Otaku Spring Cleanup 2015...

Before The Roof Leak [1]

Area Patched -- After [2]

Wall Painted -- Before Installation [3]

Cabinet Installed [4]

Cabinet Painted [5]

Cabinet Stuffed With Anime

Currently, I have around 4300 DVDs^[1]. Recently, in the aftermath of the Attack Of The Mushroom People, a subsequent roof leak and in the tradition of the first annual Otaku Spring Cleanup, I had to reorganize my DVDs yet again. An entire bank of shelves had to be dismantled^[2] and the contents of those shelves shifted into the other banks of shelves. In case you were wondering, the black areas^[2] are a rubberized membrane that was sprayed on before joint compound and paint were applied to the patches.

The left-most banks of shelves were narrow 8-inch shelves and the shelves in the center section were 12-inch shelves. Because the center section was recessed, the wider shelves were almost even with the narrower shelves. I had DVDs stacked two-deep on the wider shelves. In the aftermath of the roof leak, I swapped the narrow shelves on the left for the wider shelves and moved some of the excess DVDs to the newly widened shelves on the left.

After the roof was repaired and the wall and ceiling patched and repainted, the center section remained empty^[3]. For the last few months, I've been trying to figure out what to do with the empty space. I wanted to offer some protection for the DVDs that would live in that space. Although, the roof was newly repaired and I didn't expect to have any issues with leaks (at least for the next 15 years), I have had some issues with water damage in that area and I still felt a bit uncomfortable leaving the DVDs exposed.

I reviewed a number of different options from free standing customized high-end metal media storage cabinets with deep drawers ($6000+), to various combinations of IKEA shelving units ($400 to $800), to low-end budget storage solutions (less than $300). Cost, storage capacity and durability were the deciding factors for my choice. The high-end option was nice to look at, rock solid and had all the capacity I could ever want, but, was well beyond my humble means. While, the IKEA items were more affordable, the standard shelf spacing and capacity wasn't really suitable for my needs. In addition, multiple shelving units packed in long, heavy boxes are not ideally suited for transport on the roof of a car. The low-end storage solutions turned out to be either remarkably flimsy or didn't have enough storage capacity or both. Eventually, I settled on the idea of building and installing a custom cabinet.

With a spacing of about nine inches per shelf (including the height of the shelf), I could just squeeze in eight shelves in a span of six feet. That would give me enough space for a little over 750 DVDs or perhaps even 800, if enough of the DVDs are of the thin variety.

Initially, I thought about using fixed shelves, but, in the end, I decided to simply re-use the adjustable shelves and hardware that were in place before the aforementioned roof leak and build a huge cabinet to house them. The finished cabinet would be 50 inches wide, 74 inches tall and 12 inches deep and would sit about 16 inches off the floor.

On one weekend, my nephew, Anthony, and I built the back and the sides of the cabinet as separate components. The back of the cabinet is made from a frame of 1x4 boards sandwiched between two layers of plywood. The outside plywood layer is a medium weight construction grade plywood, while the inner plywood layer is a light weight smooth plywood suitable for painting. The bottom of the cabinet would be anchored to the wall studs and also attached to a cleat which in turn would be anchored to the wall studs.

On the following weekend, we dragged the components over to their final resting place and assembled the cabinet in place. We made sure to secure the cabinet to the wall using several very long screws through the cabinet frame and into the wall studs. Then, we used corner brackets to strengthen the corners. Finally, we installed the doors. The doors are made using a light weight smooth plywood that will take paint very well^[4]. Magnetic clasps at the top and bottom of the cabinet will hold the doors shut.

Overall, I spent about $160 on wood and another $40 on hardware and related accessories. It was a lot of work, but, I think it came out very well. After a couple of days of painting, I now have a mostly white cabinet. The doors are a very light green and the interior is white^[5]. Of course, Emily, the figure from Corpse Bride had to keep an eye on the proceedings. I managed to get about 70% of my anime in the new cabinet. The remaining 30% are on four shelves and in two drawers.

May 20, 2015

Update

A through M

N through Z

Remaining Items

Over the weekend, I began the process of reorganizing the non-Anime DVDs. On the bank of shelves on the left, I've added angle brackets to the ends of the shelves to act as book ends. I intend to start with the letter A and proceed though the alphabet until I fill the entire bank of shelves on the left. As I go, I'll leave some room for additional titles. The plan is to not split a letter between shelves (i.e. all of the A's will be together and likewise with all of the B's, C's, etc...). I managed to fill all seven shelves and I'm up the the letter M.

