One down 10,000 to go...

[Eilif]

I know, I was just kidding around, hence the " ". Good organization is the key to quick building, so pump out those MOCs!

Me too, sorry I should have 'ed. You're absolutely right about organization being the key to quick building. For my last expansion of Brickington I was able to do a prodigious amount of building in a relatively short time because nearly all my brick was sorted. I added a few aircraft, an airport, a lighthouse, and a produce market in a couple of weeks.

[Eilif]

whoops, here comes another double post.

Part 3. Sorting the "little" colors .

There are a number of pieces that are currently sorted by color in food containers that I would like to separate out and sort into drawer organizers as "special parts". Thus, I will be sorting out my basic pieces (already sorted by color) so I can set those aside for later sorting. Also, I haven't bought the additional drawer organizers that will be necessary to store all these "special" pieces.

To that end, last night, I sorted out all the colors that I have less of. Dark Red, Brown, Reddish brown, Bley (aka new gray), Dark Bley (new dark grey) green, that I have significant amounts of, as well as colors like orange, teal, purple, dark blue and sky blue that I have really small amounts of.

Below you can see a picture of my dark bley sorted out. The bags at the top are two of the 5 bags of "bulk" bricks of this color that I keep in a small red LEGO suitcase. In the lower right hand corner you can see the pieces that I have removed for transfer to "special" drawers.

Most of the colors that I have fewer pieces of are organized like this, with similar types of pieces in each part of each container.

I would like to take this chance to expound on these wonderfull plastic food containers. I got the idea to use them from Alan Befords book. This particular model was -and might still be- available from "dollar tree" stores at 3 for a dollar. They are mediocre as food storage, as some have better lids than others, and the plastic is not high quality like tupperware. As for LEGO, they are wonderfull.

The plastic is clear enough that labeling is not necessary, and they are deep enough to store a good amount of pieces, but not so deep that you can't almost instantly tell exactly what pieces you have of a certain color/type. They are also almost exactly as long as my shelving unit is deep. I have over 144 of them!

All right: Blue, Black Red, Yellow, and Old Grey are waiting to be sorted: I'm off...

Next up: The "BIG" Colors

Edited October 16, 2008 by Eilif

[Eilif]

Third post in a row, but I've got a busy weekend, so I can't wait until tomorrow to post today's progress.

Part 4 New Organizers, New Organization

I had a chance to get to Menards this evening and pick up four smaller size drawer organizers. I didn't feel like taking on a big box of basic bricks, so I decided to tackle Printed Bricks, Printed Tiles, and Trans bricks. I assumed -correctly as it turned out- that I had just about enough printed bricks and trans bricks to fill one of these new smaller organizers.

I've found that small bead container trays work great for storing my printed tiles. Here's the new small size drawer organizer with all my printed bricks and the two bead container trays with my tiles.

Then on to the trans pieces

As I have more of them, I have been using a thread case (about twice the size of the bead containers) for my colored tiles (aka headlights). I've moved all other trans pieces into this small size drawer organizer.

A few words about these drawer organizers. They are the "Tool Shop" brand and are available at Menards hardware stores. I've been very pleased with them, They fit perfect in my space very well, look uniform, and are easy to use. Here's two of the organizers still unwrapped, and the two new organizers with trans and printed pieces.

However, for someone starting from scratch, I would recomend instead buying the AKRO mills brand (available at Target among other places) The AKRO organizers are slightly different dimensions and colors. Most importantly for the LEGO organizer, while the Tool Shop large drawers can be split into front and back sections, the AKRO large drawers can be split side to side, allowing for much easier viewing of all the contents.

The 4 containers I purchased today are smaller size than the 8 I already have. It may sound silly, but if I got the same size I would have to get out of my chair to reach the top drawers, and Goal #1 for this project was that every piece would be accessible without standing up from the chair.

NILTC has a show this weekend, so the next update should be early next week. Have a good night.

Edited October 17, 2008 by Eilif

[Guss]

nice ! you did well ! I'm sure you'll reach your goal, you're going to be a crazy builder once this project will be finished^^

[Bonaparte]

Nice job on sorting everything and working out a handy system!

