Storage and Sorting LEGO

[ScaleCarModels]

On 12/28/2017 at 11:17 AM, Jchavoya said:

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

Freezer bags have a better seal and might have slightly denser plastic. To keep freshness and prevent freezer burn that's my guess.

[Karalora]

I am elbows-deep in my reorganization project. I have nearly all my parts sorted by color and to an extent by type, and just need to get enough new containers to finish the job and return them to their places.

My apartment is a maze of plastic tubs, toolboxes, and assorted containers, some full and some empty.

I think I am going mad. ;)

[Capparezza]

5 hours ago, Karalora said:

My apartment is a maze of plastic tubs, toolboxes, and assorted containers, some full and some empty.

I think I am going mad. ;)

Ooooh I know that feel... And there is a fresh delivery on it's way, so even more sorting incoming on the weekend

I'm going the same route for City / Legoland related stuff, this is all sorted by colour and mostly type, just as you did. Technics stuff and bigger plates are in bins, as well as special parts needed for my Trains. I have a strange feeling that sorting won't be finished until end of summer...

[beverly888]

I didn't want to spend much on storage because my goal is to build with LEGO rather than collect it, so I went in an unconventional direction for storing my figs and brick.  Living in a one bedroom apartment condo, I didn't want to see plastic bins everywhere.  Granted, I do have some plastic, but I've done my best to conceal my LEGO in non-plastic storage solutions.  

MOCs and MODs are stored in 6' tall cabinets with adjustable shelves in both my living room and bedroom.  These two MOD apartment towers are usually stored right up against each other to conserve space, and are wrapped in clear plastic bags to keep dust at an absolute minimum.  They're usually smooshed up against each other to conserve space:

 

I recently shot a couple of videos demonstrating the use of card stock to create trays that are nested in non-plastic boxes and plastic bins.  Standard 8.5' x 11" card stock can be measured and cut into any size necessary.  Glue, staples and/or paper clips can hold the trays together in any configuration you need.  Card stock is inexpensive when purchased in larger packages from the big box stationary store, and is less environmentally impactful than plastic. 

The non-plastic storage boxes came from a big box craft store.  While the box pattern isn't particularly my favourite, there were lots of them and I got them at 60% off.  Each box has a discreet label telling me what's inside.  The plastic boxes, labeled with paper, came from a big box department store quite awhile back.  I'd had stashed away from a previous project and decided to use them, even though they weren't what I'd seen other people for LEGO.  Then, there is the table with castors that I use for storing brick.  When I'm not actively building or sorting brick, the table easily relocates from dining room to bedroom.  An extra storage box area was attached below the table to maximize how that space could be used.  

 

 

I know.  My storage solutions aren't grand or earth-shattering, but they're inexpensive and useful for my situation.  

Cheers!

 Beverly

[PeteM]

15 hours ago, Karalora said:

I am elbows-deep in my reorganization project. I have nearly all my parts sorted by color and to an extent by type, and just need to get enough new containers to finish the job and return them to their places.

My apartment is a maze of plastic tubs, toolboxes, and assorted containers, some full and some empty.

I think I am going mad. ;)

I am just beginning down this road and think I’m going mad - it seems it doesn’t get better :( I have all my bulk bricks sorted but I’m trying to break down and part out some of my existing sets and it’s taking ages to even do small ones!!

[fred67]

It doesn't get any better unless you have some large space dedicated to LEGO that you use to create some cohesive organization system.

I have five Akro Mills storage bins (and one stack on - the first one I bought); I have 14 thin stanley organizers for smaller parts, and 13 large (deep) ones.  I have about 40 plastic sterilite "shoe box" containers for bulks of bricks and sets that are not currently on display (I have little display room, so I rotate occasionally).  I have about a dozen smaller organizers for smaller bits and oddball pieces. I have two sterilite tower drawer units (three large drawers on the bottom, four smaller drawers on top), and two smaller ones (three large drawers).  I have a few cardboard file boxes - two of them just for instructions.

