Advice sought on practical mechanics of cataloguing bricks from a large bulk purchase

[Jon22]

Hello, I just bought a large bulk lot (40 kilos) of bricks from a family. It is all loose, and they threw away almost all the instructions so I don't know what sets it contains. I have a storage solution (Akro-Mills) that has worked for me so far with a collection of maybe one-third this size, and I am comfortable with expanding this storage and redividing my bins accordingly. I am specifically looking for advice on how, practically, to catalog this collection quickly and smoothly so I can see what's in it and identify the sets it contains, to set my son up with instructions to build any of them, plus then be able to search for other models on rebrickable using the combined parts lists, and to import the list into Bricklink for use in building virtual models in Studio and seeing what parts I'm missing from them.

I know what some of the sets are, and a few of them have identifiable chunks that are not completely broken down, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to simply import some of the lists of parts, as most of the bricks are loose and I won't be able to tell which loose bricks I've already counted in the import. If it makes any difference, the collection is from several generations of users combined (two parents, age ~50, and kids now aged 21, 19 and 14). The bulk of it is the kids stuff and it has a lot of Star Wars and Ninjago-themed sets, with Bionicles in there too. It hasn't been picked over at all and the family thinks it has mostly survived intact so I'm hoping there aren't too many missing pieces.

So: we live in an apartment where there's no room to monopolise a big table surface for a week-long (or month-long!) period of sorting. I have the bricks in huge laundry bags, and I have to do this job in chunks and be able to stop overnight without leaving a mess. What, mechanically, have people found to work well? I am imagining scooping out a box full of loose bricks each evening and sorting it into a preliminary set of tubs, not too finely grained, like: 1-by-x plates; 2-by-x plates; round plates; larger rectangular plates; wedge plates. I'm sure there will be a big "miscellaneous" tub for stuff I don't recognise or haven't planned for. After everything is sorted like that (how many boxes would you recommend for this first level?), I will go through the sorted boxes and do the fine sorting by part and counting by colour, and entering parts into a spreadsheet as I go. (Advice on a spreadsheet, or directly into a Bricklink collection through the browser, or paper-and-pencil first and only then after the paper list is finished do all the computer entry in one go??) Or should I sort into sets first if I intend to build some with my young son? I can't think of a good way to do that without knowing in advance what all the sets are, and even then what would I do: print out a parts list for each and cross the parts off as I go? It sounds super slow: for each brick I pull from the laundry bag, I'd have to check which set includes that part, make sure I haven't put one into the box for that set yet, tick it off the list, etc.)

Would any of you have done this before be able to share your experience about what has worked well for you? Thank you! 

[Masked Mini]

Okay so while I don't buy huge lots like that at once I have a system to sort my bulk purchases.
I will use 5 or 6 tubs (1gal so maybe 3 or 4 liters) for this, mine are open but I can stack them up and do have space to just leave them. Since you are interested in being able to stop and go without leaving a mess, get the largest tupper containers with lids you can cheaply acquire.

set up your empty tubs and grab a bag of bulk, get comfortable, this will take awhile.
pick 5-6 types of brick and designate a tub for each. For my first pass I'll do 1/2/4/6 wide plates, 1 and 2 wide bricks of all lengths. Get sorting.
As you go you can sort out the big stuff. I collect all wheels, canopies, wall panels, rocks as I go along. Those just end up in large zip loc bags anyway at the moment.

Second pass, grab one of the tubs and sort all 1 wide plates (for example) by size into whatever storage you have for it. Then the next tub and the next until they are empty.

Return to first pass on the remaining bulk. Now I'll do tiles, and maybe 4-5 wedge shapes like 1x2, 1x3 regular and inverted and maybe misc. wedges. Whatever I see a lot of when I look at the top layer of the unsorted bulk really.

Back to second pass. And back to step 1 until all the bulk has been sorted and stored.

I find it improves my throughput tremendously if I'm only handling the parts twice but also not grabbing a brick, finding it's home and going for another brick.

Get a sorting tray! I bought two yellow ones on amazon for like 3$ ea. Raised lips on all sides but one corner is a funnel. Friggin' speed hack man! I can pour out a bit of bulk, quickly sort through the 5-6 types I'm hunting, then pour the rest into a bucket to be passed through the process again later.
I'll also use it a lot for sorting through the second pass on plates and other small bits. Easier to sweep the bits into their tray or bag than to pick up each round 1x1 plate or technic connector.

So far I've sorted ~150 gallons (560ish liters) of bulk using this method.

I hope this helps You.

(obligatory: type -> size -> color groups)

[knotian]

I'll second the masked mini's suggestion. I did one additional starting 5 way pass and that was technic bricks / conventional bricks / wheels / pins and axles / stuff I figured I'd never use. I saved the color sort for last.

[Roadmonkeytj]

I dont purchase unsorted bulk very much admittedly but when I first brought my lego collection home from my late mothers it was almost all loose brick in 6 tubs (big rubbermaids) 

I had chosen at the time to sort by color then later function.  

I would take a tub 2 qt at a time and sort into black, grey (all), white, blue (all), red, yellow, brown tan and green went into a bin to be sorted later, all pink and purple went to its own bin (Where it still remains lol), orange and the shades of yellow went in a bin with dark red to be sorted later.  

I did this over and over until I had he tubs all empty and sorted.  I have never catalogued my bricks as there is far too many but I imagine I would tackle it the same way where I do little bits at a time.

[Jon22]

On 7/23/2019 at 5:23 PM, Masked Mini said:

I hope this helps You.

Hello, I never posted a followup to thank you for your suggestions, which I followed. The tip about the sorting tray was excellent but I haven't found quite the right tray yet. I am so far 3/4s of the way through my initial sort into about 10 categories, a couple of which I have started subdividing.

[Masked Mini]

3 hours ago, Jon22 said:

Hello, I never posted a followup to thank you for your suggestions, which I followed. The tip about the sorting tray was excellent but I haven't found quite the right tray yet. I am so far 3/4s of the way through my initial sort into about 10 categories, a couple of which I have started subdividing.

Hey Jon, glad I was of help to you!
These trays are what I use. Seems they are a bit pricier than I remembered but not too bad.
https://www.amazon.com/Rockler-37081-Easy-Sorter-Funnel/dp/B001DSY5P4
You could always use muffin pans for sorting 12 or 24 types of small things into. But those are a bit trickier to empty one cup at a time.

There is a good bit of conversation in the lego-sphere about sorting and dividing bricks. I try to divide and sub-divide by how I build and look for bricks. If I associate one type of brick with another then I'm okay with mixing them or keeping them close together as I'll find them quickly when building. And that is what it's all about right? Finding your bricks when you need them. So I guess what I'm saying is for categories and sub-divisions go with what fits your personal style.