This thread brings back some memories. And it reminds me I still have a few boxes waiting to be sorted.

[Dr. X]

Nice sorting. I use tackle boxes a lot too, they're great for everything small like greebles, printed tiles, control panels, etc.

After I saw this thread, I decided to start sorting again, but this time I made a few new drawers called "small red", "small gray", "small black", "small yellow", and... you get the point. I've also taken all my currently sorted by color bricks and have started putting them in their respective "normal" and "small" containers.

And I really want some of those drawers, they look nice. I might even go to target today.

[Eilif]

A very brief update...

PART 5. Rounds

Just got back from setting up for the NILTC show. I sat down and sorted out my rounds. I had almost 2 PAB cups full of rounds to be sorted. The organizer in the corner (see the last picture I posted) is now entirely filled with tubes, round bricks and plates, and cylindrical and conical pieces of all sizes. I'll try and get some more sorting this weekend, but it may be difficult.

Guss,

Thanks, I'm really hoping to get this done well before my 30 day deadling.

Bonaparte,

That's a neat thread. Time to get sorting again??

DR X.

Watch out, these drawer organizers are addictive. All the best on your sorting. Be sure to let us know how it turns out and what system you settle on.

Edited October 18, 2008 by Eilif

[dj2005]

Great thread Eilif. Your setup already looks amazing and I cannot wait to see the finished product.

[Eilif]

Part 6 Second Stage Sorting.

The sort continues. After a couple days break to do a NILTC show and do some work on a couple guitars I returned to sorting last night. I competed second stage sorting of red brick.

What is Second Stage Sorting??

Even though it adds an additional step, I've found that after sorting by color, it's best to sort by type before sorting into my storage system. Thus, a full bucket of red got sorted into 2x brick, 1x brick, big plates, 1x and 2x plates, slopes, and everything else. This way, when I pull out the food containers and freezer bags that I store the bricks in, the sorting into my storage system goes really fast.

With a large LEGO "tray" style box to sort in, and smaller containers to sort into, sorting can be done reclining in bed or on the couch. My wife was away for school last night so I choose to sort in bed, and the pre-sort of red took almost exactly the length of Wilco's "Summerteeth" album. Nothing like drifting off to sleep after a good sort with bricks bouncing in your head to the tune of a Jeff Tweedy tune.

I'm going to presort white tonight. I seem to have misplaced my camera :cry_sad: , but I hope to locate it soon and be back with pictures tomorrow.

Next up more presorts and "Going from Sorted to Stored".

[Eilif]

Part 7 Sorting to Storage: Front to Back in Black

The sorting continues. Since the last post, I finished sorting red, white and yellow bricks, and I finally got it together and took pics of the process of sorting one color of bricks.

Here's the black bricks in a sorting tray.

As I mentioned previously, before I sort into storage, I do "second stage sorting". Here the bricks are, separated by type: 1x bricks, 2x bricks, slopes, arches, 1x plates, 2x plates, wing plates, etc.

Then the bricks go into the compartments of the food containers that I use for storing most bricks. Some of these compartments have only one type of bricks (i.e. 1x3 plates, 2x8 plates), but most compartments contain a general catagory of bricks (i.e. aircraft tails, 5 high bricks, 45 degree slopes, etc).

It looks like alot, but when stacked, it take up very little space.

Lastly, when a certain kind of bricks exceeds the amount of volume of the large side of a food container, it gets it's own bag in one of my bulk storage containers. I have 16 LEGO tubs, suitcases and buckets for storing bags o bulk bricks separated by color and type. Of black alone, I have a tub and a bucket containing bags elements. Here's a pic of the tub and some of the bags of elements that are stored in it.

There you have the basic method that I follow when sorting a given color of bricks. From the first picture to the end, this process took a little less than 2 hours. This end result of the method is that it is very easy to locate the kind of bricks you require and bring them out (in bags or containers) and leave the rest of the bricks put away.

What's next? Well, I'm, past the halfway mark of sorting. Yaay!! However, there are only 16 days left, so now is not the time to slack off.

