Any video gaming enthusiast will know that once you start a collection you need somewhere to put it, and you better have somewhere that will expand with your collection. This is part 1 of my personal storage solutions where I will be discussing the pros and cons of those infamous plastic drawer sets that everyone was so crazy about a few years back, but now put them in their flea market booths for ungodly prices. I will be showing off both of my current storage drawers and how I store the contents inside, so lets get started!

The best part about these plastic storage units is the fact they can be expanded to your desires, as long as you can find a decent deal on another unit that fits. My smallest set is a mixture of blue and grey Iris TG-47 units; at only 31 inches tall it still holds quite a bit of stuff. The tallest has no brand markings at all, stands 64 inches tall and seems to be a very common set as I’ve found additional drawers and sections at the outlet store quite frequent.

When I first picked up the Iris TG-47 I did some research and found that it was made specifically for video game storage! The top is a flip lid with plenty of room to store a variety of different video game consoles, but since it only holds one I decided my Atari Jaguar needed it more than my other consoles. Below that is an open front sliding drawer that I use for boxed games, and finishing out the bottom are 3 drawers filled with miscellaneous boxed Genesis games, empty Genesis boxes and anything else that needed a home.

The second set was a flea market find, it was missing quite a few drawers and the top kept coming off, but it was marked so cheap that I decided to take a chance on it. The two top drawers are only 3″ deep and are used to store video game manuals or smaller handheld games, while the bottom drawers are 7″ deep and hold a whole slew of video game related items. I’ve filled this one with anything from PS games, to my plug n play collection, video game related toys and even two drawers dedicated to my Famiclone consoles.

The tallest unit is quite strong and rugged, but as you can see the Iris TG-47 has one section that was cracked when I picked it up from the outlet store. I would say the plastic used in the Iris has become more brittle over time, but this could be due to previous owner abuse. I enjoy the TG-47 a lot and decided to (poorly) glue the section back just to have it, as I rarely see sections for these come through.

If you happen to find a good deal on any plastic storage drawers I would say give it a try, but then again I have a slight OCD for organization! Make sure the unit you buy will be one that you can find more of, if you ever wanted to add additional sections, as well as making sure none of the drawers or supporting structure is damaged. Most importantly make sure the drawers are going to hold what you want to store, I used CD cases to measure the drawers to make sure they would hold what I wanted before I bought them.

Next time I will be taking a look at the officially licensed drawers that I showed in a Sam’s Scores a while back. Since then I’ve bought more so I’ll be sharing my thoughts on them as well as showing one set you may not have known would even be related, but it is!