How to Organize and Downsize Toys, Games, and Movies

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Whether you’re short on space or simply looking to declutter your home, organizing and downsizing toys and games is a great place to start. That’s what we did when we moved from one small space to another. Here’s how we did it (and how you can do it too!)

Whether you're short on space or simply looking to declutter your home, organizing and downsizing toys and games is a great place to start. That's what we did when we moved from one small space to another. Here's how we did it (and how you can do it too!)

How to Downsize Games, Toys, and Movies

We lived in a small farmhouse. And before we lived in a small farmhouse, we lived in an even smaller camper. Over the years of “small house living,” we’ve learned so much about what we really need and what we don’t. And with 4 people living in about 800 sq feet (which we still felt was huge compared to the camper!), we had to make the most of the space we had.

I’ve done a few things to downsize that might seem a little crazy at first glance, but  I’ve never looked back or regretted any of it. Even now, many years after I originally published this post, I’m still happy with the changes we made. Today, I’m going to share a few of the things that we’ve done to organize and downsize our possessions so that they fit comfortably into a relatively small space.

One of the big reasons we had to downsize our stuff was the lack of space overall and storage space in particular. Moving into a house with no closets takes a lot of forethought. Where do you store things?

Well, for the most part, you don’t. You keep what you use, and if it’s something you really need, you find the space for it. Here are 3 areas of the house that we’ve worked on and downsized considerably.

Toys in a trunk.

How to Downsize Toys

If you’re limited on space (or even if you’re not and just trying to declutter), it’s so important to regularly go through your kids’ toys and get rid of any that they’ve outgrown or don’t play with.

If you’re not careful, those toys always seem to creep from one room into another until soon they’ve taken over your entire house! Downsizing and decluttering toys once every few months can help ensure they never get completely out of control.

We still seemed to have quite a few toys in the camper, and every so often, I would put a few away in a box for a while. But I quickly realized that our little guy didn’t even miss them. So slowly but surely, we started to get rid of the toys.

We now have one toy box for all of our kids. All of their toys, except the train set and the building blocks, fit in here.

We also made a promise that any more toys brought into our house would only be allowed to come in if they were something worthy. For us, that means something that will last a long time and something they can play with for a long time.

Very few plastic toys fit this description for us, and we prefer wooden toys. We’ve talked to our friends and family about gift giving and prefer that the kids get an “experience” gift or something for crafts instead.

By doing these things, we’ve noticed the kids have less anxiety over toys and actually play better than when they had more toys to choose from. Of course, we also like to play outside often, and for them, that’s better than toys any day!

DVDs in a case.

How to Downsize Movies

We do love to watch a good family movie, especially in the winter, to pass some of the long, cold days. I actually moved all of our movies into the camper and realized how much space the boxes were taking up. So I bought a few of these dvd cases, took all of the DVDs out of the plastic cases, and put them in those.

I cleaned out at least two large black garbage bags full of DVD cases just because they take up so much space! Now all of our movies can be easily found, and we don’t miss the cases at all.

Aside from simply reorganizing DVDs into one large DVD case, take the time to go through and get rid of any movies you know you’ll probably never watch again. Sometimes, we buy movies when we should really just rent them, maybe because they’re on sale for a good price or because we think we’ll like them more than we do. There’s no point hanging onto these movies and having them take up valuable space, especially in a small home.

Nowadays, with on-demand movie services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, you hardly need to have any physical copies of movies lying around anymore. But it’s always nice to have your favorites on hand., just so long as they’re well organized and not taking up valuable square footage!

I made the switch to albums for my dvds over 5yrs ago and have never regretted it! They take up so little room! I actually found ones that sit like a book on our shelf with a place for a lable so the boys have one and we have one. Works great!

Danielle, Little House Living reader
Games in an old steamer trunk.

Downsizing Games

This was the single biggest “space-taker-upper” that we still had! We love board games and have a pretty good collection (we got many as wedding gifts!). But those boxes are huge and take up so much space! Now bear with me here…this is the one that my hubby thought I was crazy for wanting to downsize. (Although now he’s glad I did it.)

