Storage and Sorting LEGO

[AlexM]

51 minutes ago, Fabulandlover said:

Thanks everyone!

Has anyone experience with the storage boxes from Lego themselves? How many bricks/pieces can a 8 stud storage brick hold? Would you recommend them?

I would never buy those due to the obscene price, but that's up to you of course.

Instead, I buy the transparent boxes IKEA sells named SAMLA, which can be bought with a lid also. Costs next to nothing, they stack, and fit in the IKEA furniture/shelves.

For small pieces, particularly small Technic pieces, I found some nice adjustable, compartmented boxes, named "Lunar Box" on the UK Amazon. They are really nice:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ORGANISER-ADJUSTABLE-COMPARTMENTS-UPGRADEABLE-275x180x42mm/dp/B004O2INQI/ref=sr_1_6?m=A1K4MY34Z7396A&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1508009912&sr=1-6

Edited October 14, 2017 by AlexM

[Foxw]

fabulandlover: uh ya, less your supremely rich (or fund them at a silly low clearence) avoid the brand storage box's.  your best bang for the buck will be to check your local dollar store for the clear plastic toates.  only because you'll need alot of them

[davesonmaui]

You just found a 40 Lb tote of Bricks on the side of the road.  You need to separate the elements, clean them, sort them and put them away.  What do you do???  (ie what is your process for bringing in new parts)
Mine goes like this...

1.  Get separator tools and break apart all elements (Minifigs get to keep hands and arms)
2.  Wash all bricks with soapy water and a soft brush
3.  Rinse and dry (on a blanket, warm room)
4.  Presort with a shaker (Gets biggest and smallest separated quickly)
5.  Separate into 7 big bins for part groups (bricks, tiles & plates, curves/slopes, clips & hinges, minifigures, techic, & misc.)
6.  Pull out final storage containers for each part group and sort elements. I have 2-6 containers for each group. Ex. "tiles & plates" sort sinto 3 bins -  tiles, 1&2x plates, 3x and larger plates)

I don't go super detailed on my organization, I find getting parts roughly separated (25-30 containers) makes everything easy to find, fast to sort, without needing 600 different drawers for each element. 

I know your collection is different, we all develop a process, and can learn from each other.  What is your process???  

Mahalo!!

[Capparezza]

47 minutes ago, davesonmaui said:

You just found a 40 Lb tote of Bricks on the side of the road....

Sshhhhh, I'm still dreaming, don't wake me yet...

I've got those shaker thingies, bought them with a lot of 90ies LEGO sets. Wonder if that might scratch the bricks. Any experience?

[davesonmaui]

Haven't noticed any damage, maybe sulegos are tough.  Some of my bricks survived my brother, me, now my son.

Keep the dream alive!!

[splatman]

4 hours ago, Capparezza said:

Wonder if that might scratch the bricks.

Usually when there is anything that is harder than ABS. Especially sand. Wash first if you wish to make sure scratching is kept to a minimum.

[Grrr]

 

On ‎23‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 8:40 AM, Erik Leppen said:

Another point I forgot to mention and that actulaly I only discovered quite recently, is: you don't have to put all of the same part in the same bin. For exapmle, I have collected quite some Technic sets over the years, and one part that is used a lot in almost all sets is the black 2x4 L-shaped liftarm. I have over 200 of those. I never need that much. I decided that about 40 is all I need in almost all cases, so the other 160+ are "overflow", so to say, and are stored further away. I do the same thing with all parts I have many more than I need (almost all black, gray, red and yellow thick Technic beam, all common pins and axles). The idea is that if it's, say, 5 years from now. and there are still parts I haven't used all that time, I may decide to sell them.

 

^ This is massively important. Especially for common parts (eg black technic pins). Keep a box with an appropriate amount to hand, and then put the rest in zip-lock bags somewhere out of the way. Refill the box when it gets empty, or put over-flow in a ziplock bag when full. No Technic MOC is ever going to need 3000 black pins to hand in one go. As such, you can keep the parts in a smaller box, and have more diversity of parts within arm's reach while building/sorting.

[Jim]

Exactly. Have a working stock and "just in a case" stock. I do this with pins, axles, gears, etc.

[antp]

I also started to use the "overflow" bins for large quantities to keep more useful parts at hand, but I still have a problem: remembering what part exists in a larger amount than what I see in the bin is not actually my whole stock of that part. It can also be useful when needing a part in "any color": I'd rather use those that I have in larger amount if the part is not visible in the final build.

On another note, yesterday I bought two large cases:

At 6€ each, for the size that seems good; found in Action discount store (in Belgium, but these exist in other EU countries)

And as illustrated storing Lego is one of the intended uses.

I'll maybe store bricks in that, as these tend to be quickly too big for small drawers and usual cases.

