Tips on how to build large Rebrickable MOCs? (sorting of the pieces)

[HibiscusDrive]

The nice thing about building Lego sets as-is is that the pieces come in numbered bags, and you can spill them out and never be digging through too many to build away.

But when you download and build others' MOCs, whether you bought one or more large sets and the pieces from the next pieces needed could be ANYWHERE in the set, digging for the pieces is tedious. I've built a few downloaded MOCs that were up to 1400-ish pieces. I usually spill them onto a stackable Rubbermaid bin that has the edges, so when I dig for them, they don't fly off the bin. And I need to stay in the basement so I can access my own supply of pieces for my own modifications. 1400 pieces makes the top of the Rubbermaid bin really full, but manageable. I am about to embark on a 4400 piece build, which is obviously won't fit on top of the bin, and as you know, the next step's piece could be anywhere in the pile.

Do any of you have strategies for how you build these large sets?

[MAB]

I sort roughly by part type, then by colour. So all bricks are at one side. When getting the parts ready, I tend to have bricks bagged by colour and type and keep them in the bags. So if I need a blue 1x2, I just lean towards the bricks, reach to the blue area and pick up the 1x2 bag.

If it was much bigger, I might sort by type and brick ID (like my main parts collection) rather than type then colour, but that can take up way more space if you have huge numbers of part types.