[S Clark]

My vinyl is a mess.    I have been on a tear and have probably add a couple of hundred classical lp's over the last few months.  Between washing and listening, they have just been piling up against whatever surface will support them.  My other vinyl was also in dire need of reorganization.

Before, I simply had popular and classical stacks.  Now it seems that I need something more descriptive.  I'm thinking pop, jazz, classical, soundtracks, misc.- all alphabetical.  Pop and jazz by artist, classical by composer unless it is a recital lp. 
How do the rest of you guys/gals do it?

[Letitroll98]

By color.

[S Clark]

By color.

Why didn't I think of that?   

Seriously, where do you put vinyl that has both Borodin and Khachaturian as feature pieces? 

[roscoeiii]

My favorite scheme was the High Fidelity autobiographical organization.

But at the point when I could actually say it is organized (not the case at the moment, other than separate washed and unwashed sections), I broke down according to post-1980 rock, rock pre-1980, traditional jazz, fusion/avant-garde jazz, classical (small section for me), rap, electronica, and reggae. Soul and R&B is part of rock, but that may be its own section once I get around to organizing things. But since I also like to have people over and let them choose records, I think these categories help steer other folks to what they want to hear. Otherwise, here I come autobiographical...

[SteveRB]

I used to do categories by decade and then alphabetical.

it was an interesting exercise to sort them, and in the end made a lot of sense because it kept more closely related styles in each section -- 60's rolling stones really has no business being next to 80's rolling stones.

[JCarney]

Disclaimer: I have been banned from album organizing. That's her domain, as she is the Keeper of the Vinyl.

From the Keeper of the Vinyl,
Right now we're sitting on 1400+, it got insane in the beginning. So, I went simple everything NOT classical, box set/collection, or Show/Soundtrack is alphabetical by artist. Set/Collection and Show/Soundtrack by title. The classical by composer, if more then one composer, then top billing composer or the composer's piece I bought the album for (so I can find it). If you do some hunting, I know there a couple of organizing systems people have come up with.

Hope this was of at least some help.

JCarney

[vinyl_guy]

I have always organized my albums alphabetically by artist and chronologically, older first within each artist. The fact that all of my music is essentially one genre--rock with a little folk, pop and blues (no classical, no jazz, no opera and especially no jazz singers) makes it easy to alphabetize everything. I use a MoFi sleeve with a LAST sticker on records that have been cleaned and treated with LAST perservative.

Laura

[orthobiz]

Alphabetical. I have just about all rock, so the few classical are separate.

Some issues: I put Jethro Tull under "J" because it's not really the name of an individual in the group. I put The Explorers in with Phil Manzanera. Sometimes it's easy like Wizzard is right next to Roy Wood naturally. And Fripp & Eno is with Eno.

Paul

[canzld]

classical - composer by d.o.b.  Puts like styles together cause I'm more often into music from a particular period than composer necessarily

[Delacroix]

Dewey Decimal?

[Letitroll98]

Seriously, where do you put vinyl that has both Borodin and Khachaturian as feature pieces?

Why, with the "A"s of course, Alexander and Aram.

Seriously?  Delacroix joked about Dewey Decimal Classification, but a modified facsimile for musical categories is what's generally used by everyone. 10 main classes divided into 10 divisions and each division into 10 sections, alphabetically by author from there.  Of course not everyone needs 10, 10 and 10, but the same general structure.  For classes you might have Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern.  I have General Rock, Early Rock, Punk Rock, Alt Rock, Female Vocal, Folk, Celtic, New Age, and Orchestral.  Whether one needs divisions and sections added in depends on the size of the collection and your own personal needs.     

[roscoeiii]

Screw it I am going all in. Library of Congress classifications here I come. 