New and old grey, old dark grey, and blue are the only remaining colors to be sorted. Also waiting to be sorted are "Special" bricks that have already been presorted in the catagories of tiles, hinges, windows and doors, arches, architectural pieces, clips and handles, technic pieces and minifig pieces. Nearly all the "specials" will be sorted into drawer organizers, and as I sort each one, I'll try and give a short bit of insight into how they are stored for maximum accessibility for building.

Edited October 29, 2008 by Eilif

[KimT]

I like your sorting system.

I had something similar where I sorted everything by brick type.

It was massive and ultra easy to build stuff.

When it came to sorting new sets and desorting stuff build - it took forever.

That's why I switched back (5th version) to colour sorting.

A lot easier to sort the bricks.

Yes, it takes a little longer to build, but that's easily made up by the time no longer spend sorting.

Perhaps one day I'll have an entire basement for my bricks and then I can have an elaborate system.

Until then I go for the simplicity version.

[Eilif]

Thanks!

Yup, the space constraints are always a limiting factor. My current LEGO building and storage area takes up about 2/3 of our den, which houses my LEGO and my wife's study area. It's an area approximately 10 feet by 7 feet (a bit over 3 meters x 2 meters), which may not seem like much, but it's the better part of a room, and alot of folks don't have that kind of space.

As for sorting time, you're correct that it does take longer to sort. Despite this blog, I'm not really a compulsive person. I'm really kind of lazy, and not very good at keeping up with sorting, so each year I seem to end up with one major sorting task. I tried the by-color method, but it was hard to find what I needed, but more importantly it was difficult to gauge how much bricks of various types I had when thinking about future builds.

One solution that I tried early on, that may work for some builders with smaller collections, is sorting by color and then dividing by bricks, plates, and "specials". It worked alright for me for a while, and sorting was really quick.

[Guss]

One solution that I tried early on, that may work for some builders with smaller collections, is sorting by color and then dividing by bricks, plates, and "specials". It worked alright for me for a while, and sorting was really quick.

nice Idea! but I think it miss a "little piece" ( less than 2x1plate or 1x1brick) , that's how I store my little collection ^^

[Eilif]

nice Idea! but I think it miss a "little piece" ( less than 2x1plate or 1x1brick) , that's how I store my little collection ^^

Thanks,

You're exactly right, and that's one of the main reasons that I ended up going to the system I have now. There are some really tiny pieces (1x1's plates etc.) that are sorted by type, rather than color, but I'll cover that in a later section.

[Zarkan]

Nice sorting! Just for kicks, I'll post pictures of my collection, like other people did on page one.

Starting off, here's my big containers near the doorway to my room. In these, I keep my basic bricks, big plates, wheels, doors and windows, and fins. They're positioned right behind my town display, so it's a bit cramped - but since I'm young and agile, getting to them is pretty easy.

Right here is what I call my "personal lego isle." There's a lego cabinent that has a lot of lego containers in it, and various other boxes in this space that I can't fit anywhere else.

Here's four of my biggest sorting containers. Starting from the top left and going counter clockwise, we have my small slopes, large technic pieces, small plates, and lanscaping/architecture pieces (plants, arches, pillars, fences, etc.)

These are all my smaller sorting boxes. All of my modified bricks (bricklink term for bricks with specialized sides), hinges, tiles, small technic pieces, minifig parts and acessories, round pieces, and various other things are in these seven containers.

A view of the opposite side of my minifig box. The top has all the basic minifig parts, while the bottom has headgear, backpacks, visors, and capes - as well as droid parts, a few jack stone figures (don't stone me ), and some hinges that I couldn't find a better place for.

Here's a couple other containers, that have my rare color bricks, technic beams, big bricks and slopes, and some other modified parts.

This is my biggest container, which has almost all my vehicle parts. Everything from jets to tails to the octogonal bricks from Aquazone are in this bad boy.

Bottom of my biggest container, which has the largest vehicle parts, as well as windshields and large animals.

Overall, I'm pretty proud of my collection. I've seen other collections that families with teenagers own, and they're not a pretty sight - which is why I'm particularly happy with my organizing job. It's probably going to stay this way until I get a full-time job and home of my own, which won't happen for at least 6-7 years. Until then, I think this suits me pretty well.

