Yakumo's guide to saving space

Any collector who lives in Japan knows that space is something that comes with a high price tag. So here's my guide to keep all your games in mint condition at a fraction of the space.

First up is to throw away the CD case and place the CD / Spine card / Reg' card and Instructions in to a handy two sided CD pocket like shown below.


The back covers need to be flattened out then placed together in Alphabetical order (or not if you can't be arsed). These are then placed in to a storage case.


Ok, back to the gutted games. These also must be filed in to alphabetical order to make finding the games easy Then placed in to a storage case. This case holds 57 games !!!


Now just take a look at how much space is saved. You can see that 18 standard CD cases (the double is counted as two) takes up the same amount of room as 57 games filed in CD pockets. Now imagine that you have about 500 Saturn games like me and how much space is saved


Yakumo

 

Interesting...

But I have many questions.

What do you do with the CD Boxes?
Some CDs have special packaging. What to do then?
Does this method really protect your CDs from damage? What do you do with games that have multiple discs?
What do you do with cartridges?
What do you do with systems?
How do you keep you whole bunch of cables from becoming fire hazard?
Can I see a pic of the place where you store your games and/or systems?

 

Ooh, many questions. Here I go

1.What do you do with the CD Boxes?
I throw them away of course Or give them to anyone who needs them.

2. Some CDs have special packaging. What to do then?
Simple, if the special packing is card then it is folded down and stored like the back covers. If the special packing is solid then that game just goes in to the cupboard with all the other bulky stuff.

3. Does this method really protect your CDs from damage? What do you do with games that have multiple discs?
Yes, the CDs are perfectly safe from scratches and everything stays nice and flat. If there are multiple disc games then I use more than one CD pocket and keep them together. No problems what so ever. You can see in the picture that the Clockwork Knight game is in two parts due to it coming with some goodies.

4. What do you do with cartridges?
They are all kept together in another case. I have far to many 1MBIT Ram carts now

5. What do you do with systems?
I play with them All hardware boxes are stored under the floor of the house. It's nice and dry down there so I can also keep Hardware there as well.

6.How do you keep you whole bunch of cables from becoming fire hazard?
Only messy bastards have such a problem.

7. Can I see a pic of the place where you store your games and/or systems?
Yes you can.

My Dreamcast stuff is kept in the living room in these drawers. Each drawer holds about 100 games.



Now you won't believe what I have in here. This cupboard is very deep so most of the stuff you can't even see. In here there's 500 saturn games, Dream Karaoke Fully boxed, shit loads of Dreamcast stuff all boxed such as the fishing controller, BBA, keyboard, special Sega Direct pads, Neo Pocket Colour and games, 50 odd Mega CD games and loads more.


Under here I keep my Dreamcast and Saturn Hardware boxes as well as other stuff like Virtual On twin sticks, DDR mats, Pop'n Music controllers and loads of other stuff. There's plenty of room down here


Yakumo

 

I am impressed. I don't have a tenth of the amount of games/hardware you have, but you've managed to take up less space than I use (or so it appears)...

 

I have no choice being married. Got to keep everything compact.

yakumo

 

O_O
with that tight packing you got to be like a master in tetris

 

lmao Babu

A lot of those drawers and stuff is the type of thing ive been looking for, but everyone I find is wierdly shaped in some way :|

And ive got a question:
Where do you keep your wife? lol

 

Yakumo that's very organized. Congrats.

 

Really neat method. I see that Sega Games Can you have in your third picture

 

You should do Interior Designing, Yakumo, and focus on the concept of "minimalism" in your designs lol. You'd be sought after all around Japan .

 

LMAO!

That solution with storing stuff in the underground is great

 

man thats crazy, here in the U.S. we have quite big houses half the time, but ussually we put extra stuff under a bed or in a basement, patio, or am attic, but in japan, i tell you you really gotta think how to store stuff, i remember my brother showing us video of a friends house he visted in japan and i was amazed how much can be packe. Not to go off topic but i remember my brother bring back these wash cloths that are wrapped and dried up and look like a small roll, but tranform into a wash cloth when water added, do you know what those are called?

 

Yakumo, I'm developing the same problem as you -- storage space for games has run out. I think I might do what you did and get rid of my game cases. (I definitely was going to do this anyway whenever I returned to Canada for good.)

Where can you buy those plastic CD slips?

As far as systems go, I have no idea how to store those cleanly. I now have my regular TV and an RGB monitor for my systems, so my consoles are spread out all over the floor between the two displays. :-/

 

Man what a mess YOu've really got to get them sorted.

The drawers that I kep my Dreamcast games in came from Nafco but you can find stuff like that in any of those DIY places such as Good Day, Jusco, Home Wide and so on. The CD pockets are from Daiso (100 yen shop) and also all my Dreamcast games are in new cases with protective slips also from Daiso. Slips are in black while the CD pockets are in orange. Oh, and all those plastic cases are also from Diaso so as you can see it's very cheap.


Yakumo

 

This may be a stupid question, but I don't have any import games, what in the blazes is a spine card and what does it do???? Is it just they scan when you buy it or does it serve a purpose??

 

A spine card is just part of the packing which as the bar code on it. It also covers the dull black or white or even some times transparent strip that runs down the left side of every CD case. A game just doesn't feel complete without it's spine. Music CDs also have them in Japan.

Yakumo

 

Alright thanks, thats what i thought.

 

Im using Case-Logic CD-Cases for years now.. (264CDs per Case) - my way to save some space.. plus: you dont have to handle 1001 items if you are visiting friends or conventions
One case is ~20Euros! And its a big difference between a brand like Caselogic and no-name cases!

There are also "pages" with room for 4CDs per side available.
You can put those in standart buisness folders.
Contra: you dont have a zipper going around and you might loos things.

 

Those spine cards are absolutely useless and annoying, if you ask me.

 

I store my things the American way, in big, bulky stacks.

Ccovell, consider yourself lucky. You might not have any space to store that hardware, but here in the US, you'd be paying through the ass for it. I lust after cheaper PC Engine hardware and games.