Vinyl Record Storage

Records need to stand upright, stay cool and dry, and remain easy to flip through. Everything else is a choice about space, budget and how often you move.

The short version

Good record storage does four things. It holds LPs vertically so no disc carries the weight of the ones above it. It keeps the row snug enough that records do not lean. It sits somewhere cool, dry and out of direct sun. And it lets you get a record out without wrestling it.

Shelving, crates and purpose-built boxes can all do that. The differences show up in how they handle growth, how they handle moving, and how much floor space they occupy when you are not using them.

How much space does a record collection need?

A useful planning figure is roughly 85 records per crate-sized container. That is deliberately below the 80 to 100 a Groove Crate actually holds, because a container packed to its absolute limit is one you stop enjoying: sleeves scuff on the way out and there is nowhere to put the next record.

On that basis:

100 records is about 2 crates
250 records is about 3 crates
500 records is about 6 crates
1,000 records is about 12 crates

Sleeve thickness moves these numbers. A shelf of single LPs in standard inner sleeves goes further than the same shelf of gatefolds, box sets and heavyweight reissues with outer sleeves on.

The three storage approaches

Shelving

Cube shelving is the default for a reason: it is permanent, it looks like furniture, and a cube holds a manageable row. The trade-offs are that a partly filled cube lets records lean, a full unit cannot expand, and moving one means unloading it first.

Crates

Crates keep a collection in liftable sections. That is why record shops use them: you can pull a whole section out, flip through it properly and put it back. The catch with a generic milk crate is that it was designed for milk bottles, so the fit varies and the walls are often taller or wider than a 12-inch sleeve needs.

Modular systems

A modular system is a crate sized around the record that also stacks and, in Groove Crate's case, folds flat when it is empty. You buy capacity as you need it rather than committing to a unit you have to grow into.

Choosing between them

If your collection is stable, you own your home, and you want storage that reads as furniture, shelving is a good answer. If your collection is growing, you rent, you move every few years, or you want to be able to carry a section to the turntable, crates make more sense.

Plenty of collectors use both: shelving for the records they play most, crates for the rest and for anything that has to move.

Where Groove Crate fits

Groove Crate is built to the 12-inch record: a 13 inch square interior so albums stand square, exterior of 14.5 by 14.5 by 14.125 inches, and a folded height of 4 inches. Crates stack as a collection grows and collapse when they are not needed, which is the part fixed shelving cannot do.

Pick a pack