[Matteo Kenobi]

Wow this certainly is a great sorting system your developing here. The sorting system I am currently using is just so awful its not even funny. I have an 6 draw file cabinent that I used in my locker at school for a while. So I have 8 colors sorted in those drawers, White, Black, Yellow, Blue, Grey and red alll sorted randomly, and then I have all my misc. crap on the floor around it.

So I am actually hoping to get things further sorted in much smaller drawers that I can easily stack, since my collection is on the smaller side (not as in small but small compared to others) so I think the color system will work fine once divided into plates/bricks/other hopefully it won't be to much of a problem. But keep doing the blog man, I think we all want to see how this turns out

[Eilif]

Nice sorting! Just for kicks, I'll post pictures of my collection, like other people did on page one.

Starting off, here's my big containers near the doorway to my room. In these, I keep my basic bricks, big plates, wheels, doors and windows, and fins. They're positioned right behind my town display, so it's a bit cramped - but since I'm young and agile, getting to them is pretty easy.

Right here is what I call my "personal lego isle." There's a lego cabinent that has a lot of lego containers in it, and various other boxes in this space that I can't fit anywhere else.

Here's four of my biggest sorting containers... ]

Overall, I'm pretty proud of my collection. I've seen other collections that families with teenagers own, and they're not a pretty sight - which is why I'm particularly happy with my organizing job. It's probably going to stay this way until I get a full-time job and home of my own, which won't happen for at least 6-7 years. Until then, I think this suits me pretty well.

It looks like you have a fairly good storage system. All your pieces are accessible, and you know where they are, and that's pretty much the goal of storage. Have you considered putting a couple of shelves on the wall over your drawer units? 3 shelves could probably hold all the contaniers that currently reside on the floor, and could probably be purchased at Menards for 30 bucks or so.

...I have an 6 draw file cabinent that I used in my locker at school for a while. So I have 8 colors sorted in those drawers, White, Black, Yellow, Blue, Grey and red alll sorted randomly, and then I have all my misc. crap on the floor around it...

So I am actually hoping to get things further sorted in much smaller drawers that I can easily stack, since my collection is on the smaller side ... But keep doing the blog man, I think we all want to see how this turns out

Thanks for your interest and support.

Sounds like you're off to a good start in sorting/storage. Drawers are great, but in the mean time, consider using gallon size freezer bags to separate the bricks within the various drawers of your file cabinet. Folding the bag back on itself results in a flexible container that is half the height of the ziplock, but stays open, and stays upright easily by itself. You can see an example of this in the "second stage sort" picture in my post about black bricks. It's a great cheap way to divide up parts inside a drawer without having to buy additional containers. I'll probably have a better pic of this later on.

[KimT]

One solution that I tried early on, that may work for some builders with smaller collections, is sorting by color and then dividing by bricks, plates, and "specials". It worked alright for me for a while, and sorting was really quick.

That's the one I am aiming for.

First by colour, then by type (classic brick, others, BURPs).

Then I've got a small rack of boxes containing:

1x1 plates

1x1 modified plates and tiles

1x2 modified plates

minifig legs

minifig heads

minifig headgear

minifig accesories

1x1 & 1x2 tiles

1x4 tiles+

chrome parts

castle equipment

bars and antennas

and some other subdivision that I don't recall right now.

That way I can easily find bricks by colour and still look for those pesky small bricks with no problem.

[Matteo Kenobi]

Sounds like you're off to a good start in sorting/storage. Drawers are great, but in the mean time, consider using gallon size freezer bags to separate the bricks within the various drawers of your file cabinet. Folding the bag back on itself results in a flexible container that is half the height of the ziplock, but stays open, and stays upright easily by itself. You can see an example of this in the "second stage sort" picture in my post about black bricks. It's a great cheap way to divide up parts inside a drawer without having to buy additional containers. I'll probably have a better pic of this later on.

Hmm, that is a great idea, thanks for that. Hopefully that will be able to simplify building things.

[MoonCheese]

Good luck sorting!

I spent a while sorting my bricks by part type, and it was well worth it...but I only had maybe 13000 bricks to sort...

