Currently I am parting out most of my sets. Sorting them is a pain in the M3g^ Bl&ks. I have to endure sorting 2 really big tubs and 5 eclair boxes, a shoe box, a lego bucket, and 2 tins into this...

Who wants to sympathize to me first?

The greatest husband of all built me a setup with desk and computer in the middle. Lego shelves left, right and above, filled with those toolbit storage units, shoe boxes, marge tubs and larger plastic containers. Everything is within arm's reach and all I have to do is roll, swivel and grab.

I wonder how do you folks store your built up models? I would like to display them but without them discolouring. For fear of that, I leave them out no longer than 6 months and store them back in their boxes. How long does it take for them to fade? I try to keep them out of direct sunlight as much as possible, but I also don't want to keep them in the dark, if you know what I mean.

Man, some of these collections are inspirational! I did a full census of my LEGO collection recently, and just tonight took pictures of my storage solution. With a little over 20,000 pieces (210 sets), I prefer the bins 'n baggies method. It may just be jealousy talking, but I think tackle boxes or miniature drawers would be cumbersome, not to mention expensive. (But then I'm like Tommy Boy's girlfriend - I prefer to stack piles of file folders instead of putting 'em in filing cabinets.) I prefer under-bed bins, since they're convenient and shallow; I like to pop the top and see all my bags at once. I got these bins at an after-Christmas sale at Target for $4 each. Throw in a box each of gallon- and quart-sized Ziplocks, and here's a complete storage solution for $30.

I keep all the ziplocks unsealed in the bins, ready for easy access. I mix all the colors together in each bag, as I find that my brain can quickly spot a desired color among others. I throw all types of a given length in together, for a similar reason. For example, I throw all my 2x6 bricks and plates, and 1x6 bricks and plates, of all colors, in one bag. It takes barely any time to find any required piece in that bag. For more info and a look inside each bin check out my gallery.

If you're just starting out with organizing, I highly recommend buying a couple boxes of Ziplock (or generic brand) sealable bags. You can throw them in whatever boxes or bins you already have, and experiment with your sorting preferences. You may find that the bins & baggies method works just fine!

Interesting post-- I use plastic shoebox containers (not unlike LegoManiac83's arrangement), with a whole slew of them thrown into a huge plastic footlocker to go in the basement. I'm probably different in that I sort by set, or rather collections of sets, so for example in the big Star Wars footlocker there's a container just for the Falcon, a container just for the Sandcrawler, a container just with the various Hoth sets.

Therein lies the problem, really-- it works out fine for the huge sets that take up an entire container, but for smaller sets they get lumped together into one, and say, in the 'Rebel Fleet' container, it takes longer to build a set because you have to dig through all of the Y-Wing & X-Wing bricks to get to the A-Wing's nosepiece, etc. Plus it gets REALLY noisy digging through those plastic bins when it's awfully full.

I've thought about doing exactly what you've done-- putting Ziplocks inside each container to separate one individual set from another. That makes perfect sense AND would make building so much easier when you're just after one of the sets (for example, to build the Imperial Shuttle in the TIE container might mean building two of the TIE fighters just to get to all the pieces of the Shuttle itself). What then is holding me back?? Well, I store my stuff in those big footlockers in the basement, and I'm just concerned about the plastic Ziplocks melting in summer heat or something... I'm not sure anything like that has happened in my basement before, but obviously if something like that happened and got plastic all over the LEGOs I'd be devastated. And pissed

Any advice or assurance that the Ziplocks will be safe regardless of environmental conditions?

Do you think, guys, that the bricks could scratch when touch to each other in the zip bags or plastic containers?

Edited April 7, 201014 yr by Ivan K.

[snip] I've thought about doing exactly what you've done-- putting Ziplocks inside each container to separate one individual set from another. That makes perfect sense AND would make building so much easier when you're just after one of the sets (for example, to build the Imperial Shuttle in the TIE container might mean building two of the TIE fighters just to get to all the pieces of the Shuttle itself). What then is holding me back?? Well, I store my stuff in those big footlockers in the basement, and I'm just concerned about the plastic Ziplocks melting in summer heat or something... I'm not sure anything like that has happened in my basement before, but obviously if something like that happened and got plastic all over the LEGOs I'd be devastated. And pissed Any advice or assurance that the Ziplocks will be safe regardless of environmental conditions?

Do you think, guys, that the bricks could scratch when touch to each other in the zip bags or plastic containers?

Hi guys, sorry for the late response.

