How Much is Too Much?

The Wall o'Movies Towering Over the Room I Hope It Won't Fall

I own 371 DVD movies and 17 boxed sets of TV shows.

As you can see, it takes up a whole wall of my house. Well, okay, not the whole wall. Not even both bookcases. Media cases, actually. Got 'em at Best Buy for about $75.00 a year or so ago. They hold up to 756 CDs, or 360 DVDs per unit.

Still, that's a lot of DVDs in there. A few CDs with Christmas or Kid's songs on it, some blank VHS tapes for .. a VHS I no longerhave ... Hmmm ... and a plethora of stuffed animals.

The drawer unit in the middle has ... I don't really know, but I'm sure something is in those drawers.

I love to collect DVDs. And, I've even watched most of them. Not all, but most.

Like, my mother has the Thornbird mini-series. Blech. I just recently got her Roots on DVD. She has watched it 5 times. Me? None.

My newest aquisitions were Ghost Rider (saw), Bridge to Teribithia (in Mom's room, haven't seen outside of theater), and a 10-disc, 11-hour Pokemon collection (austenibly for the kids >_>).

I seem to collect, on average, 3-5 new DVDs each month. Sometimes more.

The collection ranges from Saw 1-3 to Fraggle Rock. From Star Wars to Stargate SG-1 (seasons 1-9). From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to several Gamera movies. From Bruce Almighty to Ben Hur. From Spirited Away to Finding Nemo.

I've got comedies, animation, horror, drama, sci-fi, classics, anime, action/adventure, and everything in between.

Disney and Pixar animations make up one long shelf (3 compartments). Super-hero movies make up a little more than one compartment. As do the horror flicks (on the No-Kids shelf). A couple compartments are comprised of movie series ... Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Spy Kids, Tremors, Jurassic Park, Riddick, Matrix, Doctor Doolittle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more.

The TV series include Lost (seasons 1 & 2), Stargate SG-1 (1-9), Little House on the Prairie (1-3), The Greatest American Hero (pilot and season 1), and a few others. I'm going to be adding Heroes and possibly the rest of TGAH fairly soon.

We have a system for the kids to "borrow" the movies ... Each has a laminated 4x6 index card with their name on it. When they take an authorized movie (which most are, excepting one compartment), they remove the DVD from it's slot and insert the name card in its place. This way they know where to put it when they are through with it. We also have a notepad for them to write the date and movie down. (Mainly because they'll conveniently forget they have watched their allotted amount for the day ... 3 on weekends & non-school days, none on school days, 1 on summer camp days).

I pretty much know where I took any I watch from, so I don't have a card. Nor does my mom. She cannot really make out the titles with her poor vision, so i generally retrieve what she wants to see by her vague descriptions of the movie ... "Do we have the one with the gay lawyer who gets AIDS? (Philadelphia)" or "Do we have the one where the guy takes his space helmet off and dies? (Mission to Mars)" My favorite she asks about once every few months is, "Do we have the one with the girl who turns old and ends up in a walking house with a little boy and a talking fireplace? (Howl's Moving Castle) No matter how many times she see it (and it is one of her favorite movies), she just cannot recall the name of it.

I pretty much know what movies we have, and which ones we don't. Though I do sometimes get confused when we are out and decide to get some of the Wal-Mart bargain bin DVDs. We used to have around 300 VHS tapes before we went strictly DVD. (We donated all those to the local Salvation Army.) There's been more than one occasion where I've thought we had it once on VHS, but not on DVD and been wrong. Or, vice versa. I just return the duplicates and get something else. hehe

One day I'll catalog this huge collection. Or seek therapy for it. =/