The not lost but hard to find art of vinyl records

I won’t make lists. Well, my Music Video DVDs, and Movie DVDs are randomly in binders as acquired, but numbered, and I have 2 alphabetical spread sheets, so I can find anything on the list by alphabet, and by number in the binders.

A small collection of great music is better than a LOT of LPs.

When younger, still collecting, i.e. quantity growing: alphabetical would require constant re-shuffling, I used categories, male female, jazz, rock, christmas, classical .... (I forget) and then kind of remembered where I put stuff in that category. Need room, just move a whole category to the far end.

Friends gave me their LPs when they went fully CDs. I got up to 2,500 (many not even my taste), then I inherited 4,000, holy crap, what a gift, and what a mess.

I decided, I’m sticking with two 9’ rows at easy visibility/picking height, and a fixed quantity, 18 lf total. That allows alphabet. Like Donna’s shoes, 1 in, 1 out, better yet, 1 in, two out!

these are great, they stick out some, and are two sided

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CYN8SRN?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

I’ve sold, given away, mailed to nephews, encouraged all young visitors to look, take some home. My son turned 50, I told him, take 50 lps, from my 2 shelves, I don’t care what you take.

I still have two rows to get rid of, a member here is coming Friday to haul off a lot of them.

Do yourself a favor, be realistic about the ones you are not going to play in the future and say goodbye!

Thanks @elliottbnewcombjr very insightful. I've already been told no more ikea selves anything new must fit inside the existing space. I'm hoping i can stick to it based on your advice it's not a bad approach. I did get a set of these types of dividers. 

@dsv1 

Long rows, at easy visibility/picking height. You WILL get old, start this way now.

I don't want to make more work for myself, and though I am probably compulsive in some respects, I moderated that in setting up "lists" for LPs. By around 2010 I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,000 LPs, comprised of what I had accumulated over the decades, what I bought during the Death of Vinyl™ and what I started to acquire in an effort to get the "best" pressings of certain albums.

I have one master list that is used for insurance rider purposes but it is not detailed to album titles; instead, for example, I have a significant number of early UK Vertigo Swirls- some rare ones are called out, but otherwise, catalog numbers in a range are used. In addition, any record I bought through Discogs, including some rare private and small label jazz, is shown in my "collection" there. 

I also use outer jacket covers on most of the LPs- and have those Avery blank stickers which I use to note different pressings- dead wax, country of origin and year in instances where I have multiple pressings of the same album. 

Organizing the body of LPs is a different task. I use different methods for different genres. I managed to skinny down the stacks to about 5,000 or so records when I moved from NY to Texas full time at the beginning of 2017. I've probably purchased another 1,000 LPs since then, mainly older pressings. And gotten rid of just as many during that time interval. 

I'm less interested in maintaining an inventory than I am in knowing what I have and being able to find it. No system is perfect. I don't want to devote more time to this than I have to--something that probably varies by person/personality. 

Thanks @whart very interesting to hear as about the pressings. I slowed down in record purchasing and shifted towards a best-pressing available and within budget do to space constraints. I don't want just any copy of dark side of the moon. i'm looking for the 'best' sounding version.