I have a large storage "tub" for Christmas LEGO.

It's so bad, and I have so many specific pieces, that I still need to double or triple up (sometimes more - sometimes a LOT more) some bins in order to organize everything.  Some shoeboxes have my complete colors in them, with every type of piece in it's own baggie (the worst thing is, for example, hunting for a red brick in a bill full every red piece).

So here's what happens when I want to build something:

1) I start buy pulling out the Stanley storage bins with the colors I want.  I open them and set them on the floor behind my chair, because if I set them on the table there's no room to build.

2) I find I need pieces of other colors.  I have to pull the whole storage case out, get the pieces I want, put it back, or

2a) I go to my Akro-Mills bins and pull out the parts I'm interested in.

3) repeat step 2 a whole bunch of times.

4) hunt around for the other specific bits I want.  I luckily have things like Technic separated out - two large stanely cases, two small ones, and a fifth smaller craft organizer.

Sometimes I can't find the part I'm looking for and it takes me forever - in one color I might have 100s of 2x8 plates, so it's in the large bin, but for another color I only have one or two - so it's in the small bin, etc., etc.

The worst is putting together a new set and having 10 little bits left over - all different colors, so it takes a relatively long time just to put them away.  I take that back - the worse is you get a new LEGO piece leftover (1/4 circle tile comes to mind) and don't know where to put it.

In short, trying to do anything is tedious.  Everything is all nice and organized, sure, but it's not functional, and I can't think of a system that would be.  The Akro mills storage is the best for looking for pieces, but the storage density is very low compared to the stanley organizers, which can be stacked or stored side by side (like books), which gives me a really good storage density.

If I had a large room - a basement, for example, I'd go with all Akro-Mills that I could mount on the wall (I have a technique in mind that would allow me to store them two deep to increase storage density).  Bricks that I had in bulk would remain in the shoe boxes.
I would do things WAY differently if I could start over again.  I like Akro mills, but they aren't even mounted to the wall, they are just free standing... if I had more wall space in my current room, I'd be displaying more sets.

On the whole, I over-organized.  I should be happier just throwing a lot of pieces together, but I'm not.

Imagine this, if you will - you work for TLG, and you have a place for building - there's a huge wall full of bits and pieces and bulk bricks.  Even with all that space and organization, how many trips to the "wall" do you make when building something... dozens?  Hundreds?  I just don't get how it's done.

 

[Capparezza]

1 hour ago, fred67 said:

Imagine this, if you will - you work for TLG, and you have a place for building - there's a huge wall full of bits and pieces and bulk bricks.  Even with all that space and organization, how many trips to the "wall" do you make when building something... dozens?  Hundreds?  I just don't get how it's done.

Uh oh... Thinking about this gives me the willies... But I think you made a valid point there: How much organization do you really need? When is it just enough to not let your creativity be hampered by storage problems?

[Grrr]

10 hours ago, beverly888 said:

I recently shot a couple of videos demonstrating the use of card stock to create trays that are nested in non-plastic boxes and plastic bins.  Standard 8.5' x 11" card stock can be measured and cut into any size necessary.  Glue, staples and/or paper clips can hold the trays together in any configuration you need.  Card stock is inexpensive when purchased in larger packages from the big box stationary store, and is less environmentally impactful than plastic. 

The non-plastic storage boxes came from a big box craft store.  While the box pattern isn't particularly my favourite, there were lots of them and I got them at 60% off.  Each box has a discreet label telling me what's inside.  The plastic boxes, labeled with paper, came from a big box department store quite awhile back.  I'd had stashed away from a previous project and decided to use them, even though they weren't what I'd seen other people for LEGO.  Then, there is the table with castors that I use for storing brick.  When I'm not actively building or sorting brick, the table easily relocates from dining room to bedroom.  An extra storage box area was attached below the table to maximize how that space could be used.  

Thank you for pointing out an obvious option that I've missed for years. I have pastic drawers which I want to subdivide; and making my own boxes out of cardstock is an easy, cost-effective way to go, and get exactly what I need. Can't believe I'd not thought of this myself before. Now off to get cardstock and find the hot glue gun...