Here is a photo with a regular-sized case to show how big it is:

 

 

[Jvvv]

Storing minifigure parts is quite "easy", even in large quantities, but what about Friends/Disney/Elves minidolls? I seem to have almost 400 of those now and some nice storage method would be great. Something that is more visible than just a pile of torsos. Hair pieces could be added to minifigure hair bins - but heads, torsos and legs are a little different story. How have you managed to store your minidolls?

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Jvvv said:

Storing minifigure parts is quite "easy", even in large quantities, but what about Friends/Disney/Elves minidolls? I seem to have almost 400 of those now and some nice storage method would be great. Something that is more visible than just a pile of torsos. Hair pieces could be added to minifigure hair bins - but heads, torsos and legs are a little different story. How have you managed to store your minidolls?

Use the same method as you use for minifigures.

[Jvvv]

But the minidoll parts aren't stackable like minifigure ones. It is more efficient (and cheaper) to stack different torsos and legs than reserve a bin for every sort...

[MAB]

OK, I don't store mine like that, I store them in sorter boxes, by theme.

[NathanR]

I need some advice on resealable bags for storing Lego sets long-term. I've been using bags designed for keeping food in freezers, I figured these would be safe for Lego, but after a few months I'm finding that the bags start to feel a little tacky.  More worrying, I just built 10254 Winter Holiday Train after 12 months stored disassembled in one of these bags, and all the bricks felt a little sticky.  The stickiness has gone off after 24hrs in the open air, but it wasn't a pleasant building experience... There's nothing to suggest the bags come with a coating for preserving food, and nothing to say what they are actually made of, but I would like to replace them (I must have one or two hundred for all my sets).  Does anyone have any advice on what kind of bags I should be using, what materials they should be made of, etc, that won't affect the Lego in this way?

[Andy D]

I have been using both Glad and Ziplock Freezer bags and I have not had any problems like @NathanR described.

Andy D

[WvG_853]

So far I have been mainly building official Lego Technic sets, in particular the flagship sets, and some C-models. I have therefore stored my sets in the original box or in ziplock bags when I don’t have the original set. I do not have a dedicated building room. I typically sort the pieces I need in plastic DIY containers before building. I would like to build some big MOCs this winter (Sheepo’s Landrover Defender and Lucio Switch Fire Engine). I have the pieces, but I don’t know how to proceed. If I remove pieces from one set, it will no longer be complete and how will I know what I have removed. Should I keep a list and put all pieces back to the original set when I am dismantling the MOC? It is not rational because I do not intend to sell my sets, but anyway, that is my problem. Any suggestions how to proceed are much appreciated!

[Karalora]

So today I was told I'll be getting a significant raise in the new year, which means I might finally be able to put my new LEGO storage plan into action. I would like to sort first by color category and then by part type, and I'm hoping to find something modular with dividable pullout drawers at IKEA.

Here are the color categories I intend to use:

• Red (red, dark red)
• Orange (orange, earth orange)
• Yellow (yellow, pearl gold)
• Green (green, lime, sand green, dark green, teal)
• Blue (blue, medium light blue, dark blue, sand blue)
• Purple/Pink (purple, dark purple, magenta, bright pink, dark pink)
• Brown (reddish-brown, tan, dark tan, medium light flesh, dark brown)
• Black (black)
• Gray (dark bluish-gray; light bluish-gray)
• White (white)
• Special (trans-colors, metallic finishes, GITD)

And here are the part types:

• Bricks (plain bricks)
• Plates (plain plates)
• Slopes (slopes, inverted slopes)
• Curved slopes (curved slopes, inverted curved slopes, boat bodies)
• Tiles (tiles, modified tiles)
• Clips (modified bricks, modified plates)
• Bars (modified bricks, modified plates)
• Hinges and Swivels (hinge bricks, hinge plates, turntables)
• Round Parts (round bricks, round plates, round tiles, cones, domes, dishes)
• Wedges (wedge bricks, wedge plates, ¼ round bricks and plates, faceted bricks)
• Textured Bricks (masonry, log, corrugated)
• Panels
• Technic Building Parts (Technic bricks, Technic plates, Technic tiles)
• Arches and Pillars (arches, half-arches, round pillars, tall bricks)
• SNOT Parts (brackets, headlight bricks, side-stud bricks)

Additionally, some specialized part types, such as plant parts, house components (windows, doors, gutters, etc.) and of course all minifig parts will be sorted and stored separately from this system. I also plan to keep my favorite sets intact so I can just build them whenever instead of picking through. But I'm very interested in feedback on the overall idea. Stage 1 will be sorting my collection by color category, for which I'll need about ten gallon-size tubs. That should give me an idea of how big a drawer or drawers I'll need for each color.

[NathanR]

@WvG_853 Personally, I keep my sets as sets, and have a separate box of pieces for MOCs and other models. You could just build the unofficial MOCs you mentioned, and then put your official sets back together by going through the inventories listed in the instruction manuals or on bricklink (which adds the "extra" pieces).  True, the official sets will no longer have the exact set of pieces they originally came with, but unless you start noticing severe colour variations or are throwing in a 20+ years old technic set into the micx, I doubt anyone would ever know the difference.

