Storing your books, movies, and music

Your home is much more familiar and welcoming when all your favourite books, movies, and records are part of the interior. Even when shelves are overflowing with books you have yet to read, movies to watch or music to listen to, there is the pleasant lure of ideas you’ve yet to explore. At the end of a long workday, it is great to come back to one’s free pick of entertainment or food for thought, and enjoy spending some time in the company of the great classics or contemporary voices.

Diving into your favourite book or movie sets up a world around you that is intimately yours, where you can be transported into any time, place, or setting that suits your imagination. You can sit back and relax listening to great records, creating just the right ambience in your home.

When there may not be space for all the media you want to keep, which ones do you keep on hand, which on display, and which to put away? After all, it is easy to get caught up in collecting items that add aesthetic value, but end up filling too much space.

In a contemporary setting, where you can easily see a movie online or read a book using any electronic device, real paper books and physical copies of movies and music may seem to be purely decorative elements or even just make your place look a little outdated. Sometimes, you know you won’t have time to engage with these items in the near future, and feel like they are taking up valuable space. Is it worth keeping them around for later, or better to store them away now?

First off, be aware that it is completely fine to have plenty of books, music and movies around that you haven’t quite gotten around to yet. Paraphrasing Umberto Eco, a famous author and essayist, it is important to have books around that you haven’t gotten around to reading yet, because they serve as inspiration to keep reading and learning.

There is no reason why you should hold back from experimenting with ways of storing and displaying your media in creative ways inside your home, when it could add so much to the vibe of your home space. It is very fashionable to have unusual shelving around the house for displaying your favourite media, alongside a display of potted plants and fancy lighting. Considering most LPs have creative album artwork, and books are in attractive covers, displaying them will only work to your benefit, and create a brighter atmosphere in the home. The rest – those items that have some sentimental value, but are neither good to look at, nor going to be used any time soon – can be stored away for a later reader, viewer, or listener to enjoy.