How to store LEGO boxes

[Superkalle]

I recently took out my old Lego boxes and it was fun going down memory lane. They are still in pretty good shape after 25 years.

Those boxes look amazing. They'd be worth a lot of money for a collector! And... I guess that's probably one of the best reasons for anyone to save the boxes - for collectors value. Come to think of it, most of the time there are only three things that make a set original and thus valuable:

- The instructions

- The stickers

- The box

Of course, sometimes a set contain unique parts (like this one: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=47543pb01 ), but normally it's the three items above that actually make the set valuable.

[green dewback]

I use the big boxes to store the smaller boxes then put them into the separate empty wardrobe.

Recently this year some of the box surface start to feel "sandy" which I think is the mold and dust, so I use used my hard to wipe them off and wrapped them with cling wrap.

Ontop my wardrobe stands my 10030 star destroyer also wrapped with cling wrap.

Edited December 30, 2009 by green dewback

[Front]

I throw my boxes out, period. The only boxes I keep are those which still contains bricks, and I always got 30-40 sets lying around ready to be built

[The Who]

I only keep the boxes for Star Wars and Indiana Jones stuff. They are packed inside of each other, and put in a neat pile in my attic.

Unfortunately I threw away all of my Batman boxes before I decided to start keeping them.

[Sir Fred]

I can never bring myself to throw out boxes, or even the polybags the parts come in. Right now the smaller inside bigger method seems to be working very well. I also have the boxes inside garbage bags to keep them dry while they are in storage at my parents house. I suppose it's a little ironic that I store stuff I'm keeping in garbage bags..

[-The Hyphen-]

I've been keeping all my boxes. I cut the tape/glued edges, flatten them, put the smaller pieces inside the larger pieces, and then throw them all into a garbage bag which I've stowed in a corner somewhere.

I really don't know why I keep them, I guess it really wouldn't make a difference to recycle them, but I just can't...

Maybe I'll end up cutting out the bits of artwork, framing them, and hanging them on the walls for inspiration.

Edited December 31, 2009 by -The Hyphen-

[mrblue]

During these days I'm fixing my lego room, and I am facing the problem of the lego boxes.

Except the fact that lego boxes have different sizes, there are also different styles, like the bigger star wars sets where you have to cut the seals in the front and then lift the cover breaking the precut back part of the sides.

I tried using the matrioska way, but some small boxes are the same height of bigger ones, so I'm still looking for a solution.

How do you store your boxes? DO you store them anyway or simply throw them?

thank you for all your ideas.

(wouldn't be easier if lego makes all boxes in 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 sizes??? it would solve me many troubles!)

[ciano]

When a set has a particularly awe-inspiring box, I keep it and put it on the back of a shelf, behind whatever is on the shelf. But I've only saved about five boxes of the dozens of sets I own; most of the boxes I just toss.

[CP5670]

This picture is 3 or 4 years old now, but it gives the idea.

Since then, I've been stacking the small boxes inside bigger ones, so the pile has become smaller even though I have more boxes in it. The majority of my collection still consists of 80s and 90s sets, when the boxes were nicer than what we get today. Only a few of the modern boxes are really worth keeping, and I have been doing it for reasons of continuity more than anything else.

I keep them at my parents' house since my apartment doesn't have enough space for them, but I intend to collect them at some point when I move into a more permanent place.

[Luke McAwesome]

I normally keep the big set boxes, such as City Corner, Apple Tree House, Emerald Night, Medieval Market Village, etc. up in my closet just because these sets are special to me. As for little boxes, I keep only the ones I feel are truly necessary to keep next to the shelf that holds my TV. But only ones like the Classic Town Emergency Repair Truck and others.

Thanks for making this topic, mrblue, it will be very interesting to read how the other FOLs store their set boxes.

[Big Cam]

I break mine down veery carefully, so they can all be stored flat. I can easily make them look like a box again since only the creases get creased. If i ever planned to sell them I wouldn't have, but I just want them for my referance, so it works for me.

[polarbomber]

i store mine inside larger sets and then inside the giant brown boxes which lego.com shop uses for shipping , then pop up in the attic

[funkybrick]

I store them.

I usually wrap the boxes with plastic bags to avoid dust and pile them.

[tedbeard]

I store them flattened in the recycling bin. Then the truck comes around once a week and I never have to worry about storing them again.

I do have two boxes I am saving but those I hope to mount in acrylic boxes sometime and mount them on the wall as "art".

[escortmad79]

Majoirty of mine get binned too!!

