We purchased our Sony handycam a couple months before our first child was born. The camera has received a lot of love over the years. It was there for every birth, every first step, every school event, every Halloween and Christmas, each and every birthday….Anytime something special was happening, guaranteed the video camera was in hand.
As you can imagine, in the last 8+ years we’ve accumulated quite the collection of video cassettes. Over the years I’ve struggled with exactly how to keep them organized. Not just organized, but easy to locate specific events we want to watch them too. And at some point, when life slows down a bit, I’d love to turn these videos into fun dvd’s using our mac’s iMovie program!
A few weeks ago when I was looking for a baptism video, I had enough and this organization project quickly made its way to the top of my list. Here is how I kept our cassettes previously…
No, it wasn’t bad. They were all at least living together in one box. but the box was overflowing and it was too easy to just toss a cassette in when there was no order to begin with.
And I wanted some order.
I couldn’t believe it when I did a quick online search for “organized home video cassettes” and found this product…
It’s an organizer made specifically for containing your mini dv cassettes! (if you’re interested in this product, it can be found here. NO, I’m not getting paid to tell you that.)
It was instant love. I did search around online to make sure I was getting the best price. For this size – holds 50 cassettes – this was the best price I found, with the smallest shipping cost….
While I loved the organizer, I knew it wouldn’t be ascetically pleasing on its own. It’s pretty ho-hum. After it arrived, I spent a few weeks lugging it in and out of various stores to find the perfect storage box. I wanted a box that would not only keep the cassettes clean and safe, but also a box large enough to hold the actual video camera and accessories….
I found the perfect box at the container store – right here…
I chose a grey color since I’m not sure what color scheme will be going on in the new house. And besides, we all know a box can be covered with pretty paper. The box is sturdy and comes with a bookplate for labeling…
I brought the box home to be certain all of the video camera accessories would fit…
We’re good to go!
With the easy part of this job behind me, I spent the next several nights going through each and every cassette to label accurately….
Honestly, I can’t say it was a “job” because I totally enjoyed it! This sentimental mush of a girl loved looking over the last 8.5 years of our life. Chalk it up to being nostalgic and getting ready for a big move/life change, but this was just what I needed to lift my spirits.
How did I label the cassettes?…I wrote the month/year or event/year on the top…
on the front I wrote the specific events on that tape…
And just in case the cassette gets removed from its plastic case, I also labeled each cassette…
Have no idea how this moment came together so beautifully, but i had exactly 50 mini dv cassettes, including the video camera cleaning cassette…
A perfect fit!
The completed box/project…
Time to pop the lid on and slap a label on this bad boy…
*Sighs of organization bliss*
Beyond happy to have this project completed. There is going to be a lot of video taping over the next several months as we say good-bye to the south and hello to the bay area/west coast. Am happy to go into this next chapter with a clean, organized slate.
If you have been looking for a solution to organize your mini dv home video cassettes, you can find the links to both products I purchased above in the post and here is the cost breakdown:
Box = $12.99 (container store)
miniDV plastic rack = $13.95 plus shipping (my total with shipping was $20)
$32 well spent!!!
Have a great weekend!
** Thank you for the comments – I will be sending these off soon to have them professional transferred to dvd for extra safe keeping. But until then, I know they are in order and safely tucked away in a box.
so sweet. but yeah, sucia01 is right, definitely back them up on dvd, there are plenty of online services. that way you can share them, edit them (piece them together), collect still shots from them (incredible candids!) and most importantly preserve them. nice collection and neatly packaged though.
Very inspiring and something I need to do too!! I get anxiety just thinking about it. We have the mini DVD's – getting them transferred to iphoto would be great.
Great idea. I think you can find a place that will put them on DVD and then you can edit them later (you know with all the free time us Mama's have).
so sweet. but yeah, sucia01 is right, definitely back them up on dvd, there are plenty of online services. that way you can share them, edit them (piece them together), collect still shots from them (incredible candids!) and most importantly preserve them. nice collection and neatly packaged though.
Ditto the others! Get those backed up on DVD asap because they will deteriorate over time! 🙂
Very inspiring and something I need to do too!! I get anxiety just thinking about it. We have the mini DVD's – getting them transferred to iphoto would be great.
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