[Eilif]

Brief update:

Grey of all shades is done!

However, I misspoke in my previous post, about what colors are left. Thus, Yellow, Blue, and Tan are left, along with the previously mentioned "specials". I'm not sure if it will happen, but I'd like to have all non-special brick sorted by the close of the weekend.

I've got some great plans for expansions to "Brickington Island" but I'm trying desperately to hold off until I finish sorting.

Edited October 30, 2008 by Eilif

[Eilif]

Basic Brick is DONE!!

My wife is at school, so I cranked up the NPR, and buried myself in sorting. Yellow, Tan, and Blue were dispatched in about 3 hours of mad sorting.

In an earlier post, I discussed my bulk storage. As that part of sorting is finished, I can now show you a picture of where my bulk brick is stored. Upon counting, I discovered that I have 19 Buckets, Tubs, and Suitcases (all LEGO brand) with bulk brick.

In all honesty, this is not the best method. Uniformity (at least in sections) is a good guideline for making a good organization system, and stackable clear plastic containers the size of the blue LEGO Tubs would use space better, and make for easier viewing of the contents. However, I don't care. I like the whimsical and LEGO'ish shapes of various storage conatainers, even if not every tub matches the color of it's contents.

Here's a shot of what I have left to sort. Most of it is pre-sorted, but on the far right, you can see a container of unsorted "special" bricks that were taken out of the rest of my collection while I've been sorting.

If I can put off household duties on Saturday, I could conceivably make good progress on this this weekend!

Edited October 31, 2008 by Eilif

[Eilif]

I went into sorting overdrive on Saturday. Everything is sorted except for Technic pieces and a half bucket of brick that I picked up from a resale shop on Friday. I photographed a few points of the process, I'll put them up later along with pictures of the final result and organization meathods

[JimBee]

I am looking forward to seeing your final result, Eilif! I have also started sorting (I'm about half-way through now), and I used some of the techniques that you used in your sorting , which were very helpful. I poured a little bit of Lego at a time out of my big bucket that they were all just thrown in, and I really feel like I'm making good progress. The only thing is that I'm using plastic bags instead of boxes, but I don't have that much Lego anyways.

Edited November 6, 2008 by JimButcher

[Eilif]

Glad to hear about your progress Jim. Be sure to post the results.

The last sorting

OK, so this is the last sorting that I did, I have pictures of sorting my tiles and Technic pieces.

First the tiles

I had the equivalent of more than two large PAB cups of assorted tiles.

Here they are

Sorted by color, except for jumper plates which are stored together. Nothing groundbreaking here.

Here are some of the drawer contents.

Everything in it's place.

One exception to this organization system is "bulk tiles". For the most part these are tiles that I have gotten from LEGO store PAB, and have more than one large drawer of. Rather than bagging them and storing them like the rest of my bulk brick, they get put in PAB cups and stored on top of the Shelving system that has all the food containers that I use for storing my brick that is not "special" or "bulk". These pieces are often used for parts of MOC's where alot of tiles are used, so being able to bring down a cup and grab them as needed has made for some very easy tiling.

Last bit of sorting: Technic

I don't build much with Technic, but I have acquired a fair amount over the years. Mostly I use technic bricks to build the minifig shelves that I keep all my minifigs on. I had one of plastic inserts from an advent calendar half filled and a House builder jug filled with technic pieces to sort.

Here's the pieces fully sorted. The small pins and such have already been put into drawers with the other "special" pieces.

After this, the pieces were sorted out into 12 of the plastic food containers that I use for most of my brick. I dug out the other bionicle pieces I had and they and they nearly filled the house builder jug.

I still have one and a half gallon ziploc bags full of technic pieces, but I'm not going to sort them into the general collection yet. They contain most of the pieces for the old technic R2-D2 and Pit Droid, and I haven't decided if I want to keep them in my collection. I'm strongly considering assembling them to check for completeness and then trading them for "regular" LEGO.

Well, that's it for now. I've snapped some pictures of details of my storage method that haven't been shown so far, and I'll put those up in a couple days as an overview.

Suffice to say, I have completed my project, and almost a week early!!