The only exception to this rule are my Emerald Night & Green Grocer which I'm keeping

[RileyC]

I store mine like babushka dolls. The smaller ones get put in medium sized ones then the medium sized ones get put in larger ones. It works but the box size has been varying lately so some boxes are just in my wardrobe alone and not inside anything. Im slowly running out of room and flat packing sound like a pretty good idea Big Cam. Could you please post a picture of how you do it? It would help me a lot.

[Etzel]

Those boxes are nothing but a hinder between me and my precious LEGO bricks! Such heretic behaviour only deserves the most horrible punishment. Burn them!!

[Peppermint_M]

Well, two boxes + small speakers + some cables + tape and cutting tools = Dock for my Walkman.

All the rest get flattened and either used for card or recycled in the less creative cardboard only bin at the recycling center.

I haven't enough space for all my Lego! Let alone a pile of cardboard.

[JayDuck]

What I do is pretty much a combination of Big Cam and Roncanator's methods. After I cut the seals (tape/glue) on the side flaps, I flatten the boxes, and then store the smaller boxes in larger (non-flattened) ones. This allows me to store the packaging for several sets in the space of a single large box. I also put the instructions and other paperwork from each set in a bag that some part of the set came in and bundle all my paperwork bags in a different Lego box. I find this to be a good compromise between keeping most of what comes with the sets and not losing all my available space.

The rigid plastic stuff (Tiny Turbos, Mini Creator sets, Bionicle canisters, etc.), on the other hand, either gets reused for Lego storage or tossed in the recycling bin.

[Big Cam]

I store mine like babushka dolls. The smaller ones get put in medium sized ones then the medium sized ones get put in larger ones. It works but the box size has been varying lately so some boxes are just in my wardrobe alone and not inside anything. Im slowly running out of room and flat packing sound like a pretty good idea Big Cam. Could you please post a picture of how you do it? It would help me a lot.

Sure, I'll take one when I get home from work.

[Danpb]

I store them flattened in the recycling bin. Then the truck comes around once a week and I never have to worry about storing them again.

Yep - same method I use. I'm too worried about storing my collection, let alone where to store all the boxes ;).

I do plan on keeping the box for 8880 Super Car, however, as I bought it from bricklink after lusting over it for 15 years.

[gunm]

I normally keep the big set boxes, such as City Corner, Apple Tree House, Emerald Night, Medieval Market Village, etc. up in my closet just because these sets are special to me. As for little boxes, I keep only the ones I feel are truly necessary to keep next to the shelf that holds my TV. But only ones like the Classic Town Emergency Repair Truck and others.

I only recently started really collecting Legos and this is exactly what I've been doing, too--get rid of the smaller boxes, and break down the larger boxes and store them flat!

I am starting to accumulate new, unopened boxes due to clearance and sale pick ups, so I'm not too sure what I'm going to about those in the interim before I build them.

I'm interested to know where people store/display their legos in general...not just the boxes...

Edited March 5, 2010 by gunm

[Ralph_S]

Yep - same method I use. I'm too worried about storing my collection, let alone where to store all the boxes ;).

Same for me. I used to cut out the front covers and keep them instead of the whole box, but even that stack got out of hand and chucked all of them (including a fair few from back in the 'eighties) figuring I'd never ever do anything with any of them. I haven't quite brought myself to doing the same with my instructions, as I expect to be moving to a larger apartment in a few months time

Cheers,

Ralph

[Big Cam]

I store mine like babushka dolls. The smaller ones get put in medium sized ones then the medium sized ones get put in larger ones. It works but the box size has been varying lately so some boxes are just in my wardrobe alone and not inside anything. Im slowly running out of room and flat packing sound like a pretty good idea Big Cam. Could you please post a picture of how you do it? It would help me a lot.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, I used my phone, which was a mistake.

Here we have the bin I keep most of my newer sets in.

Then you can see I have my instructions in plastic binder sheets, which is really convinient.

THis is what I'm talking about when I say I flatten it. Almost every standard LEGO box has the proper creases to do this. Smaller ones like battle packs, need to be carefully sliced with a knife to get the same result, I always try to keep the flaps in tact.

Here are two more views to give you the idea of how I fold them, pretty simple.

If these pictures are too crappy, I'll retake them with my DSLR that I use for reviews after the weekend.

I hope this helps you out.

[RileyC]

Thats great thanks Big Cam. Thats a really great way of doing it and I like how it can be rebuilt to its former glory. Your ring binder idea is really clever cause I just pile mine up which I dont really like doing but I have no other way to store them so I might just try that one out sometime.