Storage and Sorting LEGO

[lorax]

I use any hollow container I can find to store my Lego. I do have a preference of few different containers (The sistema 5L clipit container is a new favourite) and also fishing tackle boxes (big clear ones).

I also like 20 to 30L containers for bricks and plates.

I don't particularly like drawers (although I do use some). When they get full I find they are hard to open, and will fix themselves by scraping the top elements and they fall into the next layer). If they are not full, they are good (I find especially for small technic pieces and minifig accessories).

I wish I had a clear idea when I started to collect Lego, because now my collection is a huge mess of mis-matched containers. (Although when I started I used zip-lock lunch bags stored in ice-cream containers

Lego storage - workspace by tikitikitembo, on Flickr

[Lionheart]

If I look around this beautiful and inspiring thread I notice that most people with large collections sort their Lego by colour and subsequently by the various different and special parts. At the moment I don't have room for anything elaborate (I'm still waiting to find proper housing -- here in the Netherlands the housing situation is FUBAR), so I just use ziplock bags to store sets as I purchase, build and dismantle them, and store those in flat, stretched containers that roll under my bed and various other places.

My cupboards also overflow with ziplock bags :)

But my question here is how do you feel about sorting as described above, versus sorting by set or theme? Say that everything gets mixed by colour, isn't it a hassle then when you want to rebuild a particular set? Considering the prevalence of the former system with larger collection, I assume it is the more robust option. But part of me rebels against breaking up and spreading all the various sets I have into nondescript piles of Lego.

[lorax]

But my question here is how do you feel about sorting as described above, versus sorting by set or theme?

I don't rebuild sets, so for me, storing in sets wouldn't be that useful, however, if I was more set focused I would sort in sets. I have always sorted my basic bricks and plates by colour, but until recently I had my small parts sorted by type then colour (For example I had tackle box with modified tiles, sorted into type then colour). So if I wanted a white jumper, I took out the modified tile box.

This is ok, but when I build, I find that I might use lots of white small specialty parts, so I have started the slow process of sorting almost everything into colour lots (so if I need lots of small white specialty blocks, I take out the white boxes).

So how you sort will reflect your building style (and the way your brain works).

[fred67]

But my question here is how do you feel about sorting as described above, versus sorting by set or theme?

My way, which doesn't seem to have been very popular, although I still think it's better, is to sort by piece first, then by color. Ask yourself if it's easier to find a yellow 2x2 brick in a drawer (or baggie, box, whatever) of 2x2 bricks, or if it's easier to find one in a drawer of yellow. Unless you're color blind, it's a lot easier to pick yellow out of a bunch of different colors than pick a 2x2 out of a mess of all shapes of the same color. If I start getting a significant number of any one color, it gets separated out by itself. As I buy more storage containers, I am more likely to separate out colors and store colors together in groups, but still separate out parts, so it's getting more specific. Hopefully, when I have the room, it will be one akro-mills container per one or two colors (assuming I have enough of a color to justify it).

But to answer your question, I like my sets... I don't often MOC with sets.. I buy sets because I like them. If I have to store them, I store them as sets. If I'm buying a set to MOC with (very rare), then I will separate it out into it's pieces and store them along with pieces. I have this mental disorder where I can't buy a set and not build it and keep it as a set. If I want the pieces from it, I need to buy two (or more).

[LEGO Guy Bri]

At the start of my collection storage was just keeping all my sets in "the Lego Room". As that filled up I started purchasing an assortment of containers varying in size and shape. They were easier to move to the attic. I didn't start bulk buying the large low profile containers until recently after I took down my city. Now there are 27 40x20x8 inch low pro containers, 8 22x15x12 bins, 6 smaller containers, a few cardboard boxes for 9v tracks, road plates, trees, fences, signs, etc. And, of course 6 sorting drawer boxes and many unopened sets. I sort BL ordered pieces by color, relevancy, etc. I prefer not to part out my sets. All of this fit in in the triangular shaped "Lego Room" seen in link below

More storage

Edited October 10, 2011 by Leg Godt Gud

[Modulex Guy]

[Niku]

I have to agree with Polish Guy, at first just that picture is a wow.

But then I looked on your brickshelf gallery and turn into a big WOW.

[Yucca Patrol]

I need to seriously study this thread. I just spent all day sorting over 60 pounds of yard sale LEGO. I only sorted by color and tossed out the few random megabloks and still have 30 more pounds of mixed bricks to sort through. My current system of handled compartment boxes simply will NOT accommodate what I am sorting through now!

