6 replies to this topic

[Isundir]

I looked through the last 2 pages and couldn't find any thread like this so, well I've been having some trouble keeping my LEGO's sorted. Right now I have 2x6 Drawers, 6 big ones and 6 small ones and I'm using the small drawers for Minifigs (and Animals) and Minifig related items.

 

For the 6 big drawers I keep everything sorted to the primary colors I collect and build with 5 drawers contain Light Gray, Dark Gray, Black, Brown/Tan together and Green/Plant stuff/White together and the 6th drawer has all other colors (since I don't have many if any bricks of other colors yet) as well as a bag with all the bricks with print on them and one with all the transparent bricks and such. Then to keep everything reasonably sorted I stack whatever bricks I can on top of one another e.g. a stack of all the round 1x1 pieces.

 

However I've come to the point were this is starting to stop working properly, no clue how I'm going to sort now, I don't have much space so getting many more drawers isn't an option but I was thinking of getting some smaller sorting boxes though (a local LEGO shop sells different sorting boxes with many small compartments for around 2/3$ each) so I was curious how do you keep your LEGO sorted/stored.

[Nightstalker]

Currently I have one 50 gal container holding every last piece I own. That container is way too heavy and finding pieces is a pain at times. I'm probably going to start sorting into colors and putting them into smaller containers since I got out of college.

[Isundir]

Currently I have one 50 gal container holding every last piece I own. That container is way too heavy and finding pieces is a pain at times. I'm probably going to start sorting into colors and putting them into smaller containers since I got out of college.

 

Ay that sounds, erh I mean reads, like a chaos nightmare.

[Cutlass-Crocodile]

If wishes were horses we'd all be eating steak... but my wish was always to get a million little bins, instead of a dozen big ones, and sort by piece. It's easier to pick out a color you want from a selection of all the same piece than digging through a bin dedicated to black pieces and coming up empty every single time because: "Gah! Those technic pins are IMPOSSIBLE to find in all this stuff!"

Certain colors just naturally will fall in love and then you have LOTS of pieces in that color. Like, well, black for instance. And some greys too.

 

I sort by color, because wishes are most certainly not horses. And to be honest, it sucks. If you can help it, don't sort by color. Sort by shape, piece type, use, etc. NOT by color.

 

One thing I've heard is nice, is if you go to a craft store and pick up bead separators. They're just little guys, but it's one way you can sort smaller bits. Other than that, maybe tool boxes, but those will definitely run up in price. If you go to your LEGO® store often enough, and buy pic-a-brick often enough, you can use those little cups to sort. Which is okay. I did that for a while. I used resealable bags too for a good long bit. That helped with smaller pieces. You can get them in so many sizes so you can sort pretty well with those. Then you just toss all the bags in a bin and you're set to go.

 

Yeah, but mine... see I sorted by color for so long. The collection is still sorted that way, for the most part, and it's kind of a pain to find any specific bits. Also the tables I have for display/ photography/ building are cluttered like no else. That stuff needs to get resorted and cleaned off. But yeah. If I can give any advice at all to anyone trying to get a sorting system figured out, just stay away from sorting by color.

[Bilbo_Baggins]

I actually sort by piece/shape/size instead of color, but because I don't have a lot of containers some of my stuff is in plastic bags. It makes sorting out new sets a pain but finding stuff is fairly easy so whatever. I do need to get more plastic containers though...

[Isundir]

I think what I'll do is keep the bigger bricks sorted on color in my drawers and sort out the small stuff in compartment boxes sorted on type of part.

[Spider-Man]

I think what I'll do is keep the bigger bricks sorted on color in my drawers and sort out the small stuff in compartment boxes sorted on type of part.

 

Yeah, that's about the best way to do it.

 

Personally, I don't really have anything sorted right now... Yet I can find pieces pretty easily I have most of my black sorted out into one bin due to my work on Batman vehicles, and I have most of the Ewok Village in another bin by itself--everything else is basically in half a dozen rubbermaid-sized containers. Most of my more recent purchases are in one, and I just sort of know what type of pieces are where to some degree because most of the bins were, at one point, sorted more specifically. Then I have my minifigs sorted out more specifically (though I use most of my minifig pieces for, y'know, minifigs), and I have a couple of bins for most of my bionicle/technic.

 

Oh, and I have Amon Hen built on my main table thing. That's where all of the Ewok Village is that's not in the Ewok Village bin

 

 

Thankfully, I'll be marrying a girl who enjoys sorting Legos But until then I suppose I'll stay unsorted. I don't use my Legos extensively enough to worry about it at this point.

 

My dream container, honestly, though, would be one of those massive rolling toolboxes. Drawers are your friends, as opposed to tons of tiny things that each have to be opened/closed separately. My minifigs, for example, are mostly in one of these things... I have some specialty bricks in tacklebox-type things, but those are only so useful, as most of those that I have contain too-small of drawers to really get stuff out of easily enough.