Yes Ivan, the bricks will scratch themselves as you paw through them and they age. More common is sharp edges getting rounded off like my red 2x4 keychain. It looks like I found it on the beach. I know of some folks keeping their clear elements separate from the rest for that reason. I'm curious to know how you would plan to store them without scratching though... I'm imagining velvet-lined jewelery cases, or foam cut with individual LEGO-sized holes. Seriously though, I'd guess keeping elements sorted very detailedly in small pull-out drawers would keep them in better shape. Personally, my reasons above are more convincing than play-wear due to storage.

Mr. Timms, I can't say for sure, since my bins are in a pretty stable climate under my bed in California. I do know that some people microwave food in ziplock bags with no (immediate) health problems, so I'd guess that summer heat wouldn't be a problem for you. While I wouldn't store them in a plastic bag on my car dashboard, I think your basement is probably pretty climate-controlled and safe.

well here is what my area looked like till everything got packed up in expectation of me and my wifes move to our new house which will give me a new LEGO room which is over twice the size of the one i'm currently using.

with the new room in the new place I won't have to build things in the kitchen anymore which makes wife happy:

also I can finish work on this bad boy since ran out of room:

Some love for folks that haven't gotten answers in here:

Legononymous, I used to sticker my models also, and I now have a separate baggie with all the stickered parts so they don't get abused by their jealous neighbors. I don't have any that cover multiple pieces, but I would leave them together and in the bag as well.

Brickme, I can't see your flickr pic, but I can imagine. Parting out sets can be such a grueling chore. That's one reason I don't sort too granularly. A friend of mine keeps his sets individually bagged like Mr. Timms, and I've been very close to re-sorting my collection according to set. (What's the reverse of "parting out?" "Setting up?") I think it comes down to what you do with your LEGO. If you MOC primarily, then of course sorting by set doesn't make much sense. Though it does if, like my friend, you mainly re-build according to the instructions. It's a good system for kids, too - he'll occasionally bring out a set for his kids (though at their age my friend and I build the sets for them). The reason I'm torn is I have such a good time building the official models and making MOC alternates, and once those suckers are parted out it takes time to set 'em up.

Bricklady, that's awesome your husband (I assume it's yours? ) built you a LEGO desk. Having everything at arm's reach is so nice. Last night I pulled four of my red tubs around me as I sat on the floor with my back against the dresser. I still love building on the carpet - I defy step one of most instruction books. That's another reason I like my under-bed bins: you only have to remove a couple lids, and you're ready to build. I've even taken to leaving most of my ziplocks un-zipped in there. (Though that wouldn't work with kids. Don't ask.) Think of all the time it takes to open and close tiny little drawers and tackle boxes for every single piece you want. (Tommy Boy reference, again.) As far as discoloration goes, I always thought indirect sun was OK in moderation, but I don't know how that works (UV rays?).

Asterios. Wow. That is hard-core organization. Nice!

UV rays are detrimental to many things, including photos, human skin, and Legos among other things. If you keep your Lego indoors and away from direct sunlight, as long you don't have the lights on 24/7, then that's probably enough.

I just purchased the ply and maple boards to start my storage solution. I will post updates as I SLOWLY progress.

Mr. Timms, I can't say for sure, since my bins are in a pretty stable climate under my bed in California. I do know that some people microwave food in ziplock bags with no (immediate) health problems, so I'd guess that summer heat wouldn't be a problem for you. While I wouldn't store them in a plastic bag on my car dashboard, I think your basement is probably pretty climate-controlled and safe.

Yeah, I've been thinking about it more and more. I just broke down a bunch of city sets into a tub last night, and when you have City Corner, the Pig Farm, the Tractor, the 4WD and Horse Trailer, the Camper, and even the BBQ stand all in one tub, things get a little blurry in there. So I'm thinking about going the Ziplock route and being done with it. My only concern is that I've had some humidity issues in the basement, which I'm proud to say have been addressed, and there are more than a few plastic bags down there in storage that seem to be fine-- I'm just worried that about any potential 'sweating' inside those plastic tubs. BUT my wife has some clothes and stuff down there in similar containers and it's not like she pulls 'em out dripping with moisture either. I think my confidence is rising that this is the way to go.

Thanks, desultor~

I recently changed how I store my LEGO, so I thought I'd post it here.

First, I have three categories for my LEGO, and my storage system changes for each.

The first category are my Star Wars UCS sets. These are for display only, and as such are left assembled 24/7/365. When planning for building a MOC, I never count the pieces in these sets. It's as if their parts don't even exist.

The second category is my system sets. They are stored in Sterilite tubs according to theme. Current themes include Technic (including Bionicle), Town, Classic Space, UFO, Exploriens, Castle, Creator, Mars Mission, Insectoids and Harry Potter. Star Wars are further subdivided into Episode I, Ep II, Ep III, Ep IV, Ep V, Ep VI, Expanded Universe, MINI and Clone Wars.

