Storage and Sorting LEGO

[Follows Closely]

I have found that Sterilite 2093 - Wide 3 Drawer Unit White 20938003 with Brightroom 6pc Plastic Drawer Organizer Clear inside work well. Both can be found at Target, but currently are out of stock online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yoggington]

On 7/5/2022 at 8:02 PM, woodford86 said:

I'm still in the early stages of setting up my Lego room so definitely no set system yet, but I had a few of these Dewalt shallow pro kits in the garage and I'm loving them. Remove the lid and hinges to keep things clean, but the lid still sits nicely on top to keep dust out. The trays are removeable which makes for easy access when building. My only complaint is the handle is a lot of wasted space, and I haven't found a way to buy more trays if I wanted to ditch the double sized trays and just use the small ones (or even better, get half/quarter sized trays and I can start sorting by color too). I especially like that the tray walls are near vertical and very rigid, so there's minimal wasted space like you see with the food containers that are usually angled out.

They're a bit expensive so I'm not sure I'll be investing in these but the ones I have work great.

Curious if anyone knows of similar organizers to this that are cost effective, make good use of space (no handle), and have good selection of tray sizes?

I use a very similar set up. I'm a fan of the removable trays & the clear lids too - and the fact that they lock into place once closed for transport. That said, I've a smaller collection than most on here I would wager. Ten of these covers nearly everything.

For smaller individual trays, you can get them 3D printed to whatever size you need. There are people on Etsy offering the service - you can half or quarter the size, or even put trays in trays (depthwise).

[Coren]

Does anyone use Trofast for storage? If so, do you use drawer organizers for them? And if so, which? Looking to store larger amounts of bricks that don’t fit akro mills type drawers but still not Trofast size amounts 😂

[Bricky Steamboat]

On 9/5/2022 at 11:00 AM, Coren said:

Does anyone use Trofast for storage? If so, do you use drawer organizers for them? And if so, which? Looking to store larger amounts of bricks that don’t fit akro mills type drawers but still not Trofast size amounts 😂

Those trofast units look like substantial pieces of furniture. Part of my struggle is the space available, so I'd be reluctant to give any of that space away to the actual cabinet.

I think I prefer sorting and storing lego to actually building it 

[mvLego]

On 9/5/2022 at 6:00 AM, Coren said:

Does anyone use Trofast for storage? If so, do you use drawer organizers for them? And if so, which? Looking to store larger amounts of bricks that don’t fit akro mills type drawers but still not Trofast size amounts 😂

I would not recommend using Trofast for "finer" storage. We have one for the kid and it's great for throwing a bunch of pieces and half-builds into bins, but I wouldn't use it for pieces/parts only storage. A couple of reasons:

• As @Bricky Steamboat mentions, they're fairly big and they don't use space as efficiently as the Sterilite, Iris, etc. type drawer systems. There are major gaps between the top and bottom of each drawer. That's space that could be used for pieces but also lets in a lot of dust (and dog hair...).
• The rounded corners of the drawers would also be a pain to place organizers without custom 3D printing them. Again, more wasted space from an organization perspective.

That said, good luck if you're deadset on using them and report back if you find a good drawer organizer that fits! I'd be interested to see what's available for when/if we transition our Trofast to more precise organization.

[Follows Closely]

^  I second mvLego. The inefficiency and difficulty of diving the Trofast drawers make them undesirable. I have both Trofast (left) and Sterilight (right) hybrid solution in my Lego room. I greatly regret going with Trofast for my technic collection.

Spoiler

My lame attempt at dividing the drawers. Just look at all the wasted space!

Spoiler

Compared to dividing Sterilite: 

Spoiler

 

This was the first (and last) time I purchased anything from Ikea. 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Follows Closely

[The Island Chronicles]

Man! Sadly I don't have a place where I can store my Lego properly. So all my bricks are all mixed up in a container while my builds are in another. I do hope to get a large set of drawers to sort my bricks easily. Something like what JANGBRICKS has. 

[Coren]

On 9/9/2022 at 2:22 PM, mvLego said:

I would not recommend using Trofast for "finer" storage. We have one for the kid and it's great for throwing a bunch of pieces and half-builds into bins, but I wouldn't use it for pieces/parts only storage. A couple of reasons:

• As @Bricky Steamboat mentions, they're fairly big and they don't use space as efficiently as the Sterilite, Iris, etc. type drawer systems. There are major gaps between the top and bottom of each drawer. That's space that could be used for pieces but also lets in a lot of dust (and dog hair...).
• The rounded corners of the drawers would also be a pain to place organizers without custom 3D printing them. Again, more wasted space from an organization perspective.

That said, good luck if you're deadset on using them and report back if you find a good drawer organizer that fits! I'd be interested to see what's available for when/if we transition our Trofast to more precise organization.

