Space Invaders!

By that I mean how much room anime takes up on a shelf.

When I first started collecting anime, I got a full sized bookshelf, cut it in half, and made a "media shelf".  I was starting to collect anime DVDs and they only took up half a shelf.  I didn't think I would be getting myself in too deep, but fast forward three years later and now I am out of space of my five shelf media area.  Now admittedly, some of the space is currently being occupied by my manga, but the sad fact is that I will need to find a new shelf for my manga and just keep the current shelf anime only.  I have a relatively small room, so it won't be easy to add a new shelf, plus I like my window mounted air conditioner to not be blocked by a monolith of pressed chipboard.

I have done everything in my power to condense the anime.  Most of the shows I have are contained in what is called "Thin paks".  Let's take a Funimation title for instance.  Since I'm in the middle of watching Sgt. Frog, let's check out what a normal package looks like for this series.

This is the typical packaging for a Sgt. Frog Release.  This is Season 3 Part 2.

This is what I am talking about, most sets are a couple of thin pak cases in a box.  There is nothing wrong with this (Well, to most people. I personally don't care for think paks but to each their own), but a couple dozen of these do take up room.  So to make more space, I condense these sets together.  Here is an example from Sgt. Frog Season One:

Condensed Season One.  This is both parts 1 and 2 in one box.

As you can tell, I got some double think pak cases and now can put 2 discs where only one used to be, so now season 1 parts 1 and 2 can be placed in the same box and take up half the room.  This is essentially how Funimation does their "Season set" packaging, just with different box and cover art.  The hard part is deciding which covers to use for my condensed version.  I know, this is blasphemy to not use some of the covers, but it's the price I pay for getting more space.  Once I get my own place, I am going to have a media room and put all my video games, DVDs, and everything in one room with plenty of shelf space.  I don't throw away the extra boxes or art, just store them until I find the space to put them somewhere.  Here is another example with a more popular series:

This is a condensed version of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.  This is the entire series.

Just read the caption.

Sets are a lot better than they used to be.  Remember the days of only getting 4-6 episodes in a single DVD case?  I don't, but that is because I collected on the scene after most places not named Bandai started to make more box sets.  I did happen to collect a couple of series before the change over, however.  One was Paniponi Dash.  When the series was released by ADV, they released it in 6 DVD cases with a chipboard box.  Needless to say, that took up a lot of room.  So I condensed them down to one slightly oversized DVD case like so:

A little bigger than your average DVD Case.  That is why the cover is a bit off.

I could totally pass as a hand model, amirite?

So the only disadvantage is that the case does not fit the traditional DVD sleeve, so as you can tell from the top pic, the cover is a bit off, but it's a small sacrifice I have to pay for saving some space.  One and a half size case is much smaller than 6 regular cases.  Chobits is also the same way.

So there is much more to my collection than meets the eye.  I will post a pic of my collection when things are a bit more organized, but just keep this post in mind when I do.  What do you do to save space?  Do you just get another shelf or storage area or do you do something similar to this?  I would love to hear your experiences and see if I can apply them here.