Making Room for a Vinyl Collection in a Tiny House

Vinyl records have been a popular collector’s item and form of entertainment for many generations. Their recent resurgence is due much to the Millennial generation who have grown up primarily with digital downloads. To them, vinyl represents something more tangible and a form of creative self-expression.

Don’t worry, a vinyl collection and player deserves some space in a tiny house.

A vinyl collection is useable art. The appeal is the ability to really personalize not only a collection, but also a turntable and special place in a home to display it all. While most music can be carried around in a pocket or a car, vinyl deserves a special space in a home. 

This can become difficult if you love vinyl, but live in a tiny or small home. Those 12-inch LPs take up a heck of a lot of room—especially if you have a penchant for a wide variety of music or love the thrill of the hunt for new or vintage albums.

Part of the fun is hunting for that next great album.

If you feel the need to have a portion of your tiny house dedicated to a vinyl collection, here are a few tips to keep it from taking over the rest of your space.

1. Design your collection around the turntable

While turntables come in many sizes and configurations (some include CD or tape decks), the original suitcase turntable might be your best bet for a tiny house. About the size of a briefcase, they can be closed up and put away when not in use. They usually come with all accessories and built-in speakers. External speakers can be connected if you want more sound.

2. Reign in your display

Once you have your turntable, create your collection to fit around it. Have a small, dedicated area such as part of a cabinet or a special stand to store both the player and the records. There are tons of smaller record player stands that can hold a suitcase player and about 25 to 30 records in the space the size of a toaster oven.

3. Keep only your favorites, but borrow new desires

While it is so tempting to bring home all those great finds from a thrift store or garage sale, stick to your favorite albums in a collection. You can always borrow new or vintage records from friends or even your public library.

4. Keep up the rotation

To keep things fresh, routinely give away or sell portions of your collection. Then you can pick up new albums when you find them. Give them away to friends or the thrift store or set up a shop on Etsy or Amazon to periodically sell popular albums.

5. What’s playing now?

Any vinyl enthusiast knows that you need to store your albums upright. Don’t stack them on top of each other; this keeps them from warping or cracking. However, you should also have a special place on a cabinet or the wall to display a few choice albums as art. How about something like a “Now Spinning” stand to let house guests know what they are listening to? It’s a great conversation piece.