I took each game out of its box, placed the playing pieces in a large gallon-size freezer bag, and labeled it with the game name. Then, I took all the game boards and made a stack. We cleaned out all of the boxes and unneeded plastic parts and put all of the game boards and pieces in a large trunk that we had in the living room.

I kid you not; I took away at least 10 large black garbage bags of game boxes and plastic fillers. So much unnecessary space is being taken up! And just like with the DVD cases, we don’t miss the boxes for the games at all.

I no longer hate our dvd collection and games now that we’ve done this. A few of our games we still keep in the boxes (usually those that travel to friends houses for game nights. But other than that, out with the boxes. I am steadily downsizing in every area I can think of, or stand. It get easier the older I get, and the more we’ve moved. When we are transferred, OUT goes everything we don’t NEED or LOVE. It just isn’t worth the hassel. We also continue to try to purchase smaller homes, I hope to go smaller with our next home.

Patricia, Little House Living reader

Update…..after many years of keeping our game pieces in zippered bags, we’ve finally upgraded! I’m now using these simple storage boxes to put the larger game pieces in. The boards are stacked inside our chest, and then pieces and cards are placed into the boxes shown above. I LOVE these so much more than the bags or the original boxes because:

  • They are all the same size.
  • They are heavy-duty (don’t break or bend like the boxes).
  • They fit nicely inside our storage chest and keep all the pieces together.
  • They don’t pop open like the bags.
  • You can organize the pieces and cards inside the boxes, unlike the bags.

Downsizing just these three things cleared out a huge amount of extra space for us, and I bet just starting with these three areas can do the same for you. Then you can move on to other areas like kitchen gadgets, toiletries, books, and knick-knacks.

In our bigger house I would have never considered doing these things, but out of necessity we’ve done them now and I’m so happy that we did.

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Which areas of your house could you work on to create more space? What are some other “extreme downsizing” ideas that you have for making more space? Let me know in the comments!

Me and Kady

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.

This blog post on How to Organize Downsize Toys and Games was originally published on Little House Living in January 2015. It has been updated as of January 2024.

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70 Comments

  1. I feel like we’re living the same life. We moved out family of 8 into a travel trailer towards the end of summer last year while we wait for further guidance during a season of unemployment and transition. We are praying to one day buy and live off some land in a cob home

  2. I made the switch to albums for my dvds over 5yrs ago and have never regretted it! They take up so little room! I actually found ones that sit like a book on our shelf with a place for a lable so the boys have one and we have one. Works great!

  3. I did the same thing with our movies, but after a while they ring area started to rip. As I’m replacing them I’m using a tip I saw on Hi Sugarplum, with baskets and DVD envelopes. Hubby was so not into the idea he made me keep the cases for over 6 months until he realized there really was no use for them. We normally pass along any that we are through with.

    The games are awesome. I’ve done it with some but not all. I’m tempted to do them all now! I had to convert our coat closet to the game closet we luv games that much (and here in coastal texas there isn’t a need for lots of coats, lol).

    I can’t wait to see more of your organizing tips!

  4. Merissa! I was so excited to see that you enjoy the When Calls The Heart series, too! You should join the Hearties Fan group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/544632748969161/ One of the executive producers, Brian Bird, is a regular visitor, with behind the scenes photos, and answering questions – and dropping hints about Season 2, which is in production. 🙂 Also the people who own the land where WCTH is being filmed are also part of the group. A couple of members have been cast as extras and it was fun to read about their experiences and see their photos, too. It’s a fun group!

  5. We moved into a smaller house last year, so I too have been trying to downsize as much as possible. I am not sure if this would work for you or not, but one thing we did to help was we started buying all our movies through Amazon instant video. Our Blu-ray player will connect to our Amazon account so we can still watch them on our regular tv. It has saved an amazing amount of space on the bookshelf in our living room and we can still watch our favorite movies whenever we want.

  6. The board game idea is brilliant! I have been struggling to justify keeping our games because they take up so much space, I do like having them though for a rainy day. I will be putting them into bags very soon. Thanks! We also lived in a camper for a little over a year. This helped us get rid of so much of our unused stuff, but we are back in a small house now and I feel like it is time for us to get back to basics. It’s a battle against all the stuff coming in sometimes. I’ve been working on being more intentional with our things.