[SNIPE]

I use two 30 drawer cabs and a 20 drawer cab and a storage box which is 'meccano' as well as temporary stuff

for lego system I temorerily use a storage box

these cabs are good because they have small draws however after sorting %90 of m technik out I out the cabs on the windowcil where they do not get in the way however my mother opnes the window when the latch on it is not very good and instead of it opening the usual way which is fine it swings open like a door because its really windy so all that stuff gets knocked off

Now I cant be bothered to sort it out, this is not the first time she has knocked these cabs over.

[Concept]

Now that I have seen what some of you have got in the way of sheer numbers of Lego I have realised that I do not have a problem at all. In fact I am a mear amature lol.

I sort into large, transparent tackle boxes but I only have a few as the sets I buy I usually display. I also havent had the need to go into colour lots but can see the value in this method. I also have some of those stackable minifig cases that look like lego brick. I like them anyway :)

[Brickdoctor]

My way, which doesn't seem to have been very popular, although I still think it's better, is to sort by piece first, then by color. Ask yourself if it's easier to find a yellow 2x2 brick in a drawer (or baggie, box, whatever) of 2x2 bricks, or if it's easier to find one in a drawer of yellow. Unless you're color blind, it's a lot easier to pick yellow out of a bunch of different colors than pick a 2x2 out of a mess of all shapes of the same color. If I start getting a significant number of any one color, it gets separated out by itself. As I buy more storage containers, I am more likely to separate out colors and store colors together in groups, but still separate out parts, so it's getting more specific. Hopefully, when I have the room, it will be one akro-mills container per one or two colors (assuming I have enough of a color to justify it).

Same here. Especially when you have a small to medium-sized collection wherein you can't sort by both but will end up with significant amounts of different parts of one color. (around 20k for me; I separate by piece type only and have larger bins for bricks like 2x4s)

I don't rebuild my sets, either, so it doesn't matter if I can't find something to rebuild a set. Though with a properly sorted collection, rebuilding anything should be a breeze. Sorting by set would force me to dig through all the sets or have an inventory of each one to find the piece I want if I made an MOC, and then I'd have to figure out where it came from when I was done with it.

[Sid Sidious]

I don't have too much space, so I have 2 stacks of drawers. Each drawer is about a foot wide and 1.5 feet long. One stack has 6 drawers about 2.5 inches deep. The other stack has 3 drawers about the same size as the first stack, 4 drawers about an inch or an inch and a half deep, and 2 drawers about an inch or 1.5 inches deep with compartments. In the first stacks of drawers I have yellow, red, white, light grey, basic blue, and specialized blue bricks. In the large drawers in the second stack I have basic black, specialized black, and dark grey. In the smaller non-compartmentalized drawers I have greens, browns, oranges, and tires. In the compartmentalized drawers I have small Tehnic pieces and minifigures and minifig pieces. I also have 4 bins with about the same volume as a large drawer. In these I have black Technic, grey and silver Technic, warm colored (red, orange, yellow, brown, gold, etc.) Technic, and cool colored (blue, green, purple, white, etc.) Technic. I have my Bionicles assembled and on some shelves. I have a few sets assembled and in various locations around my room. I keep whatever MOCs I have on top of my brick drawers.

I forgot to mention that I use the plastic buckets that bulk bricks come in for storing railroad tracks and the pieces for a MOC I'm working on. I also have a box of train stuff.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Sid Sidious

[Moz]

Went out today and bought some timber to make shelving. And more storage trays for Lego to put on the shelves. So now I have a desk covered in Technic in wooden trays that I've made, then shelves over that to hold plastic trays of parts.

FWIW, I progress from a compartment with "parts like that" to several compartments with specific parts to specific parts split by colour. You can see the trays full of red bricks on the shelf plus the other with yellow/white and "other colours".

The gap back right of the desk is intentional - it gives me somewhere to put extra parts and sub-assemblies while I work. Right now the big red bins I'm making use a lot of red 1x5x6 panels, so there's a bag of those there. Plus other stuff, like the IR remote control and battery boxes etc. When I'm working I push the right front tray further right to give me more space, but it gets moved left when I'm doing other things. Like, say, building shelves...

[Yucca Patrol]

Interesting contrast of materials storing plastic LEGO in those custom wooden trays.

[Moz]

Interesting contrast of materials storing plastic LEGO in those custom wooden trays.

Yes, it does seem weird in a way. But it works. I'm not sure I'd make custom plastic trays even if I could. And I spend a fair bit of time cursing the awkward sizing of the plastic trays that I do use... especially the "almost 16 long" larger compartments. So wood is all about being able to make it exactly the size that I want (and cursing myself when it turns out that what I want doesn't work )

[malleable]

I'm looking for advice on whether parting out minifigs is a good idea. Right now I have all of my minifigs stored assembled (with headgear, bodywear, and in some cases tools) by theme in small plastic bags in a Sterilite shoe box.

