How to store and showcase your game collection Part 2

Last time I wrote about a few different possibilities how to use IKEA stuff in order to organize and display your collection in a nice and effective way.

Today I want to show you some additional ideas. Most of the stuff I use in my own Game Room aswell.

So, lets start with the tricky task of storing your manuals. Especially when it comes to Game Boy manuals. There are different cases, how I store my Game Boy manuals:

Case 1:. I own the matching box and game, so they are of course stored with them to have the whole item as CIB as possible.

Case 2: I own the cartridge and the manual. Since I want to have my games kinda displayed in order to see all of them while deciding which game to play, I came across the idea of using DS cases, while searching on the internet. I don’t remember anymore, where I read about it and by whom the idea was invented (but hey, this guy or girl is my personnel hero lol), but it works great. I print the matching covers at The Cover Project (or at another site that offers the same service) and am able to store them perfectly in my Gnedby shelf 🙂

Gnedby shelf with Ds cases, that store my GameBoy games 🙂

DS case with printed Kirby’s Dream Land GB cover

Storage option 1: modifying the case, so the GB cartridge fits. Problem here is that the clip on the left is way to loose to hold the manual at its right place.

Storage option 2: just clipping game and manual to the side. Works pretty good imho (maybe you shouldn’t shake the case too much, but its imho the best option and you don’t have to destroy the case)

Case 3: duplicates, manuals without cartridge (or even box), etc. Well, i was searching for years to find a good storage solution for them. One day I came across Ikea’s Tjena.

Ikea Tjena Smallest Size

GB manuals fit perfectly

Zelda GB manual doesn’t fit perfectly due to its height

GameBoy Color manuals don’t fit that well

SNES manuals do fit but its the same problem due to their height

 

Another great option to use Tjena is to store your duplicate GB cartridges (Note: this works only without the GB plastic cases):

Of course Tjena fits perfectly into the Billy shelf.

To store my (PAL) SNES games, I found another great item:

STÖDJA

Unfortunatly this works just for the Pal versions, since these are smaller.

They do not fit perfectly into Billy shelves since they are actually kitchen items, but I’d say it’s still okay 🙂

 

So, this was the second part of my storage ideas. I really hope that it’s a bit helpful for you. Have fun collecting and displaying!

 

 

How to store and showcase your game collection

It took me quite a long time to find the perfect fitting shelves for my game collection. Ikea offers some great and of course cheap versions in order to have anything well organized. Some of them work great, some are well, okay,…In this article I want to share with you my experiences 🙂

First of all, I am not sponsered by Ikea, lol. It’s just that as I am a collector I searched for a cheap version that works best for me and will be available for longer to buy as one season (nobody should underestimate a growing collection lol). And the cheaper the shelves are, the more money I have to be able to spend on games :D. So, well, here are the ingredients for my (IKEA lol) Gaming Room.

Talking about Shelves , the first one that comes into my mind is Kallax.

It comes in different sizes and you may combine it, as much as you want.

The smaller 4×4 version

The bigger 4×2 Version, which could be used in the way you see on the picture below or you may use it lengthwise, that its a longer and 2 cubes high shelf)

These two versions work great, especially combined, to show and store your gaming consoles. I wouldn’t want to use them for games, maybe for those old SNES Big Boxes like Mario Paint and stuff like that, but their units are way to huge to give them the perfect home.

Of course there are different sizes and variations. I use the 1×2 version as well in my game room, but thats just due to the lack of space. The versions above should work a bit better imho 🙂

If you have a small room ( as my Gaming room is 😉  ),  you may wan’t to waste as less space as possible, when it comes to displaying your consoles. So what about storing two (retro) consoles in each unit, by using something like Variela?

This works perfectly for NES, SNES, N64 and newer ones. It won’t work for the Gamecube due to its height.

I wanted to have Question mark Block themed doors, so I bought self adhensive foil in yellow and white and did that stuff on my own. I think, Ikea offers yellow doors now, but they weren’t available when I set up my room.

Want to showcase you collection even more?  You may use a LED Lightstrip. Therefor I use Ikea’s Dioder, which offers 4 strips, so you are able to use each one seperately of them in different shelf units.

Dioder is available in white or in multicolour. I prefer having the multicolour version, so I may choose a colour hat fits my mood or the game I am currently playing 🙂

I have another Kallax underneath my TV which stores more of my retro consoles. You may see a picture of that an Instagram post of my complete Gaming room in a few days.

Btw., my non-retro consoles are stored in my living room. So there is no need to store them next to his older brothers.;)

 

Another great shelf solution are Ikeas Media shelves, called Gnedby.

They fit perfectly for Wii, Wii U, Gamecube and any games that come in a normal DVD Box. 3ds and DS cases work perfectly as well. It may hold up to 10 DVD in each shelf unit or 8 DS Games or 10 3DS games. Even boxed GameBoy games work fine. It holds up to 6 of them per unit.

 

 

NES games work fine as well 🙂

What is great about them, is that their depth is perfect for games, so you don’t waste as much space as using a Billy shelf for them.

It is possibly to store boxed SNES and N64 games, but they don’t fit that perfectly due to their width. You are always wasting a small amount of space. I personally prefer them to be stored i a Billy shelf.

And since we are talking about the master of shelves, Billy, let’s find out what this one is great for.

The typical Billy shelf comes in two width’ (and is even offered in smaller heights, but I think the smaller versions wouldn’t be that great): 80cm and 40cm.

I love combining those 2 versions, and use them for my Gaming Stuff (and even in my Sewing and Dressing Room).

 

80cm width

 

 

40 cm width

 

Billy works great for boxed retro games, like SNES and N64 ones.

They are great for Special Editions  that come in a very big Box, like Nintendo’s Splatoon SE’s which includes the Amiibo etc.

They are great for storing “normal” games as well, but since their depth is higher compared to Gnedby, there is always some space left behind the games. This may be great if you want to store additional stuff there, but it would never ever work for me, lol. What is out of my eyes, is out of my mind.

The 40cm Billy shelf is great for additional supply to display like f.e, controllers, etc.

 

There are a few more items that work great for storing collection items, like loose duplicate games, that you don’t need to see every day, manuals, etc. I may post some additional ideas and tipps in a sequel to that post, if you are interested in.

Apart from that, I will show additional pictures of my complete room (well… complete is a strange word for a collector, but…) on Instagram in a few days. Hope to see you there again 🙂

I hope this (IKEA) tour was helpful to you.

If you have further tipps for game storage, please feel free to comment below 🙂 And let me know, of you want to see additonal ideas 🙂