  7. I can’t wait for the second season of, “When Calls the Heart.” Have you read the books? They are really good too!

  8. That is a great idea about the dvds! We have a large collection that fills and entire cabinet in our bedroom and it takes up so much space! I think I will have to talk to my hubby about doing something like this with our movies. 🙂

  9. Oh gosh, thanks for posting this. It’s crazy around here in our little house. I needed some ideas. Toy box here we come :)…we have 4 kids 8,5,2, and 2 months and I love your “worthy ” toy philosophy.

  10. I love the DVD idea, Merissa. I learned something new today!
    When I retired, our church was having a huge rummage sale. I taught school and had lots of dressy blazers and good accessories. So I donated them, and God was blessing two people: the lady who bought them and me. This lady was recently widowed with 3 children to support, found an office job, and had no clothes. Also she was left with a pile of bills and was afraid she would not be able to keep her home. She was just my size, so the church ladies told her to fill a large garbage bag for $10. She managed to get most of my dressy stuff in there. My point is this: never ever hold onto something that you do not need and another person is desperate. I haven’t missed the clothing, and she was able to work not worrying if her clothes were right or not.
    I find organizing pantries and closets on a regular basis not only saves money but gives more of an opportunity to things on.

  11. I’ve just removed all but three things on each of my counters and it is so much easier to keep things. I realized that the only thing we really use every day on the kitchen counter is our coffee pot, sugar and coffee canisters, they stack and bread. I stored or elimated the rest. The toaster went in an easy to get to cabinet.
    I got rid of the second George Forman grill, extra crock pot, apple peeler,
    All those appliances I never use or hardly ever, and I should get rid of the large kitchen mixer and food processor. I use my blender stick and small chopper set for nearly all kitchen preparation. Why do we keep all this stuff we never use? Bread machine was used a lot once but I never use it now. I am downsizing to only what I use if it kills me. : )

  12. There are 6 of us (including a baby and a toddler – OH their stuff takes up space!) in an 800 square foot house. We’ve done some of the same things as you. The children have very few toys. Lots of books, but they fit on shelves. We don’t have a television and since we’re on solar, we don’t usually have the electricity for watching movies. So that takes care of that. We also limit the amount of clothes we have. The four children share one four-drawer dresser! We’re Plain, so that’s easier than for some people.

    1. What does PLAIN mean? Is it a religion, a lifestyle, or a geographic location? I’m Impressed you live without TV. I know it would change my life.

      Just want to say I loved all the suggestions in the article.

      1. Plain generally refers to “plain people”, i.e. Mennonites, Amish and a few other religions that live very simply.

    2. That’s a very good faith that you have. I go to a church, but also do Buddhist meditation. Also, I’m finishing the downsizing of my vinyl record collection. Will post more soon!

  13. I am so excited to read this! We’re planning on moving to a bigger house with more bedrooms this year, yet, I’m decluttering as much as I can before we move.

  14. Hi! We have kept our DVDs in a case for years, and did the same thing with several of our games (because the boxes broke), but the extra step we took recently was when we needed to buy a new couch. We found storage sofas at Home Reserve and love them! We were dubious that an assemble-it-yourself couch would be good quality, but they are really great and the storage under the seats is such a huge help in our tiny living room area. For those who are DIY pros, there is a tutorial to build your own storage sofa on Ana White’s website. Now all of our games and several other items (DVDS, blankets, whatever) are out of sight but right at hand when we need them.
    Now I just need to start attacking the toy boxes…

    1. love the storage couch idea! larger pieces of furniture take a lot of space and i really like the idea of reclaiming that space without sacrificing comfort. 🙂

      1. I love the ieda of storage boxes under the couch, however, we have two hide-a-beds, which are worth their weight in gold, for family guests. However, our little craftsman house has simple built-in benches with hinged lids for storage, at the front door, the back door, and next to the fireplace, which really store a lot of firewood, off-season boots, window scrapers, dog food, etc. The one in back was built in when the sunporch was added, about twelve years ago, so they don’t have to be authentic.

