I recently finished reading Volume 11 of Ayashi no Ceres. After I finish a volume, I always put it together with the other volumes of a series I have collected so far. Over the years, placing a volume in its rightful place with all the others is easier said than done. It’s becoming more of a challenge to not have my stack of books teetering dangerously over the edge.
When you live in an apartment with limited space arrangements it does become quite tricky to find every available spot possible to store your books in. I have to make do with what I’ve got and then worry about space issues at a later time as they arise.
This is just the front section of manga books I currently have. I also have books behind these batch as well.
This hardly reflects all of my manga collection. I have others stored in a wide, clear plastic bin below this stack. Not surprisingly, that bin is currently full.
I think when you start out becoming a fan/collector in anything, whether it’s manga or comics in general, I don’t think we end up foreseeing the issues being a collector will entail. That issue is having a place to put all your stuff. As a collector, you just watch the space you used to have continue to get smaller and smaller until there is no space left. It has become very difficult to want to rearrange things to accommodate the new volumes of manga I get over time. A manga collector’s best friend is shelf space. If any of us is lucky, we would have a place of our own with one room to turn into an at home library or study to put our manga collection in. It is definitely a big dream of mine. For now, I’ll have to be creative with my limited space when I keep acquiring more manga.
How about you? Does anyone have the limited space issue when it comes to storing your treasured collections? How have you managed?
simpleek 
Deciding whether to show my manga volumes on the shelf or my regular books has been a problem. Currently I have most of my collection stored away in a clear plastic bin or my Star Wars duffel bag until I have sufficient shelf space for them. I have so many unread books on the shelf right now, but I find that a lot of them once I am finished are titles I do not wish to own anymore so I give them away and some gaps are starting to open up on my shelves where I plan to create my manga towers in the future.
I’m with you on that. Aside from being a manga collector, I’m an avid reader in general. My regular books are also squeezed somewhere in my room, whether it’s in bins or my now stuffed book shelves.
So far I haven’t read any titles I wish to give away once I’m done with them which is a problem for sure. At least there is an opportunity to free up shelf space for you when you don’t like a title. Me, I can barely find any…if there is any left.
I currently store them in magazine boxes in hope for some day I’ll have shelves for them. Maybe you’re interested in showing your collection at mangabookshelf ?
I find myself staring longingly at shelves in places like Target or Ikea. It’s how much I really want more shelf space, but I need a bigger place first.
Showing off my collection at mangabookshelf would be pretty cool actually.
I know exactly where you’re coming from! As an undergrad and currently as a grad student, I’ve lived away from my parents on my own first in the dorms, and now in my own place…which is very, very small. I quit collecting manga early on with Fruits Basket because I realized how spend-y the hobby was, and also how much space it took. Now, I have to control my desires for buying both anime movies and series and figurines. Like you, my dream is to someday have a home where I can dedicate a room to my books, and have some nice display cases to start my figurine collecting.
I have figurines too! Some I bought myself or friends have bought me some as gifts from anime conventions or Japanese specialty toy stores. It’s a shame because I can’t display those either. They are tucked away in bins until I can eventually display them properly. It really is difficult being a collector of anything.
Yeah, I have this problem too. U__U I’m running out of room to store my games and manga. My big shelf dedicated to manga is full and so is my shelf with my games. I’ve got a bit of space here and there, so I can still squeeze things in, but I’m going to run out of space soon as well. I’ve got a plastic bin as well, but that has all my old notebooks from highschool and university. I probably should throw them away (like I did my elementary books) but it seems such a waste given how much effort I put into those notes (especially my university notes). I’m going to have to buy another shelf soon. U___U
Video games is another toughy for me too. I’m starting to grow a tower of those as well. O.o Having fun hobbies is great…running out of space…not so much fun. ^_^;
I store my manga in plastic drawers (or bins, whatever you call them ^_^), not because I don’t like displaying them but because I don’t have a proper bookshelf. I want to buy myself a big book shelf, but I think that will have to wait because I’m still lacking of funds -_-
Well I do have a small book shelf but I decided that it has to be purely dedicated to my YA books (Percy Jackson, Harry Potter etc.).
The two plastic bins for my manga is currently full and I might need to ‘relocate’ the stuffs on the other two non-manga bins if I’ll purchase more manga. Or I can rearrange the positions of those currently in, but like what you said, it’s a real hassle (but this is what I usually do, and to my surprise, the bin can actually accommodate more manga than I expected).
My room at our home still has more floor space, but really, what I need is nice book shelf. My university dormitory room doesn’t have any anime/manga in because I always bring home with me the anime and manga I buy in the big city ^_^
If you buy a really good bin and wide enough, then yes it can store lots of manga. Good thing a lot of these books tend to be small in size. Any bigger and we would have another problem.
I was just thinking about this yesterday. I’m definitely running out of room for my manga – I’ve had to do two rows on each shelf just to try to fit a significant portion of my series, and it can be a pain to try to retrieve the volumes in the back. And what sucks is that for most of my series I have one or two volumes that won’t fit and I end up having to separate them. I don’t really have room for another bookshelf either, so what I ended up doing was getting a metal rack (it doesn’t have shelves) that I stacked with manga, and it’s already almost full.
I always find myself staring at my tower of mangas often. Mainly because in the back of my head I already know my current arrangement will not remain satisfactory for long.
Separating volumes from its series is something I don’t like to do either. I like to keep the volumes together. But if you have to make your space work then adjustments will have to be made.
Oh, I do that too. xD I’ve got my organized alphabetically so that means Basara and Boys over Flowers are out of reach (and taking them out is such a hassle). 😦
It seems there are a lot of Anime/Manga fans that have been collecting for years, i just started buying Manga 4 months ago so i only have 15 books. so for now i dont have space trouble, but ive been thinking how to put them when i finally have a lot of them. though itll be a while till that happens since im gonna have to buy a bit less monthly so i can buy Anime dvds, figures and the such.My goal right now its to be a really big Otaku so im planning on having a lot of Manga and Anime related stuff. So see,some people do foresee the issues.