our own real money gets involved, it's easier to work with a clear (un-hoarding) head.

(Images: Flickr user themacgirl* and NickStone333 under license from Creative Commons.)

Comments (16)

I understand the idea of not wanting to give up the collection and I started selling back my DVDs to Amazon, except for the Disney ones. The only problem I have run into is this. I compressed the physical size of my collection by getting rid of the cases and most artwork, to put the actual DVDs in sleeves and then in Ikea boxes for much easier storage. Does anyone know of a website that takes just the physical DVD without having to sell them on craiglist or such?

I've been selling mine on http://glyde.com lately. you don't get very much for each dvd, but it's super easy. you list it, they sell it and send you a pre-paid addressed enveloped to mail it in. They also let you sell dvds without cases.

You can get sleeves that will store the dvd and the artwork: http://www.sleevetown.com/dvd-case-multi.shtml (bottom of page)

BF uses one that's even better, but I can't find it. They are basically dvd cases, that are soft plastic, so they take up only a fraction of the space, and have a space for the artwork. I'll ask him about where he gets them.

Between Netflix, and Hulu, and even the library, I can get pretty much any movie I want within a couple days.

If I figure I can wait that long if the mood strikes me to watch a particular title, I sell it on amazon.

Or you can trade them in for an ipod, iphone or ipad! I don't know anyone who's done this, but http://www.ipodmeister.com does seem legit. Trading in 199 cds or dvds will get you an 8 gb ipod nano, and it goes up from there.

This idea is genius! I will try it with my kids.

We had a full bookcase of DVD's with two rows on each shelf. We did purge some of them but most of them we kept. We don't have cable and when we feel like watching something it comes out of our collection. We bought a big DVD binder and the big bookshelf full of DVDs became a very managable binder. It even fits under a bed.

I don't know about this one. I actually watch each of my movies about once or twice per year, especially during the winter when it's too cold and snowy to bother heading out. We make some popcorn and have a Movie Night at home.

I recently cleaned out my DVD collection and took them to my local MovieStop. I didn't get much back (some movies, were around $0.25/each on the buyback value) but it felt good to get rid of the movies I have had for a long time that I haven't watched in years.

Oh, my! I love this idea! I am in the process of moving. It has been so hard to get rid of stuff. This would be such a fabulous idea for getting my kids to "buy" the toys they like the most, for down-sizing my scrapbook supplies, ANYTHING really.

Thanks!

Even at a vuy-back of $1 per; I would easily be spending $300 dollars.

But I don't have cable (not even the free channels).

ACK! Mine's bigger than that.

If you buy a proper DVDshelf/Cabinet you wont have vlutter just a unit in the coner with doors on it! or GASP!
Visible DVD's

DVD's arenct clutter, seince theyere something you actually USE, I watch movies EVERY DAY!

Want to declutter your DVDs? Buy some paper CD sleeves, and one of those snap-together CD boxes. I mean really, do you actually need the cases? I took my entire collection of over 200 movies and it now takes up the space of maybe a hat box, under my desk. All for $20 or so.