@Andy D Interesting... Are yours completely airtight? I've spent this morning googling and I'm getting a mass of conflicting information.  Some people have no trouble with freezer bags, others say that the bags contain or release an acid that eats away at plastics stored inside - this is mostly a problem for people collecting action figures, where the acid apparently eats the paint and leaves the figure feeling sticky.  I would have thought Lego ABS plastic would be stronger, but clearly not.  I've seen some figure collectors suggest using polypropylene or polyethylene bags (is polypropylene the stuff that new Lego comes sealed in, like the polybags?). I'm not sure what type of bags to search for, what sizes, or how to seal them (go for airtight, or leave a hole for the plastics to breathe?).  Any advice?

 

[splatman]

8 hours ago, NathanR said:

Some people have no trouble with freezer bags, others say that the bags contain or release an acid that eats away at plastics stored inside

I have been curious about this. In all cases that I have read, outside of Glad and Ziploc, the brand is never mentioned. Could it be cheaply-made store-brand bags that are the issue? I have had so far no issues with any zipper-seal bags that I use, which include Ziploc, Glad, Hefty, and Uline. With the exception of Great Value (Walmart) bags. They sometimes don't seal, or they tear along the seal. No long-term issues, though, but it is still not a Great Value in my book.

[Andy D]

On 12/21/2017 at 3:56 AM, NathanR said:

@Andy D Interesting... Are yours completely airtight? I've spent this morning googling and I'm getting a mass of conflicting information.  Some people have no trouble with freezer bags, others say that the bags contain or release an acid that eats away at plastics stored inside - this is mostly a problem for people collecting action figures, where the acid apparently eats the paint and leaves the figure feeling sticky.  I would have thought Lego ABS plastic would be stronger, but clearly not.  I've seen some figure collectors suggest using polypropylene or polyethylene bags (is polypropylene the stuff that new Lego comes sealed in, like the polybags?). I'm not sure what type of bags to search for, what sizes, or how to seal them (go for airtight, or leave a hole for the plastics to breathe?).  Any advice?

 

I doubt my bags are completely airtight. Put me in the group that has had no trouble (that I am aware of) with freezer bags. My storage system of freezer bags and Glad food storage containers (not sealed) in Sterilite 15 qt. Bins seems to be working just fine, of course YMMV.

Good luck with your storage solution.

Andy D

Edited December 23, 2017 by Andy D

[MikroMan]

Hmm, I might have to check up on my long-term storage boxes, to see how my ziplock bags fare.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

For minifigures and other things that I put in long term storage, I use airtight polypropylene bags. They are chemically inert and museums use them to store paper. If you do not use a chemically inert material, there are no guarantees that you won't get unpleasant chemical reactions in the future.

 

Airtight vs non airtight can be a contentious issue. I prefer airtight to guard against humidity and mold, but I've heard people say that not giving the contents breathing space could be worse because it doesn't let out any gas that might be generated in time.

 

The main issue is that food bags are not really designed for long-term storage. I think bins are and therefore most of them will be fine.

[Orange Leader]

I'm reading a bit here about ziplock bags and how they can ruin your stored LEGO parts and release fumes. I bought them from the office store and they are not labeled with a brand or if they are of polypropylene substance. Some of them, the bigger ones do smell a little when I put my nose close. I hope it's not a big deal though, or else I have to invest in a bigger storage solution that will take much more space for the parts I use ziplock bags for.

[NathanR]

Many thanks for the information.  Over the last few days I've been doing spot-checks on the sets in my collection and most of them actually seem ok.  The bricks are generally a little tacky, but it's hard for me to tell if that is just how the Lego has aged, if it's from residual oils off my hands when I packed the bags, or if it's a problem with the bag breaking down.  

On 23/12/2017 at 4:25 AM, BrickHat said:

Airtight vs non airtight can be a contentious issue...

I'm going to go with non airtight I think.  Some of my sealed bags are not completely airtight, I've been able to squeeze air out of them without popping open the seal, and in these cases the bricks feel the least sticky of all.  I'd guess that the bags I'm using are outgassing or breaking down, but as long as there is an air hole to let the gases escape then they won't linger to affect the bricks.

On 23/12/2017 at 4:25 AM, BrickHat said:

For minifigures and other things that I put in long term storage, I use airtight polypropylene bags. They are chemically inert and museums use them to store paper. If you do not use a chemically inert material, there are no guarantees that you won't get unpleasant chemical reactions in the future.

Yeah, I think I've found a place in the UK that sells larger polypropylene bags suitable for museums and archival purposes, they might work for the bigger sets I've got. Unfortunately, I have to wait for them to open again in the new year before I can place an order for some.  I'll post how I go on with the new bags, and if they work well I'll migrate the whole collection over to use them.  

[Jchavoya]

Pardon my ignorance, but is what is the difference between using a bag meant for freezer storage vs just a standard ziplock bag?