The completist in me wants to keep them together for easy inventory and play, but the idea of a container of just minifig heads or torsos or legs seems good for MOCing.

Does anyone have a preference or personal experience with storing them complete/parted out?

[happymark]

I would say both.

I try to put them by themes ( Starwars, toy story, police and firefighter, harry potter, pirates, blue coat and red coats, castles etc)

but I also keep some loose pieces (arms, helmets, unrecognized torsos..) but No. not completely parted out

I would say most of them 80-90% are by themes (although some are mixed already ...by kids :( )

I'm looking for advice on whether parting out minifigs is a good idea. Right now I have all of my minifigs stored assembled (with headgear, bodywear, and in some cases tools) by theme in small plastic bags in a Sterilite shoe box.

The completist in me wants to keep them together for easy inventory and play, but the idea of a container of just minifig heads or torsos or legs seems good for MOCing.

Does anyone have a preference or personal experience with storing them complete/parted out?

[Darkdragon]

Does anyone have a preference or personal experience with storing them complete/parted out?

Since I don't collect anything (sets, minifigs, themes), I don't care about keeping figs together. I have them all parted out. I have heads separated by print (bearded, glasses, ladies, sunglasses, etc). I have torsos separated by color. I have legs separated by color with printed legs separate and also by color. I have weapons and tools separated by type. I have hair separated by color and typical gender.

There is a photo of my minifig heads box in this thread. That has since been updated to a larger box but the basic idea is the same.

[Darkdragon]

Well I just got a photo of my whole LEGO room (except the closet which I was standing in).

Along the two walls is shelving which holds bins of sorted parts (by type), top of shelves is mostly small drawer systems for more fine grain sorting. Tables are for building. The tan 5 drawer unit is where I keep basic bricks sorted by size and plates 4x4 and larger. Under the table is unsorted stuff.

Closet is unopened sets and more boxes of unsorted stuff.

Hopefully this is a good overview of a few different sorting methods in one photo.

[dr_spock]

Well I just got a photo of my whole LEGO room (except the closet which I was standing in).

Along the two walls is shelving which holds bins of sorted parts (by type), top of shelves is mostly small drawer systems for more fine grain sorting. Tables are for building. The tan 5 drawer unit is where I keep basic bricks sorted by size and plates 4x4 and larger. Under the table is unsorted stuff.

Closet is unopened sets and more boxes of unsorted stuff.

Hopefully this is a good overview of a few different sorting methods in one photo.

Nice photo setup. What type of compact flourescent bulbs do you use?

Does the minifig head sorter on the back shelf help with sorting?

[TypoCorrecto]

My latest storage set-up...Still trying to organize everything just right...

[Darkdragon]

Nice photo setup. What type of compact flourescent bulbs do you use?

Thanks. I use ALZO 45W CFL Video-Lux® Photo Light Bulb 5600K and 30 Watt Compact Fluorescent Full Spectrum Photo Bulb. Between all those lights is a light box usually but taken down right now since I am not doing photos and I don't want the cat in it.

Does the minifig head sorter on the back shelf help with sorting?

Yes, I use it to just dump parts in sometimes for a project. Right now it has quite a lot of old dark gray parts from my new dragon cave (still in production).

My latest storage set-up...Still trying to organize everything just right...

That's pretty good, I started out stacking like that but it's a LOT faster to find parts i need when they are only stacked two-high. That is why I went with the shelving. I get the cheap plastic shelving which is sturdy enough for the lego, not to high for me (5'7") and easy to rearrange and move.

Edited December 3, 2011 by darkdragon

[Vindicare]

Something I have, but haven't put to the test yet is those clamshell to go containers from restaurants. One night at dinner, they gavels an extra one and I thought that could be good for Lego storage. They stack and the big ones could hold a lot.

[lorax]

I just got a couple of these Lego storage containers.

This one is used for my basic essentials, because my collection is growing quite large, it is just the stuff I always need. And hopefully now I won't keep losing my brick un-brickers.

Brick Storage Carry Case - essentials by tikitikitembo, on Flickr

[Darkdragon]

I just got a couple of these Lego storage containers.

This one is used for my basic essentials, because my collection is growing quite large, it is just the stuff I always need. And hopefully now I won't keep losing my brick un-brickers.

Oh nice! I've been looking for these to show up in stores since I saw photos last year (?) from Toy Fair.