The final caregory is MOCing/Spare Parts. These are separated into 18 drawers. These drawers each have a different part type. The drawers are: Small (under 4 x 4) Light Gray Plates, Large (4 x 4 and up) Light Gray Plates, Light Gray Wings (Wedge Plates), Small (under 4 x 4) Black Plates, Large (4 x 4 and up) Black Plates, Black Wings (Wedge Plates), Bricks & Panels, Technic Bricks and Liftarms, Wedges & Dishes, Slopes, Tiles, Minifig (includes 1 x 1 Taps, Bars & Antenna), Small Colored Plates, Large Colored Plates, Colored Wings, Technic Bush & Pin, Miscellaneous Technic and Hinges.

This system works well for me. I design all of my MOCs in MLCad first, so I have a list of parts I'll need to build. I check my MOCing parts first, then fill any gaps otu of my system containers. A quick check on Bricklink tells me where to look in my system boxes.

I've thought about separating out all of my system boxes into drawers like my MOCing parts, but two things stop me:

1) It would take many sets of drawers to do an effective job, which will cost a pretty penny. Money that could be spent on more LEGO

2) When I want to put a system set together, I don't want to have to hunt through 30 different drawers to find the parts I need. With my orginization, I need only go to one container, and I have all the parts I need for any given set. Of corse, I still need to hunt through 8 or 9 sets worth of pieces, but that usually isn't too bad.

Thought I'd add my two cents...

I generally keep sets on display on shelves; if I don't have enough space to display a set, I don't open it, so all the sorting I've had to do comes down to pieces... besides the few extra pieces that come in sets, I've only ever purchased ONE tub of LEGO, all the other pieces have come from PAB and buying at BL, one garage sale, and one bulk ebay purchase.

So I used to just keep the extra parts in the tub, but the little "interesting" pieces would sink to the bottom, and I was forever dumping it out looking for what I needed. So I started with a couple of small craft organizers.

When that wasn't good enough, I got a few of these: Stanley Organizers:

The great thing about those is the whole bin is removable from the box to make it easier to dump and dig in to find the exact piece you're looking for, as many of my parts are still combined. What's better is if I know I will be using a lot of one piece, I can just take the bin instead of the whole case to where I'm working.

After completely overflowing the LEGO bulk bucket, I started getting these: Sterilite Shelf Storage containers:

I must caution against using them, as there are no tabs on the backs of the drawers to hold them into the "unit" and they too easily come completely out... and millions (or so it seems) of pieces end up in all corners of the room, but they are a good size for some storage.

When I outgrew (*) those, I moved on up to these other Sterilite Drawers, specifically:

and

Those drawers gave me a lot of bulk storage, so that I could actually put entire work-progress in a drawer; I could have tons of train stuff or PF in one drawer, it worked out well. Having larger drawers for stuff, I also use a LOT of plastic bags for parts that may fit in with some other category, but they are slightly different and I don't have enough for their own compartment. So, for example, I have a bin with black technic pins, and a little plastic bag with triple length black technic pins that also goes in that bin.

As you can see, I also have a number of plastic "shoeboxes" for storage... they are a great size and stack well.

Finally, some pictures of my stuff:

These are older pictures, actually, my sets are actually much better organized on the shelves then they are in this picture, and since that time I've gotten a new, larger office at work where I can display some of my sets.

Ok, if you've made it this far, these are my issues:

1. Over organization... so I sit down and start working on something and think "Ok, I need one of something," and I get up, walk over to the shelves, find the piece, go sit down and put it on, and then I think "Ok, now I need one of something else." Repeat....

2. Since I did not plan from the beginning, I hate having so many different types of storage solutions. I have problems finding dividers that will help me organize within the smaller drawers of the sterilite "towers."

3. The big drawers on the sterilite "towers" are too big for pieces (but good for MOCs in progress and other things, and good for pieces like train track). For example, I have a lot of 2x2, 2x3, and 2x4, and the drawers were at least half full. But recently I started putting them together in stacks of 10 pieces to make it easier to: a) count how many I have and b) grab a number of the same color when I need them instead of digging through looking for a specific color. Now these bricks only take up like 1/4 of the drawer, and I have a lot of empty space.

I'm also curious how so many people sort by color... I'd always thought it was pretty common in LEGO sorting to sort by type. It's easier to find a yellow 2x3 in a bin of different color 2x3s than it is to find a yellow 2x3 in a bin full of yellow 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4....

