From buckets to bins: How to sort a lot of Lego.

[henrysunset]

As some of you might have read in my previous article, I recently purchased a ton of bricks on Craigslist which I have painstakingly sorted into sets.

This article covers:

• different sorting goals (by color, by part, etc..)
  
• how to sort it (I used a two-pass sorting algorithm)
  
• how to store it (I used drawers)
  

Read the Article: ​From buckets to bins: How to sort a lot of Lego

Take a look and let me know what you think... I'm especially interested to hear how your sorting and storing method differs. (I'm pretty sure it's a good storage method - it's Lord Business approved!)

Sincerely,

---tom

Edited March 3, 2014 by henrysunset

[B-Lister]

I have a large bin I need to sort at some point. Way too much clonebrick mixed in for my taste.

[legolijntje]

Interesting articles. I missed the first 2. Especially the first article got my attention, because I was planning on trying to do the same.

I keep an eye on your site for the next parts. I'm curious how much (or if ) you earn on that pile of bricks

[333watch3r]

your articles are interesting, Now I understand why in Seattle its hard to find used legos :) we might be scanning craigslist all the time :)

[Modulex Guy]

Nice way to sort! Its pretty close to how I have my build area set up, I use the Akro Mills sorting bins, but I have a lot of overflow and larger boxes to sort too, no way I could use the small bins for bricks, I have around 100 plastic shoe boxes for bricks and plates and other bricks I have in bulk. I have topped off boxes of one type of brick alone, example: 1x2 dark bley bricks.

And I still have a huge backlog of unsorted bricks, mostly table scraps, set partouts, and bricklink orders.

[TheLegoDr]

I like that Technic axle diagram. I think that would be useful for many people. I don't build with those pieces so I don't think I'd use it, but it looks awesome. Almost could hang it up and use it as some artwork in your LEGO room.

I've always done by color with a few separate boxes for more specialized pieces I may use a lot. My reasoning for that is for how I build. I tend to need a lot of one color at any given moment. This allows me to do a sweep of all the pieces I may need in that color. It actually gives me some creative license because I sometimes will find a piece I didn't originally think of and use that in my build. But I never would have come across it had I kept everything super organized by part type. Or sometimes it allows you to use 2 pieces where 1 would suffice (if I'm out of the 1 piece).

[rob-cubed]

As my collection has grown I've found I use an "all of the above" method in terms of both sorting and storage:

- Pieces primarily get organized by type (plate, brick, tile, slopes, curves) and then subdivided by shape (specific sizes, regular or inverted, etc). However I make an exception for rare colors and transparent pieces, which get sorted by color instead of type to make them easier to find.

- Vehicle parts stay together (axles and wheels, hoods and roofs, etc)

- Odd pieces like handles, bars, technic, etc get grouped together into common parts lots and further subdivided as they grow larger.

- Small to medium size parts lots go into drawer organizers.

- If I only have a few of a specific piece, they go into a tiny ziploc bag and then into a drawer along with other rare bits.

- The biggest lots go into gallon sized ziploc bags and organized in bins. I like the bags because there's never any wasted space. I found drawers would either be half full or overflowing depending on the current project. With larger parts like bricks and plate pieces I was constantly juggling drawers around to accommodate.

- Minifigs go into transparent hinged organizers with subdividers.

Ultimately I have found my approach has evolved with the size of my collection and how I build. I have a huge bag of primary yellow and blue pieces that are sequestered apart because I don't use much of either color...

[333watch3r]

Hi, can you give tips on how you managed to print to lego image sample on your P-touch printer? I would like to know how to make it efficiently instead of doing a cut and paste of each image, or is it just the only way. Thanks.

[henrysunset]

Hi, can you give tips on how you managed to print to lego image sample on your P-touch printer? I would like to know how to make it efficiently instead of doing a cut and paste of each image, or is it just the only way. Thanks.

I did it as a cut-and-paste process. If you are patient, I am thinking about cleaning up the files I used and sharing them on my blog. that will make it really easy to print some nice labels :-)

[333watch3r]

I did it as a cut-and-paste process. If you are patient, I am thinking about cleaning up the files I used and sharing them on my blog. that will make it really easy to print some nice labels :-)

Tom, I found that the Brother printer I use PT-2730 is easy enough to do cut and paste :) so no worries, But yeah, if you still paste it on your blog I believe it will make life easier for most of those who wants to organize. They can even just print and then use a clear tape if they dont want to buy a printer. But I can use the printer for other things anyway and I got it on such a good bargain from B&H (for those who wanted to know).

