From time to time, too much of a good thing can indeed be too much of a good thing. This is certainly the case when you start building a DVD collection, only to rapidly run out of shelving space.

It’s the age-old problem: Too many titles, not enough gaps. And once you’ve stacked and stacked, layered and layered, and balanced 20 cases on top of another 20 cases, you reach the point where you know something has got to give!

And this is essentially the point I reached when my collection suddenly expanded after one or two (or fifty) visits to charity shops. I’ve spoken about this before, but right now, charity shops in the UK are fantastic places for picking up cheap DVDs, and I’ve been taking advantage of this when I can.

The upside is a bigger, and more diverse collection which I’m building up quickly. The downside is stacks of DVDs that I have limited room for.

The solution? Creating bespoke sets which allow me to combine multiple discs into a single case.

I’ve done something similar with a few Marvel collections, but this time around it’s slightly different. I’ve gone bigger and I’ve focused on specific actors, rather than on characters or franchises.

Let me explain.

While out and about doing some DVD shopping in local charity shops, I started to notice it was quite easy to pick up discs related to certain actors. For example, I’d often stumble across multiple titles featuring Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock, or Tom Cruise, etc.

So much so, that I could easily pick up half-a-dozen movies starring one actor. This then got me thinking, if I had six DVDs of say Washington, Bullock, or Crusie, why not just put them together in a single, six-disc case? 

And this is what I did. I gathered together six films featuring one actor, headed to eBay, bought a 6-way DVD case, and started to combine the discs. 

Call it a ‘best of’, call it a ‘space saver’, heck, call it what you like, but it has become a solution to my problem. Instead of six films, in six cases, taking up six slots on my shelf, I now have just one case on the shelf, meaning more films.

As for the cover artwork, I hopped online, found an image of each respective actor, mocked up some basic (but acceptable) artwork on Paint (yes, Paint – no expensive Photoshopping here), and then printed it off.

A little rough around the edges I admit, but it does the job just fine for what I want. Plus, next time I want to watch a bunch of Leonardo DiCaprio movies, or a few Will Smith films, I just need to reach for the one case and I have six options.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: But what about all the original covers? Yeah, I know the original covers are important to some collector’s, but when it comes to these charity shop DVDs, which I’m picking up for 20p a disc, I’m not that precious about retaining the original cover art.

And this is especially true of films which there are an abundance of. Removing the artwork for Miss Congeniality or Top Gun isn’t going to cause me to lose any sleep. 

If I ever want a pristine copy of one of the films, there are millions available. I’m not doing this to rare titles; only ones that are in plentiful supply.

Anyway, it’s a space saving technique, and it works!

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