  15. Great ideas…I did the DVD thing & CD thing a long time ago (back when we bought CD’s lol). I hear you on the toys for sure. We still have more toys than I would like because of the age gap from oldest to youngest (9 down to 2.5), but way less than I see other families having. I have pretty much focused any toy purchases lately on Legos…all our kids, boys & girls, love them & I feel like it’s a toy that is so versatile & lends itself to a lot of creativity. It’s multipurpose as well, making the cost a little more justifiable…we use them to recreate history stories, as math manipulatives, etc.

    1. We have the metal gorilla style shelves in the garage. I store my holiday totes on a top of one since I don’t need access to them but once a year. Then, once my winter decorations are put away I make sure the totes are stacked in order of upcoming holiday – Easter, Halloween/Thanksgiving and Christmas/Winter. This makes is easier to pull down what I need when that holiday comes.

    2. I keep seasonal and holiday decor to a minimum and use pieces that can be used differently but all year, the only thing I have stored are tree ornaments and lights, my nativity set and my wooden Advent wreath. I used to store them in the skinny under the bed rubbermaid containers and would slide them out easily, now my bed is at floor level because I was sick of stuff going under there never to be seen again and I have two small boxes in my closet. I try to decorate more with red candles and live greens and plants for the holidays. I am in about 600 sqft. I have a lot of clear glass decor for candles etc and in the months where i dont use or need candles i use those for storage, why not have a vase with nail polish in it? 🙂 Also, we only have one bathroom so I bought a travel makeup bag from dayspring, the redeemed collection, on clearance and now all of my cosmetics and hair clips etc hang on a hook in my bedroom on the wall (command hook) I also hang my few pieces of jewellery from command hooks so I see it and wear it and so it isn’t taking up space in a drawer 🙂

  16. There is now seven of us living in a 3 bedroom 1700 sq ft house. I am always looking for ways to downsize the storage and make more room for living – which I struggle with constantly as my husband is a collector. I enjoy your thoughts and ideas for cleaning up clutter and downsizing as they are very practical and do not involve major purchases of storage systems. One thing I find very helpful for me (and my collector husband) is to make a space for something, like movies. Then once it’s full if we want to add more we have to get rid of something. Makes us stop and think if we really need it before spending the money. Plus, what are we hanging on to that we really don’t need, use or want anymore. It’s amazing what you hold on to but after asking yourself, “Do I need, use or still want this?” how much you can get rid of and how little new stuff you buy.

  17. The biggest de-clutter push for me in the past year has been in the area of shoes & clothing. One day I happened to see a woman on TV (http://www.zerowastehome.com/) talking about how she had minimized her wardrobe to about 12 items total! Her theory was that even though we have closets full of clothes, we still go back to the same items over and over again to wear. That really rung true with me, so at the end of each season, when I’m about to put my clothes away in storage, I’ve tried to pay attention to what items I wore over and over again (the ones you love and feel good in)…everything else goes to Goodwill or consignment! I haven’t missed all the extra clothes, and the biggest surprise for me is how much this has cut down on LAUNDRY! It used to feel that my laundry baskets were always full, but now with a much, MUCH smaller wardrobe, one laundry load takes care of nearly my whole wardrobe!

  18. We will be moving cross-country later this year so I have been packing and figuring out how to downsize as well. As to movies…which I have so many, I used a Discgear (Amazon) which will hold up to 100 movies. There are some than hold 120 discs. You can use them for computer stuff, and music CDs too, but I use them for movies and music CDs (except the seasons varieties which I keep in the original boxes). I’ve labeled them Action/Drama, Comedy, etc., and for music, Easy Listening, Rock, etc.
    I’ve thrown so many of those plastic boxes in the recycle bin it’s shocking.
    I love your ideas for clutter/downsizing organization and your lifestyle.