[henrysunset]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've shared the designs that you can use to print these labels at home using a Brother Label Printer....

Link to blog post where you can download these files: http://tomalphin.com/2014/04/printable-labels-to-sort-your-lego.html

Sincerely,

---tom

[henrysunset]

Someone noticed that I had the images for Plate 2x6 and Plate 2x8 reversed. I've fixed this in an updated version on my blog.

Link: http://tomalphin.com/2014/04/printable-labels-to-sort-your-lego.html

Thanks again,

---tom

Edited April 5, 2014 by henrysunset

[cmartin911]

Someone noticed that I had the images for Plate 2x6 and Plate 2x8 reversed. I've fixed this in an updated version on my blog.

Link: http://tomalphin.com/2014/04/printable-labels-to-sort-your-lego.html

Thanks again,

---tom

Thanks for posting these files Tom. What program can read them? I've tried a Mac and a PC and neither seem to be able to read the lbx file extension.

[jfuste]

Tom, your LEGO posts in your blog are awesome! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Very useful tips about measuring bricks, sorting and so on.

:)

[henrysunset]

@CMartin911 & jfuste: Thank you for your support and appreciation. It makes it more rewarding to give back to the LEGO community when I know people like what I'm doing.

I wanted to let everyone know that I just uploaded a huge update to the Label collection! It now includes most of the LEGO bricks you might want for general building. (Technics is not included yet)

> LINK: http://tomalphin.com...-your-lego.html

Let me know if you have found these useful, or if I'm missing some important parts that you would like to see in the next update.

Sincerely,

-Tom Alphin

Edited May 30, 2014 by henrysunset

[BrickAddict90]

I just finished sorting through my collection. I wouldn't say I'm "done", I still have tons of small unique parts that I have no room for right now. I have an Akro Mils drawer cabinet (as shown by the OP), but nothing is labeled yet. I also ran into the problem where the pieces I thought would fit in the Akro Mils cabinet turned out to not nearly fit. So I had to upgrade to Sterilite drawers for those pieces. For my bulk brick I also used Sterilite drawers - the larger bin type drawers. I'll post pics if I remember later today. I have my bulk brick sorted by color only right now, I would love to sort by size as well but as everything is in my under-sized bedroom at the moment, I have very limited space. I'm also currently working on my first MOC since childhood so now I have that taking up even more of my floor space. Original western style theme... stay tuned ;)

[cmartin911]

@CMartin911 & jfuste: Thank you for your support and appreciation. It makes it more rewarding to give back to the LEGO community when I know people like what I'm doing.

I wanted to let everyone know that I just uploaded a huge update to the Label collection! It now includes most of the LEGO bricks you might want for general building. (Technics is not included yet)

> LINK: http://tomalphin.com...-your-lego.html

Let me know if you have found these useful, or if I'm missing some important parts that you would like to see in the next update.

Sincerely,

-Tom Alphin

I've printed many of your first set of labels and have also made many of my own although the image quality is not as high as yours. I look forward to going through this new collection. Thanks for doing this Tom.

[henrysunset]

I've printed many of your first set of labels and have also made many of my own although the image quality is not as high as yours.

Awesome, glad to hear it... I would love to see photos of your collection with these labels!

[cmartin911]

Awesome, glad to hear it... I would love to see photos of your collection with these labels!

Here it is so far with one of my 7 year old's works in progress.

Edited June 4, 2014 by cmartin911

[TR3K]

Very helpful and interesting read

[Legopicler]

Get box and put lego in. Sorted.

Clearly I need to accumulate more lego to truly understand what a lot of lego is.

With lego comes wisdom. Or at least bricks which is close enough.

[Steph 104th]

I use the trays from inside the LEGO advent calender to sort my more unigue pieces

[Jody Meyer]

I use the trays from inside the LEGO advent calender to sort my more unigue pieces

I do the exact same thing, then once they get full, i buy another set of drawers.

[henrysunset]

I have gotten requests from many people to make it possible to generate your own labels to fill in the gaps in my LEGO Brick Label collection. I just updated the label collection at http://tomalphin.com/bricklabels to include the same scripts I use to generate the labels. (You will need a PC with the LDraw application to generate your own high contrast brick images.)

I also added a few more labels, and plan to add some more in the next couple weeks.

Enjoy!

---tom

[Lankygit]

Does anyone know where you can buy the Akro Mils drawers in the UK?