Oh I agree full on with the inefficient space usage :-) but the problem is that I have 3 of those cabinets (2 high ones and one low one) and the bins that belong to them (so about 20 bins I'd say). Replacing those with Sterilites or some such is pretty expensive and kind of wasteful. Was hoping there would be someone who sold custom inserts or had an easy fix. Amazon has variable dividers for example which would make it easier to kind of sort a lot of larger pieces. Agree on the smaller pieces, got some small drawer units for them from Aldi/Lidl....

Your LEGO room looks dope btw :-)

[Johnny1360]

Regarding storage of bricks. I sometimes click together similar parts for storage, anything from 6x6 plates to 1x1 even. Helps me collect many parts of one color as I don't always have parts binned by color alone especially smaller numerous bits.

Anyway the whole point is do bricks get damaged or lose clutch power when left in an assembled state for extended lengths of time, talking years here.

It saves me a great deal of time and space to do it this way but if it damages the bricks in any way, I will stop storing my bricks locked together.

I have never noticed any damage before, except for clips, they certainly lose clutch power, I am more concerned with stud connections.

[Murdoch17]

29 minutes ago, Johnny1360 said:

Regarding storage of bricks. I sometimes click together similar parts for storage, anything from 6x6 plates to 1x1 even. Helps me collect many parts of one color as I don't always have parts binned by color alone especially smaller numerous bits.

Anyway the whole point is do bricks get damaged or lose clutch power when left in an assembled state for extended lengths of time, talking years here.

It saves me a great deal of time and space to do it this way but if it damages the bricks in any way, I will stop storing my bricks locked together.

I have never noticed any damage before, except for clips, they certainly lose clutch power, I am more concerned with stud connections.

Clips are not a good idea to keep attached in any way for a long time due to cracking. Of bricks and plates, older reddish brown parts and dark red parts are prone to shattering too. (they supposedly fixed that in 2019, though)

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, Johnny1360 said:

It saves me a great deal of time and space to do it this way but if it damages the bricks in any way, I will stop storing my bricks locked together.

I do this as well with larger plates (square, angled etc.). Not flat on, but only on the "sides". Never had any damage (talking 2 decades :D) but these are usually in basic colors. And with all non-basic color bricks - you know why - no problems here as well. Damage wise. Color wise I have to check-in from time to time with my wife and daughters. 

All 1xX, 2xX plates and everything else are all on their own in the bins.

Best,
Thorsten

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Toastie

[Yperio_Bricks]

I store my Lego in bigger boxes, because i would be much too lazy to open hundreds of little drawers to build something I have 22 SAMLA storage boxes from IKEA with the size of 39x28x14cm, 6 boxes with half the hight, two big yellow lego brick boxes and various small boxes.

Then for example in one SAMLA box i have all 1x1, 1x2 and 1x3 plates of all colors. In an other SAMLA there are all my 1x2 and 1x4 masonry bricks.

[HeyComeMerryDol]

Storage? You mean haphazardly stuffing on shelves? :p

I have recently brought a few clear display cases. They are pretty good, you attach the bits with screws and it's quite easy. It's acrylic, not glass. Planning to put everything in these eventually when I get organised.

 

 

 

[MKJoshA]

I'm going to need to store my collection for over a year. My parents have been kind enough to offer their shed for me to use. But, it's not the most weather proof and where they live they see temperatures ranging from -10 F/-25 C to 100 F/40 C. Has anyone stored Lego in temperatures that range from cold to hot like that before? Anything I should be aware of? What can I do to help protect my collection?

[AndrewH7]

1. Old, don't hold together well.

2. Not Lego

3. 1×1's full & slim

4. Slim

5. Sloping 45°

6. Other sloping

7. Then colours, original yellow, red, blue, B&W, then other colours, & mix of grey.

[Murdoch17]

On 12/18/2022 at 6:39 PM, MKJoshA said:

I'm going to need to store my collection for over a year. My parents have been kind enough to offer their shed for me to use. But, it's not the most weather proof and where they live they see temperatures ranging from -10 F/-25 C to 100 F/40 C. Has anyone stored Lego in temperatures that range from cold to hot like that before? Anything I should be aware of? What can I do to help protect my collection?

I personally wouldn't do it. Dark red, reddish brown, etc. don't like temperature changes. They break even if you look at them funny. I'd rent a storage unit. Expensive, but it can be climate controlled (if in a building) and only you have access and it's a secure facility to boot! Plus I think there is usually insurance you can buy if something does happen. Do your research before picking one though, as some are sketchy.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Murdoch17

[MKJoshA]

23 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

I personally wouldn't do it. Dark red, reddish brown, etc. don't like temperature changes. They break even if you look at them funny. I'd rent a storage unit. Expensive, but it can be climate controlled (if in a building) and only you have access and it's a secure facility to boot! Plus I think there is usually insurance you can buy if something does happen. Do your research before picking one though, as some are sketchy.