  19. We lived in a 750 sq ft house with no garage for 7 years while we had 4 boys. We’ve since moved to a 1200 sq ft house and now have 7 boys. In my experience with little ones, sq ft is not such a big deal because they always seemed to be within 2 ft of me anyhow. 🙂
    Now that they’re growing into teenagers and are into more serious study subjects, it is nice to be able to offer them a quiet corner away from the continuous background noise you can imagine with seven boys. Often that means offering up my bedroom, but it works.
    We had flooding and mold in our small house and I ended up tossing most of our game boxes, being able to save the pieces and boards in plastic bags. The downside is that our boys are very visual and mostly pick the games that still have boxes they can see at a glance. My husband also looks at our games in bags and sees a “pile of junk”, plus they don’t stay stacked as easily. We really had no choice due to the mold, but I caution others to check with their husbands first and follow his lead, as their children may share his preferences. 🙂

    1. Perhaps you could print out the front of the game board and put it in the bags? One sheet of paper per bag wouldn’t take up much room and would allow your boys to see more easily which games they are.

  20. I love the game idea! I don’t know if I can do it with the kids games…since they will eventually outgrow Candyland, etc. and I’d like to sell those if possible. But those games the husband and I have on shelves downstairs… I might try that!

  21. ALL are such great downsizing ideas! It made my brain start churning about other areas to attack and what to do. We sure have accumulated a lot in our 40 years of marriage and live in a nice big house at present that hubby fell in love with, BUT it is a pain to clean AND I have one of those ‘collector’ type hubby’s who has a hard time letting go of things, and who would not be inclined to agree with the CD/DVD/games storage listed here while I think they are a great idea! SO, I have just been working on things that are mine alone or he doesn’t care about like kitchen stuff. I have purged and honed down a good bit in regards to my clothes, jewelry (I only kept the few quality pieces I had and a couple of favs, as I don’t wear much jewelry anyway), and now have a minimalist wardrobe. I don’t subscribe to nor buy any magazines with all that can be found/read via select email subscriptions or web searches. I do have a Kindle app on my cell and tablet that I read many free books upon and only keep select physical books for genealogical research and cookbooks, as well as a note book of often-used and loved recipes that travel with us to certain destinations. Everyday I am considering if I really need this or that. As far as Christmas decorations I am working on hubby to minimalize that also. We must have a dozen flip- top crates of that in our basement. I went through some of that this past Christmas and took some items I had bought in years past that hubby didn’t care as much about to the thrift store to bless someone else who might need or want them. Personally, I would get rid of most of it and just make a scant few items each year from nature and enjoy the season other ways than putting up and taking down stored items and/or have SO many less to deal with every year (like only one crate’s worth). The season can be enjoyed by driving around to decorated areas or malls or attending local school or community events. Blessings to everyone in the process of living with only what you need and truly love!

  22. Briana, look up! I found I had space up above my cabinets. No one ever looks at those pretties I put there anyway so I got some clear containers and filled them. Ihat space wil hold a lot and no one has even noticed the boxes. You could cover them with pretty wallpaper if you cared. : ) I found space in the hall, the laundry room and you know that cabinet door above the fridge? Why not put something there you only use once a year.

  23. We moved from a 1800 sqft home to a 1500 sqft townhouse. While its only a little smaller its a 2 story and not as much storage. I have such a hard time letting things go. Since i work full time outside the home our house always is a disaster it seems. I so need to purge!

  24. Everyone needs to De-Clutter. The idea of throwing away the DVD cases and game boxes is somethng I would’nt consider. How many times do you want to watch a movie over and over? When I’m sick of
    them I want to be able to sell it and buy one I have’nt seen. Same with games.They won’t sell at your garage sale if there is’nt boxes for the games or cases for the DVD’s’and I’ve sold lots of both’

  25. Puzzles are also great candidates for plastic bags. Tape the little pic from the side of the puzzle box, of the whole puzzle, on the front of the bag so they know what one it is. My kids think the boxes games and puzzles come in are just packaging that you throw away like any other packaging. And you know what? They’re right!
    Same for DVD and CD cases. They’re packaging to SELL the item. Toss it and store the discs in so much less space. If you’re only going to watch a movie or listen to a CD a few times, why did you BUY it? Rent it or stream it. We only buy items we will use many times. That alone keeps down the purchases too. You also won’t have the hassle of selling the DVD/CDs trying to recoup your money, besides having to store the thing, so it’s worth renting a movie a few times and then you’re done with it.
    We also used to have a puzzle share with friends for kids’ puzzles. We would circulate them among ourselves, after labelling each piece in the individual puzzles. This cut down on our storage too. Only one family’s worth was ever at the house at one time, but we had access to many, many puzzles. It was like a puzzle library. You could do the same with games.