On the banks of shelves on the right, I continued the re-organization by pulling down the non-Anime DVDs and making piles on the floor from N through Z. With this task complete, I seem to have run out of space on the floor.

However, there remain a number of DVD collections to pull off the shelves. Animated features represent a fairly large collection that is further subdivided into Disney and everything else. The other collections are BBC series (various crime dramas, some comedies, and, of course, Doctor Who), various documentaries, and last, but not least, the miscellaneous TV shows.

So, over the upcoming weekend, I will pull down the remaining DVDs, store then in another room and then take down all of the shelves and hardware. The plan is to rearrange the two banks of shelves on the right to optimize the space available for the remaining DVDs and, if possible, carve out a space for some my collectibles.

May 25, 2015

Update

Rebuilt Shelves

N through Z and Animation

Animation and Documentaries

Posters

Over the holiday weekend, I pulled all of the DVDs off the shelves. Then, I took down the shelves and hardware. Since, the wall was now empty, I took the opportunity to paint the wall white. Using a stud finder, I located the studs and arranged the hardware to line up with the studs. I also spent some extra time measuring the placement of the shelves so that I could get the the three and four foot shelves to line up into seven and eight foot spans.

From floor to ceiling, I have ten four-foot shelves and above my lowly tube TV, I have six shelves. To the right of the TV, I have an additional three shelves. I placed non-Anime titles N through Z on the left with DVDs stacked two layers deep. I left space in the front row for additional titles and to make it easier to see some of the items in the back row. I reserved the space in the blind corner for various TV shows. They don't see a lot of use, but I still wanted to be able to see what was in that corner, so, I placed them sideways.

The BBC content was placed on one shelf directly above the N through Z block. My Doctor Who collection is quite extensive, so, I separated them from the main body of the BBC content and placed them on one of the uppermost shelves above the TV. Star Trek was another large collection that had to be placed way up on one of the uppermost shelves above the TV. Most of the anime went either into the cabinet or into two drawers under my bed. Urusei Yatsura, at 62 DVDs, is a particularly large series that found a home on the topmost shelf to the left of the TV.

The animation was divided into Disney and everything else. The everything else pile was further subdivided into three sub-groups: TV shows, movies and superheroes, The TV shows don't see a lot of use, so, I placed them in the back row. The Disney titles got pride of place on the front row. In the everything else piles, movies that we might want to watch more often were likewise treated to pride of place in the front row. The superhero titles and the everything else titles that don't see as much use found a home on the shelves to the right of the TV. I managed to get all of the documentaries to fit on one shelf with the front row being reserved mainly for newer content.

As a finishing touch, I suspended a couple of my newly acquired dragon-themed posters on the cabinet using super strong neodymium magnets - one magnet on the outside of the door clinging to two magnets on the inside. I didn't want holes in my posters and I didn't want to permanently attach hanging hardware to the doors.

May 31, 2015

Update

Over the weekend, I had to do some additional re-arranging of the DVDs. My initial thought about not splitting letters between shelves went out the window fairly quickly as I acquired several DVDs (mostly domestic mainstream movies and TV shows) and endeavored to merge them with the existing DVDs. I got the various TV shows to play reasonably well. However, the movies took quite a bit of work to merge. C had to be split, then G, followed by L, M, O, P, R, S, T, U and W.

I still have about 50 titles to integrate, but, these are titles that don't have their original cases, so, I'll need to make up cover art and put them in brand new thin cases. A handful of titles in the pile appear to have been recorded from TV, so, I'll look through the titles to see if any should be purchased -- two titles in the pile come to mind immediately: Gloria (Gina Rowlands) (1980) and Hard Boiled (Chow Yun-fat) (1992). I used to have these titles on VHS, but, in the aftermath of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup, I let them go away.

July 14, 2015

Update

Before

After

It took some work, but, I managed to get all of the DVDs repackaged. Sadly, my collection of Urusei Yatsura DVDs had to be reorganized to make room for some of the BBC DVDs, which in turn were being reorganized to make room for more M's. On the bright side, I manged to complete my Tom Baker as Doctor Who collection with the acquisition of the last of the Tom Baker stories that I needed for the collection. The new Doctor Who series are a bit too different from the originals for my tastes. I grew up watching Tom Baker et al from the original series, so, naturally, I remember those episodes more fondly than the newer series.

Overall, I think this project came out very well, but, in retrospect, with the benefit of hindsight, I would have chosen something a bit different for the doors. I was thinking that a folding screen -- the type of screens that are usually used as room dividers -- might look really cool as a door. If I came across something locally sourced at a reasonable price, I just might consider changing the doors...