So this ones for when you or your families love of a good movie or 400 is threatening to take over your house. Now I don’t usually do these “this is the answer to all your problems”  type posts  because it may not be, but this little idea worked a treat at my place so I’m singing its praises and suggesting maybe it’s worth a try at yours.

My house – she’s big on charm (I think) but small in size and way too short on storage. So the stuff I have has to earn it’s keep and these DVDs, taking up an inordinate amount of our limited storage space, weren’t earning theirs.

Here’s our problem.

Three out of the four baskets in our TV unit stacked full to the brim with DVDs, which is OK unless you have others things that desperately need to go in a basket or you actually want to watch a movie. That’s when the kids who don’t really mind how much mess they make, start pulling them out and spreading them all over the lounge room floor or leaving little towers of them stacked up. An eye sore and a slip hazard all in one and driving me just a little bit crazy.

So the idea is to create these simple laminated DVD pouches that reduce the actual amount of space required to store DVDs by about a mile. In fact it ends up reducing the size of each disc package from about a half inch to only very slightly wider than the actual DVD itself. Turns out theres a lot of wasted space in those hard covers and this solution does away with them without doing away with the glossy printed cover with all the nice pictures and info.

We went from this.

To this.

No more hard cover. Hello nice flat DVD covers.

Before I started on the project though, being fond of a throw out, I went through our vast collection, took out any we no longer watched and gave them away.

So if your up for the challenge you will need:

A laminator. If you don’t have one they range in price from about $20 to over a $100. We bought a relatively inexpensive one which I’m thinking wasn’t really made to last so I treat it carefully and don’t leave it on overheating for extended amounts of time. Apart from that it does the job just fine and they come in handy for so many other things.

Laminating pouches – the DVD size one’s.

Sharp scissors  – that’s it.

Now I don’t think the following qualifies as a tutorial – my projects are so simple they aren’t usually required, but this will  just run you through the process.

I leave the DVD itself in the hard plastic cover until the laminated pouch is done to avoid scratching.

Remove the printed slip cover from the hard cover. It will still have it’s folded shape so just press it down the spine so it’s folded flat.

Trim off the spine and a little bit extra. You want the printed cover about a quarter inch smaller than the laminating pouch both sides so that the pouch seals properly. I did experiment a bit with using larger laminating pouches that I cut down to size. This meant I didn’t have to trim down the cover – just fold flat and laminate.  I found it took longer and was trickier to cut down a large slippery laminating pouch trying to get all the edges straight and even than it was to use the smaller pouch and just  trim the excess off the DVD cover. Your choice on that one.

Place the DVD cover into the laminating pouch spacing it evenly. Make sure the pouch and the insert are level along the top edge so it doesn’t seal when it goes through the laminator.  Feed the pouch into the laminator sealed end first and then leave it to cool when it’s done. If it has happened to seal just trim it open. Slide your DVD into your lovely new slim line pouch and and your done.

I very happily threw out out all the hard covers that were cracked or broken and donated the ones in good condition. As I said this is hands on and takes up a little bit of time. Mostly I did it in 20 minute stints (this post will tell you why I like doing projects 20 minutes at a time) I usually just do as many as I can in 20 minutes before I turn on the laminator. Once it’s warmed up and ready to go, I do them in quick succession. No great skill required so a great project to do while watching a movie.

Having done this a little while ago I’ve found the disc’s stay well protected in the laminated pouches and the disc’s slide in and out easily. Doesn’t work for boxed sets or multi disc packs but you will have plenty of room to store them now.

This wooden box is holding 75 DVDs and my baskets are looking much more civilised with room to spare.

And here are eight DVDs in their hard covers right next to eight DVDs in their laminated pouches.

Worth the time, worth the effort, works for me.

What’s working for you at your house at the moment?

If you’ve got a moment you might like to read my latest Women Connect post here.

And if you know someone who might enjoy this post please share away.

Tracey xx

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