  26. I no longer hate our dvd collection and games now that we’ve done this. A few of our games we still keep in the boxes (usually those that travel to friends houses for game nights. But other than that, out with the boxes. I am steadily downsizing in every area I can think of, or stand. It get easier the older I get, and the more we’ve moved. When we are transferred, OUT goes everything we don’t NEED or LOVE.
    it just isn’t worth the hassel. We also continue to try to purchase smaller homes, I hope to go smaller with our next home.

  27. I always wonder why all DVDs and CDs don’t come in a simple cardboard envelope. I have a couple like that and they take up hardly any room at all, and still have all the information on the cover.

    But my favorite way to store DVDs is to let the local library do the storing! At our library they are free to check out (with annual membership fee) and you can have them for a week. I can also request online almost anything I want from other libraries in our area, and while I do have to wait a week or so for them to arrive, they come right to my library. So I save on the storage space and the purchase price!

    We do own a few (like less than 20) DVDs that we own for the kids to watch once in a while, which are nice to have. They don’t mind watching the same thing over and over.

  28. Love the games idea!!! I did pretty much the same thing with all of our puzzles (I was tired of picking up all of the pieces and trying to keep them straight!). I put the pieces in bags and labeled which puzzle it was, leaving the boards separate. If it was a puzzle in a box and not a board puzzle, I cut the picture out of the box and put the smaller kids ones in the bag with the pieces, if it was larger I kept them with the boards. All the bags of pieces went into a tote and I no longer have to worry about them getting dumped all over the floor. Doing the same with board games makes total sense to me!

  29. Looks like you’re making some really smart choices to keep from getting really cluttered. Isn’t it freeing? 🙂

  30. I wrote a post earlier this year on storing our games and puzzles just that way! AND we store our CDs the same way you store your DVDs…I have plans to do the same with our DVDs, but we don’t have too many of those, so that’s lower on the priority list. How fun that someone else has some similar great ideas!

  31. I know this isn’t about DVD’s or toys, but we live in a drafty home in the winter. Just not perfectly air tight, and we use a lot of blankets that don’t seem to have a place to go during the summer. Our solution is to put them in between the box spring and mattress. They lay flat, take up virtually no room, and make a pretty bed decoration. At the beginning of the cooler season, give them a wash and on top they go. Easy peasy.

  32. love this website and the ideas for downsizing……I am older and live in florida and enjoy being outdoors and not stuck cleaning a huge home….therefore I live smaller and with less and enjoy living more!

  33. I already keep CDs and CD-ROMs in hard-shell organizers. Not sure I’m ready to put my DVDs together like that, but I do remain picky about what I buy to go into my collection. I only buy CDs and DVDs that I will absolutely watch or listen to more than once.

    My biggest problem is paper clutter. It is the one thing that vexes me most, especially since I’m the only one who can decide what should be kept and what should be tossed.

    One suggestion I have to people who have paper clutter like mine (think about 3-5 tall kitchen garbage bags full and easily tied) is to think what can be scanned into computer documents. This requires computer organization, but even that can be organized like a file cabinet: Medical, work documents, bills, church, electronics, warranties, manuals, loans, home improvement, recipes, etc.

    In fact, when I left my parents’ house, I took the recipe box with me and typed every recipe out into the computer by hand. You can scan them if you want, but if you have it in electronic form, like I made them, you can give a copy to each member of your family. I did return the box, and I sent a zip file by e-mail to my family members. If the collection is too large, you can share it in a cloud.

    Clothes, kitchen, and papers are the worst for me. But once I clear a piece of flooring, I can vacuum it and all is well for a while.

    A hard shell DVD/CD case is very useful because it can be kept flat so the leaves don’t tear. And the booklets that come with some CD’s can be kept easily in the case as well, while taking up very little extra space. After all, you want to know the words to the songs, right?