[splatman]

Empty LEGO boxes are just as good a candidate. Cut along the corner with the seam and lay flat. Larger boxes with their thicker, stiffer sides are good for making larger trays.

[beverly888]

5 minutes ago, splatman said:

Empty LEGO boxes are just as good a candidate. Cut along the corner with the seam and lay flat. Larger boxes with their thicker, stiffer sides are good for making larger trays.

Great idea to re-use the LEGO boxes.  Anything to cut costs and prevent more stuff from going into landfills.

[nicman]

My method of sorting is pretty good in terms that its easy to find the pieces that I need, but also that it does not take too much time to re-sort the pieces since I am constantly sorting pieces.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G6Wagqr1XhZx0O8g2

 

 

[fred67]

On 1/17/2018 at 3:21 PM, splatman said:

Empty LEGO boxes are just as good a candidate. Cut along the corner with the seam and lay flat. Larger boxes with their thicker, stiffer sides are good for making larger trays.

I also use the cardboard that comes with the instructions (to keep the instructions from getting mangled); I cut it and use it for dividers in my Akro-Mills organizers.  I always get the Akro-Mills with the large drawers, and then subdivide, if necessary, with the cardboard.

 

[splatman]

Just now, fred67 said:

I also use the cardboard that comes with the instructions (to keep the instructions from getting mangled); I cut it and use it for dividers in my Akro-Mills organizers.  I always get the Akro-Mills with the large drawers, and then subdivide, if necessary, with the cardboard.

I have done that. Not with instruction cardboard (When did that start?), but with the boxes. The Akro-Mills cabinets I use came with dividers, but in too-low quantity (1 per drawer), so I made copies. They slot right in.

[fred67]

Yeah - Akro mills includes like 4 dividers?  I don't recall.  Not enough for all those drawers.  I just outline one on cardboard and cut it out.  Larger sets often have the instructions in separate plastic with a cardboard to keep it from bending and getting all mangled.

[FunWithBricks]

On 1/16/2018 at 8:54 PM, fred67 said:

On the whole, I over-organized.  I should be happier just throwing a lot of pieces together, but I'm not.

Wow. I didn't think of that. Currently our lego pieces are in an ever consistent mess (2 year old on the loose) and sorely need better organizing, so I've been dreaming of super organising... but is that perhaps a bad idea? If you could, as you said, do it all over again, what would you do?

[Foxw]

1 hour ago, FunWithBricks said:

Wow. I didn't think of that. Currently our lego pieces are in an ever consistent mess (2 year old on the loose) and sorely need better organizing, so I've been dreaming of super organising... but is that perhaps a bad idea? If you could, as you said, do it all over again, what would you do?

Well, tbh, once you start organizing, you will mostly have to redo it more then a few times as collection grows.  I know, lord knows i've had to stop, re-evaluate, and start all over as method fell behind capacity, aka couldn't keep the collection organized so i didn't have to hunt for 30 min for 1 part.

ranting point being, we've All already done it, it's just part of the process,  you'll come to terms as you go through the phases of being a AFOL.  

 

Oh and welcome to Eurobricks.

[fred67]

Yeah.... IDK.  It's easy to organize basic bricks, I think.  It's the modified bricks, and all the little bits and pieces.... do white profile bricks go with white, or do I have a separate thing for profile bricks?  Does a black 1x1 modified with studs on two sides go with black, or with some other specialty bricks?  Here's a shot, for example, of one case of what I call miscellaneous (YMMV):

That's just one.

Where do chains go?  Where do 2x2 round tiles with hole go?  Bars?

So what would I do differently?  Every method I can think of starts to fail when your collection gets sufficiently varied.  Note - that's not "large," like 100's of thousands of bricks, but varied.  What you would do with 50k white 2x4s as opposed to 10 each of 5k different elements.  Now you have to figure out the in-between.  some parts I have thousands of, some just 1.