[Elizabeth]

Three basic areas: Classical, Rock, Jazz
Classical is sorted by Composer, then number of instruments, so first Piano sonatas, duo, trio.. with vocal last. I do have multiple of certain works, so the same work is sorted by conductor, or promenent soloist.
Operas are separated, in composer order. (2,000 lp, 300CD)

Jazz is straight alpha, by title player, trying to keep within each artist in chrological order oldest first. (1,800 LP, 800 CD)
I do separate Jazz singers, as I do NOT think of Jazz singers as Jazz.
(100 LP) They are under the Rock section.

Rock includes all folk, anything pop, Alpha, with artist in chronological order. All in one run. (2,000 LP, 2,000 CD) The CDs are mostly in a mess at the moment, I have been scarfing up $1 and$2 CDs by the tons locally the past two years.. And need to build a new rack to hold them, so many of them are just in piles in boxes.

DVDs are SF, TV Series (non-SF), Asian, Anime and animated, all the rest. Each category by alpha..

[S Clark]

Why, with the "A"s of course, Alexander and Aram.

Seriously?  Delacroix joked about Dewey Decimal Classification, but a modified facsimile for musical categories is what's generally used by everyone. 10 main classes divided into 10 divisions and each division into 10 sections, alphabetically by author from there.  Of course not everyone needs 10, 10 and 10, but the same general structure.  For classes you might have Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern.  I have General Rock, Early Rock, Punk Rock, Alt Rock, Female Vocal, Folk, Celtic, New Age, and Orchestral.  Whether one needs divisions and sections added in depends on the size of the collection and your own personal needs.   

That may be the approach that will work best for me.  It's my classical section that need the most help, and a chronological arrangement may be the answer.
 

[DaveyW]

That may be the approach that will work best for me.  It's my classical section that need the most help, and a chronological arrangement may be the answer.

I don't know why I ended up like I have but my Classical discs are stored alphabetically by composer then by catalogue number.
But I have been thinking about employing a chronological approach for the reasons mentioned.
I particularly like the way the Guiness Guide to Classical Composers is set out and strikes me as ideal for vinyl indexing too.
They have individual "Chapters" covering periods in time (eg. 1000-1499.....1700-1800 etc.) then work through each composer from DOB.
It would be relatively straight forward to allocate shelves to periods on the same basis.
When I find a spare couple of hours or so I think this is the way I'll go.

Might still stick with cat. no. by composer, this tends to group the labels together too.

Will be interested to hear where you end up with this, I might follow suit.

Cheers
Dave

[orthobiz]

I don't know why I ended up like I have but my Classical discs are stored alphabetically by composer then by catalogue number.
But I have been thinking about employing a chronological approach for the reasons mentioned.
I particularly like the way the Guiness Guide to Classical Composers is set out and strikes me as ideal for vinyl indexing too.
They have individual "Chapters" covering periods in time (eg. 1000-1499.....1700-1800 etc.) then work through each composer from DOB.
It would be relatively straight forward to allocate shelves to periods on the same basis.
When I find a spare couple of hours or so I think this is the way I'll go.

Might still stick with cat. no. by composer, this tends to group the labels together too.

Will be interested to hear where you end up with this, I might follow suit.

Cheers
Dave

What? I thought you were all metal all the time!

Paul

[DaveyW]

What? I thought you were all metal all the time!

Paul

OK so maybe my what's spinnin' now posts are generally on the heavy side but you might be a little surprised to know that there's over 700 Classical LP's here, tickets to see The Barber of Seville arrived this week and am hoping to get to see the full choral and orchestral production of Verdi's Requiem soon.
There's room for more than one genre - sometimes 

Now where's my copy of No Sleep 'til Hammersmith 

[spence]

I store mine alphabetically on an Ikea Expedit shelf system. I keep a log book to tell me what I have for each letter.

 

[JoshK]

Spence....how did you get the top to be open for gear?  Did you take a divider out?

[spence]

I didn't take the dividers out, I just didn't put them in when I assembled it. For the money ($99), it's probably the best deal going for storing albums and other stuff. Just be sure to anchor it to the wall with the supplied wall anchors.