    Junk mail won’t stop, unfortunately, no matter how many times you sign up to stop it. Lists are sold far and wide from advertiser to advertiser, and some junk mail is exempt. For this–and I say this to myself as much as to anybody else–getting rid of it first thing is best. I try to recycle as much as possible, and it might be easier for some than others. But I know I must get rid of it right away if possible.

    Now! Physician heal thyself! It is time for me to get off and take my own advice!

    Thanks for the tips!

  34. Thanks for the tip about dvd/cd= I have a huge stand w/400 cd’s we love music but it takes up a whole corner in our living room! That cd book holder is a great idea & I will use it for our dvd’s to! Where did you find the large size holder for the disc’s? I have only seen small one’s – Thanks!

  35. Love your site! Hubby and I are considering being full timers in our RV within the next couple of years. Can’t imagine what to do with the stuff we have in our 2100sq ft home. This will be most helpful.

  36. I love the idea for the board games. We’re building a house half the size of our current one and it’s hard to balance getting rid of stuff while allowing the kids to have the stuff they enjoy.

  37. Love it! I don’t have any children yet, so no toys (except those my HUSBAND has…haha!), but the other ideas are brilliant! I live in a little 600 square foot barn with my love, and we love it! We don’t have any closets either, oh how I miss closets! I’ll have to put your ideas into practice!!

  38. Oh my, downsize yes. I’ve done is several times in the last 2 years, since I started my blog. And again just SAt, I gathered about 3 lg black garbage bags full of stuff to donate, that I never used! Some of it still in brand new packaging!

  39. Hi Guys and Gals,

    This site is so inspiring! I used to be minimalist, then one day I was tempted by a special offer on Sting’s reissue vinyl LP’s – just £10 each. From then, I went on to collect his singles (7″ and 12″) then the Police LP’s and 7″ singles. The collection is complete bar one single which I’m ordering soon.

    Bet you wonder what this has to do with minimalism? The answer – plenty, as I began to feel terrible. What was a convinced minimalist doing with over 80 LP’s (I already had quite a few).

    Then the answer came to me, after I’d told the minister at my church and asked for prayers (I meditate too). Downsizing was the only way to go. So today, I gave away nearly all the excess, and the rest are going tomorrow (I have to walk them down to a charity shop). This included most of my precious Frank Sinatra LP’s. It’s a bit of a wrench, but inner peace is far better than loads of “stuff” no matter how cool it is.

    My headaches are over, and I will sleep soundly tonight.

    The board games and CD’s/DVD’s ideas are good. We only have about 20 DVD’s, and all the CD’s are going to be given away too.

    Minimalism rocks!

    Julia

  40. Wonderful ideas! I condensed my dvds to the binders also at a time when we were moving and I knew I needed more space.

    I am currently organizing and will definitely implement the board game storage. They take up so much room but we love them!

  41. There are some great ideas here. I’ve moved into a 1 bedroom unit from a house so your article has given me ideas that I can use in other areas. I love clip lock bags, I use them a lot.

  42. Wow, having just cleaned out and organized our game closet (CLOSET!) this winter, I can see that I have more work to do!

  43. I know you really have to conserve on space when you live in a camper. We have one & I totally understand. Sounds like you’re in a small house now, and by experience have learned how to conserve on space. Such a good lesson to learn & pass on b/c as Americans, we always have too much stuff. I’m amazed you were able to clean out so many garbage bags full.

  44. While I think we do a good job of decluttering, just thinking of having no! closets is stressing me out! My hat’s off to you. Congrats, you’re featured at the This Is How We Roll Link Party.

  45. We have gone one better…. we use to store all our films in a large dvd folder and ditched the cases…. but now we buy the film online and download them…. all our films are one usb sticks…. it’s great…

  46. Thanks for the article and the update Merissa! When you first posted years back I struggled with using ziplocks for game pieces, only because of past experience with other organizing endeavors and being frustrated for similar reasons you mentioned. I also didn’t like how they slip around and don’t stand up “square” (if that makes sense?). I totally get the plastic containers thing!
    Thanks for keeping us encouraged!

    1. You can use any size that will fit in your space. The boxes I have are about 10 inches long by 7 inches wide. I’m not sure if they still sell them but I got mine at Target.