[ColletArrow]

12 hours ago, FunWithBricks said:

Wow. I didn't think of that. Currently our lego pieces are in an ever consistent mess (2 year old on the loose) and sorely need better organizing, so I've been dreaming of super organising... but is that perhaps a bad idea? If you could, as you said, do it all over again, what would you do?

I went from a big-box-o' parts to sorted by colour, which even though simple helped immensely - my boxes were smaller, and I knew roughly where to look for a certain part, so it greatly sped up my building time whilst keeping it interesting. For me, searching for the parts is half the fun; I'll often come across a different part, and think "how can I use that instead?". Occasionally I'll keep a pile of miscellaneous out, so if I want a few random bricks to make a test or a support, or I don't care about the colour, I can pick one out at random. It will take a little longer to clear up, but not nearly as much as an "overly-organised" system would.

[FunWithBricks]

Foxw, that's a good way to think of it. I suppose you're right, perhaps it is all about the journey rather than the destination.

Oh, and thank you :) Whoa, never been called an AFOL before. That's actually a rather nice feeling. I'm very new to this, never did much lego as a kid other than the random box house, mostly because we never had any lego sets. My husband, on the other hand, loved lego but stopped around the teenage years, so it wasn't till his mother brought over some old lego boxes after our son was born that he started getting back into it and we started buying some new sets. So yeah, I sort of understand the wives I've seen many of you mention here  I felt like a bit of an alien to this at first, but our son loves lego, you know, with a passion, so i suppose some of that passion has rubbed off on me, because the whole family has become lego crazy. We gave the daugther (11 yo) a Boozt set for christmas and she was super excited, exclaiming that we had given her her first boyfriend  

fred67, yes! I've had trouble with the same! All the miscellaneous bits and pieces!

ColletArrow, interesting, me and the husband have been discussing the sorting-by-parts vs sorting-by-colour thing quite a bit. He started the sorting by parts, which felt weird to me at the time, but when searching for a specific part for a specific set I've felt that it helps a lot, so now that he has started talking about switching it to sorting-by-colours I've been worried it would make search time longer. But his point is a very good one, in that it should make MOC building easier, and, I am guessing from your comment that such would be the case?

Or maybe a mixed sorting? Bricks and plates by colour, and miscellaneous bits by parts? Has anyone tried that, and has any comments on that?

[ColletArrow]

41 minutes ago, FunWithBricks said:

Or maybe a mixed sorting? Bricks and plates by colour, and miscellaneous bits by parts? Has anyone tried that, and has any comments on that?

Really you've just got to try different systems and see what works for you; what flows well for one person may be at odds with another's style. My own system works as my collection is small enough for me to know roughly how many of part x I have in colour y, or which colour I'm most likely to find loads of part z to make a mock-up. I think it is definitely possible to over-organise; if you go too far then you spend more time finding the relevant container, as well as sorting out new/dismantled parts into them, than actually building. It's all up to your personal style of work, I suppose.

[antp]

On 08/02/2018 at 1:25 AM, fred67 said:

Yeah.... IDK.  It's easy to organize basic bricks, I think.  It's the modified bricks, and all the little bits and pieces.... do white profile bricks go with white, or do I have a separate thing for profile bricks?  Does a black 1x1 modified with studs on two sides go with black, or with some other specialty bricks? 

Exactly.

I sort mostly by color, then part family, then part (if I have many of a particular part in a color), but for some modified/specialized parts it is sometimes difficult if I put it with the drawers sorted by color, or in the cases sorted by part type :D

Usually all what is technic (other than brick and plates), accessories, hinges, doors, windows, etc. all the non-brick or non-plate related is by type, in cases.

And for most of the modified bricks/plates, as in many cases I have them in a lot of different colors, they go in the drawers sorted by color.

When MOCing, it is often convenient to directly see what is available in the colors I'm using at the moment. However when the color is not important (hidden part) or less relevant (e.g. any non-bright color would fit) then I have to check in the drawers if several colors to see what I have that I could use.

