Storage and Sorting LEGO

[TheLegoDr]

Follows Closely - That is an awesome set-up. I plan on doing something like that eventually. I have the wall space, but I need the drawers and have been looking at these for a while. Otherwise my LEGO room will look similar, only I'll have more shelves for display and a build table or two for MOCs.

I've just been using smaller cardboard boxes I get from work and smaller Amazon orders. They work pretty well, but it isn't as neat looking as all of those see through drawers. I figure reuse what I can and recycle the rest.

[ACPin]

Found these at a Dollar Store which would fit a 24x32 baseplate (8x9 minifigs) or 56 CMF minifig stands (8x7 minifigs) plus room for accessories. They're cheap (only a buck each), stackable (five on top should be fine) and clear so you don't have to open them when you're searching for the minifig that you need for that all-important MOC! Go get them!

AC

[BrickG]

My floor has been covered in Lego for almost a week now. I've been slowly sorting them.. haven't gotten very far... this is the kind of mess that will be around for a while.

[brodey1]

I have about 20,000 or so pieces. I want to organize my collection, but keep it accessible for building. I do not have very much room for storage. What would the community recommend? I am leaning towards an akron-mils drawer unit, but i would like to hear some suggestions. Thanks.

[xinbei]

I just recently decide to organize my bricks. According to rebrickable.com I have more than 25000 bricks (which is more than I can handle and find anything I want without sorting).

I use Sterile 5-drawer containers and some shoebox containers (a bundle of 14pk) found in Costco to sort my bricks.

I also use some small organizing boxes to store tiny Lego parts:

When building a set, I use a bunch of frozen Asian food (like bun, shumai...) containers to sort the bricks.

[TanTile]

Hey guys, i'm in the middle of opening Sets to part out for Future MOCs, and i would like everyones opinions on what they do with the minfig weapons and accessories that are with the mini Fig at the start of "building instuctions"? do you keep them with the Fig or do you sort them into types?

[BrickG]

Geeze just looking at the hints of some of you peoples collections... I'm taking forever just to organize mine and I've got like 1/100th the amount apparently. :/

[mdoupe]

What are those subcontainers in the shoeboxes (in the second pic)?

[xinbei]

What are those subcontainers in the shoeboxes (in the second pic)?

Those are boxes made of the plastic bags in LEGO sets.

[Vindicare]

Those are boxes made of the plastic bags in LEGO sets.

Genius!

[TheLegoDr]

I just went to the Dollar Tree store thanks to ACPin. They had a whole bunch of those containers plus many others that could be good for storage. I ultimately decided not to buy any, but I had some in my hand ready to go. They do seem pretty decent and probably will hold quite a bit. I am sure I will look into Dollar Tree again when I need to finalize my storage solutions.

I definitely want storage dividers in drawers. I think that is the best idea. I Just need to find some good sized dividers.

[ACPin]

I just went to the Dollar Tree store thanks to ACPin. They had a whole bunch of those containers plus many others that could be good for storage. I ultimately decided not to buy any, but I had some in my hand ready to go. They do seem pretty decent and probably will hold quite a bit. I am sure I will look into Dollar Tree again when I need to finalize my storage solutions.

I definitely want storage dividers in drawers. I think that is the best idea. I Just need to find some good sized dividers.

They do have quite a bit of inventory and there are also shoeboxes which I've bought to store regular bricks. Those I've bought were specifically for the minifigs and that's how I intend to keep them going forward.

AC

[Doctor Whom]

My sorting methods have evolved over time.

Phase 1 - Stuff with drawers. Didn't like it. Stuff kept getting caught/jammed, stuff fell out of one drawer and into another, blech!

Phase 2 - Tackle/utility boxes. For a long time, I was trying to use these primarily. Except whenever I had too much of something to fit into a section of the tackle box, I'd put the overflow somewhere else. Eventually I was using ziploc bags for that purpose.

Phase Now - Eventually I discovered that when I was building, I was going to the bags of stuff(stuff I had a lot of) more often than the bins. So I'm converting to ziploc bags entirely.

I sort by color first, then type. Each bag only has one type of piece in it(I've gone truly nuts as far as that goes. I have many bags with only one piece inside). Each bag also has a 1/4 piece of index card with the part number, color, and description. Every time I make a new index card, I document it in a speadsheet so that I never have two bags for the same part. I use 6 different sizes of bag: Gallon, Quart, sandwich, and snack size, which are available in grocery stores, and two sizes of small bags found in the craft section of Wal-Mart, or Michaels, or Hobby Lobby. Minifigs are stored in the smallest bag, and labelled with the set that they came with or where I got them(this helps me keep track of which sets I have).