(*) "Outgrew" doesn't mean I couldn't use them... just that what I was using them for needed more space, so I had to "shift up" the storage space across the board, really, and things that before didn't warrant that space graduated to larger storage.

Edited April 23, 201014 yr by fred67

well with my storae system I've found the tubs to be of great use, for various reasons, they are reletively cheap $1 for a shoe box from WalMart or dollar tree, as to "Sweating" that does not occur since I do not leave the product in drastic heat locations (near windows or heaters), as to using tubs, they also come in a wide array of sizes and dimensions, like these I use for my minifig storage:

but on the other hand while displaying my stuff is great it is not an option since Dust is rampant out here, I could dust my stuff one day, come back the next and it looks like it has not been dusted for weeks, so the tubs also help in keeping the dust out and if I don't have a big enough clear tub, clear plastic bags are also helpful on my display stuff: .

but what it asll comes down to is sorting and storing is more user specific you use what you like.

My latest storage system:

I Use the small plastic containers that you get from chinese take aways here in the UK, the 99p shop sells 10 of them new for (obviously 99p)

I print out a sticker with the brick type and pop it on the front, I dont have them sorted by colour thought, all smaller bits accessories pegs etc, I use £6.99 fishing boxes with lots of individual compartment's the only trouble is if they get knocked about they move next door, must get some small ziplock bags.

I prefer to sort by type and "theme".

Plates with plates, bricks with bricks, ecc...

Than for example Bricks are joined by size and color, but in the same container (usually shirt boxes). This means that bricks of the same type are grouped together and then are orderd by colour.

For accessories and small pieces, I use drawers (but I need more of that!! ... so the drawers: more drawers or more lego? :p)

For pieces that are not linkable together (for example tiles or minifig), I use old street plates or damaged plates where i hook that (to maintain an order).

And that's all, I think!

Hello!

I am new to being an AFOL but here's my collection so far:

I got those storage cabinets SUPER cheap! Until I get more LEGO, they'll do. :)

Hello!

I am new to being an AFOL but here's my collection so far:

I got those storage cabinets SUPER cheap! Until I get more LEGO, they'll do. :)

They look pretty good, where did you get those from?

They look pretty good, where did you get those from?

You can get them made by Raaco in Clas Ohlson.

They also have nice flat cases for fishing or electronic parts or whatever and trays of inserts for them in different sizes, also by Raaco . The smallest ones are perfect for most minifigs and if you change order of the minifigs on a tray, you just swap the cubes instead of taking them all out. If you get jus inserts they are missing any cover, though.

Right now my collection is still being sorted, but the colors are already set.

-Reds,yellow,and orange.

-Blues.

-Green's,tans,and browns.

-Greys/Bleys.

-Black, and white.

-Trans.

-Pink, purple, pearl gold, and misc colors.

I have it sorted bricks, plates, technic, tires (rubber part only), and misc (tiles, slopes, ect...).

What I have done so far.

Every once in a while, (So far 3 times) "Brick" focuses on individual Lego bricks that are in the storage bin. (Though, I guess the bin must be mostly empty, as there is very little seen in the background of these strips.)

Anyway. I figured those of you who take the time to either sort your bricks by color or type would like today's (05/26/2010) installment.

What an excellent thread! Some of you guys have amazing rooms full of lego! I use the small multi compartment cases used for beads etc.. for accessories, and plastic tubs for bricks. Im hoping to get some of the toolbox type multi draw units shown on here soon :)

This is how mentioned Raaco inserts look like.

The smallest size is good for standard minifigs, but Squid Warrior doesn't fit. A horse fits to double size, but not a camel, ostrich fits to smallest one. Big troll would need 4x mini, but sticks out and you can't stack or close if you put the inserts to the suitcase-like container, which they are designed for.

Some minifigs with height-adding stuff need to be bent to fit (like Indian... sorry - tribal hunter with feathers).

Some really great work here :)

I had all mine sorted but gave up and put them all back in a single tub, this works much better for me and my building style.

Paul

Great tips. Instead of acctually sorting I spend my time here reading about the same...

I've just begun sorting my bricks and taking sets apart. I've got some of the 30 drawer cabinets from Clas Ohlson for storing and a bunch of ice-cream and cookie boxes for sorting and storing larger bricks.

The smaller parts are quite simple to store in the above mentioned cabinets or tackle-boxes. My concern however is how to store bigger parts and parts that you end up with a lot of (like, say, 1x4): wings, plates and so on.

I'm thinking about sorting according to what kind of MOCs I would like to build ATM.

Must say that sorting is quite a fun part of the LEGO hobby too, even though it causes a lot of unnecessary brooding...