[fred67]

And here's what I discovered late last night while actually trying to work - instead of having containers of colors, I should have containers of specific parts, possibly sorted by color if there are enough of one color to warrant it's own bin.  I then have (as I have now) plastic shoe-box storage for overflow of a given part.

I was working on something and needed 2x6 plates.  I didn't care which color (to an extent), but didn't know which color I had the most of, so I had to go bin by bin - and in my case, using the Stanley organizers, I often have several organizers for each color that I have a lot of, and whether the part was in the large or small case depended on if I had a lot of them (large case) or few (small case).  Back to the drawing board, I guess.  It will be a long time before I have time to re-sort.

Bottom line: If you really want efficiency, then it comes down to how you build.  I think most MOCs end up being mostly one color, which would make my current system more efficient.

Edited February 9, 2018 by fred67

[FunWithBricks]

On 2/8/2018 at 11:45 PM, ColletArrow said:

Really you've just got to try different systems and see what works for you; what flows well for one person may be at odds with another's style. My own system works as my collection is small enough for me to know roughly how many of part x I have in colour y, or which colour I'm most likely to find loads of part z to make a mock-up. I think it is definitely possible to over-organise; if you go too far then you spend more time finding the relevant container, as well as sorting out new/dismantled parts into them, than actually building. It's all up to your personal style of work, I suppose.

Of course, you're right, I mean, I'm not looking for some definitive right or wrong way of doing this. Just. I find it so fascinating that here you all are collected, with tons of experience and pearls of wisdom, and I feel this urge to just glean as much insight from you as possible. I'm sorry though, I know this is a subject that has probably been discussed to death, with every other newbie wondering the same, so, yes, sorry about that :)

 

22 hours ago, fred67 said:

And here's what I discovered late last night while actually trying to work - instead of having containers of colors, I should have containers of specific parts, possibly sorted by color if there are enough of one color to warrant it's own bin.  I then have (as I have now) plastic shoe-box storage for overflow of a given part.

I was working on something and needed 2x6 plates.  I didn't care which color (to an extent), but didn't know which color I had the most of, so I had to go bin by bin - and in my case, using the Stanley organizers, I often have several organizers for each color that I have a lot of, and whether the part was in the large or small case depended on if I had a lot of them (large case) or few (small case).  Back to the drawing board, I guess.  It will be a long time before I have time to re-sort.

Bottom line: If you really want efficiency, then it comes down to how you build.  I think most MOCs end up being mostly one color, which would make my current system more efficient.

Interesting. I guess there will always be a fair amount of checking several organizers, no matter what sorting system is used :) Until someone invents a tag based automated search engine into which one can simply type one's requirements and then the system can do all the searching and collecting. Or until the 3d printing technology will have become such an integral part of society that one does not purchase particular bricks from lego and rather buys brick templates to print at home... 

But that will probably happen after my time. Besides, I don't mind sorting, it is sort of nice, to an extent.

What I do find, similar to your issue with the Stanley organizers, is that at the moment we don't have the transparent drawers we dream of, only transparent boxes (opting to rather spend money on more bricks than storage containers), and then bricks in small quantities in dividers in boxes, so when a little time passes between checking the boxes, even just a few days, then it becomes a bit difficult to remember where everything is. I realize though, that this is not really a sorting problem, rather a familiarity problem, i suppose sorting is less of an issue than consistency, just consistently browsing and using the bricks. 

 

 

[splatman]

6 hours ago, FunWithBricks said:

What I do find, similar to your issue with the Stanley organizers, is that at the moment we don't have the transparent drawers we dream of, only transparent boxes (opting to rather spend money on more bricks than storage containers), and then bricks in small quantities in dividers in boxes, so when a little time passes between checking the boxes, even just a few days, then it becomes a bit difficult to remember where everything is. I realize though, that this is not really a sorting problem, rather a familiarity problem, i suppose sorting is less of an issue than consistency, just consistently browsing and using the bricks.

Solution: Labels!

[FunWithBricks]

 @splatman  Thank you, yes, my husband would agree with you.