The bags get stored in Sterilite/Rubbermaid Containers of various sizes. The rhyme/reason for what goes where is still evolving. I have some large 41 qt containers, but I'm starting to like smaller containers better.

When sorting: first I sort by color, then use the fishing tackle boxes to separate them by type, then send them to the bags.

When building, I find the bags for the pieces I need and move them to the table, where I have some stackable bins to hold the bags of pieces that I am working with. From time to time I clear out those bins to make room for more bags.

Right now the biggest issue that I have is that this system is a pain to get started, but hopefully won't be that bad to maintain.

[tomdobs55]

I tried Ziploc bags and I wasn't happy with it. The only thing was it didn't take as much space as my new boxes. I might try a combination or both for when I start the storage phase. Sorting is a blast though

[Phoxtane]

Zip-top and other plastic bags work, until the sharp edges of the bricks poke holes in them. I speak from personal experience... that was a mess!

[tomdobs55]

Zip-top and other plastic bags work, until the sharp edges of the bricks poke holes in them. I speak from personal experience... that was a mess!

That's pretty much exactly why I don't use them anymore.

[splatman]

Zip-top and other plastic bags work, until the sharp edges of the bricks poke holes in them. I speak from personal experience... that was a mess!

Freezer bags, being made of thicker plastic, are more durable. Did you use them? How did they hold?

The bags that shredded cheese comes in, seem to be even more durable, but, of course, there's the whole issue of having to wash them first. And use labels. Probably something to use if you're in a pinch.

[Andy D]

Freezer bags, being made of thicker plastic, are more durable. Did you use them? How did they hold?

The bags that shredded cheese comes in, seem to be even more durable, but, of course, there's the whole issue of having to wash them first. And use labels. Probably something to use if you're in a pinch.

I do use freezer bags in both the quart and gallon size. They meet my needs for temporary or long term storage. Not something I get into, open and close often. They do have problems with frequent handling, but I simply replace the bag when it has deteroriated. For the price and convenience you can't beat them for certain applications. I generally use Ziplock brand. For most of my storage needs I am transitioning from the Akro Mils drawers to Gladware entree size food storage boxes mainly for convenience and price.

Andy D

Edited June 23, 2013 by Andy D

[Paul B Technic]

More display than storage but I thought it would be worth posting.

http://mizibunktechn...me-display.html

Edited February 2, 2013 by Paul B

[Balrog]

I am here to bring up some new information on the storage containers from Aldi Süd in Germany. So for all Germans, here is a interesting note. From Thursday to Saturday, Aldi Süd offers again the stackable storage containers for 6,99€. More info and pictures are here: Click this link.

I personally will get 2 or 3 more of those so I can finally store away my LotR sets.

[The Player Nº1]

Here in Portugal there are boxes identical to those, very familiar to AFOLs. They are the SUC:

[Darth Wayne]

I'm beginning to have some trouble organising my sets and pieces these days. For instance, what do you guys do with the sets you get as a "parts pack" but at the same time as a display piece? Say you no longer display it but want to keep the pieces together for collector reasons and in case you want to rebuild it later?

I'm simply having trouble with the idea of integrating these set pieces into my collective brick drawer, i guess the collector and the MOC builder clash within me and i don't know of any practical solution :(

Sure you could always try and look for all the pieces again later if you want to rebuild a set some day but imagine the HASSLE if it's either a huge set or if it's multiple sets we're talking about? So if i keep them separate, i can't use them for MOCs :(

The solution would be to buy each set twice, once for collection and display purposes and once to integrate the pieces into my MOC drawer collective lol but my wallet would cry!

Edited February 3, 2013 by Darth Wayne

[Kristel]

I'm beginning to have some trouble organising my sets and pieces these days. For instance, what do you guys do with the sets you get as a "parts pack" but at the same time as a display piece? Say you no longer display it but want to keep the pieces together for collector reasons and in case you want to rebuild it later?

I struggled with this also at the start because it is hard to pull out ~2,000 pieces for a specific set once you've integrated them into your parts storage. However, I have found over time that I like building from instructions less and less, and tend to only build sets once, then integrate them into parts storage. But that's me, I prefer to do MOCs and see sets now more for the parts than anything else.

[tomylord]

nice read for reference..

[antp]

I am here to bring up some new information on the storage containers from Aldi Süd in Germany.

They were for sale in Aldi in Belgium recently, I bought one of each. They are a little smaller than those I already had, but for the price it is indeed a good deal for storing Lego parts, at least for small parts.

A good point is that they provide a lot of plastic separators to add in the trays (more expensive container makers often sold these separately, if they are even available).

Edited February 4, 2013 by antp