Yes, I came to the same conclusion myself. I've found another arrangement that is temperature controlled.

[Danke]

is a 4x6cm zipgbag enough to store a regular sized cmf? or do i have to go one size up at 6x8cm? i have nothing this small to compare to.

[Dursagon]

Hello all.

I have always been fascinated with how people sort and store their Lego.

For myself, I sort all my bricks out by both color and shape. I put everything into various sizes of plastic bags from snack sized bags to gallon bags depending on the pieces and their sizes. Then I put all those bags into IKEA bins called Vessla which are about 12 inches square. They are wide enough to hold two rows of sandwich sized bags. Currently, I have about 50 bins filled and sitting on shelves and I have about 100 gallons of loose brick to still sort. I tend to buy more than I can sort...

[AstroFalcon]

Does anyone have recommendations for storage units currently available in the UK? Preferably clear drawers, with the ability to have smaller drawers for smaller/less common parts and bigger ones for bricks.

Units available in retail stores would be nice, as I could get a feel for the size of them, but I obviously don't mind ordering online.

[Alexandrina]

On 4/21/2023 at 1:55 PM, AstroFalcon said:

Preferably clear drawers, with the ability to have smaller drawers for smaller/less common parts and bigger ones for bricks

Don't know about drawers specifically (last drawers I bought were from B&Q about three years ago and I can't remember what the brand was) but I've been using the big clear plastic boxes you can buy at the Range, with plastic food containers to further subdivide. I've found that the various sizes they come in are good for handling large/common bricks (I personally have one about half-full of 2x4 bricks, another nearly to the brim with 2x2 bricks, etc.) and you can fit a lot of the food containers inside them - as many as 21 inside the mid-size one, with room for some even smaller boxes too.

The food containers themselves I've only found in large quantities at places like Bookers. Retail shops tend only to do them up to packs of 10 and overpriced for what they are, whereas you can get 250 from Bookers for about £17 (and take it from me, 250 seems like a lot but they absolutely disappear when you start sorting!!). Or alternatively you can just buy a lot of Chinese takeaways and wash the containers when you're done eating.

[AstroFalcon]

On 4/25/2023 at 9:01 AM, Alexandrina said:

Don't know about drawers specifically (last drawers I bought were from B&Q about three years ago and I can't remember what the brand was) but I've been using the big clear plastic boxes you can buy at the Range, with plastic food containers to further subdivide. I've found that the various sizes they come in are good for handling large/common bricks (I personally have one about half-full of 2x4 bricks, another nearly to the brim with 2x2 bricks, etc.) and you can fit a lot of the food containers inside them - as many as 21 inside the mid-size one, with room for some even smaller boxes too.

 The food containers themselves I've only found in large quantities at places like Bookers. Retail shops tend only to do them up to packs of 10 and overpriced for what they are, whereas you can get 250 from Bookers for about £17 (and take it from me, 250 seems like a lot but they absolutely disappear when you start sorting!!). Or alternatively you can just buy a lot of Chinese takeaways and wash the containers when you're done eating.

Thanks a ton, I think I'm going to do something similar to that for big bricks and I'll continue keeping an eye out for little drawers for smaller ones.

[SpaceM]

After close to 40 years of pain and suffering, with all my legos in 1 single box, decided a few weeks ago to sort my lego collection, mostly because i have a son of age now, which means our collection is growing again, and i don’t want our boy to waste as much time as I did, searching for that one little piece at the bottom of our box. I easily spent 2 times more time searching than playing.

The idea is to use plastic boxes found on amazon with dimensions H=11cm x W=14cm x D=38cm. They come with a lid, and they can be found with 4 removable sub-boxes inside. 6 of these fit nicely into a Kallax shelve module from IKEA. I like the fact that they are deep, with a minimal frontal area.

I'll sort my collection by category : bricks / plates / slopes / tiles / etc... I created approx 15 categories, I finished sorting.

Next step is to create and print nice visual labels for each box.

As soon as i finish, i'll post a little photo of our growing collection.

Edited April 28, 2023 by SpaceM

[Powder Monkey]

Two factors are limiting my options for storing my bricks in an organized way:
1. I don't have a spare room I could use solely for building etc.
2. My kids also want to build and they just start bricking in whatever room they are in at that time.

So, it needed to be transportable boxes, but I wanted it with smaller trays (2-3 "storeys" per box), consisting of different subdivisions inside. I did a lot of research, most of the boxes were too small for me and just when I gave up on it I came across the Really Useful Boxes. I bought it via a local Office Discounter, but it seems they have a - crappy  - website/shop too.
These boxes (I have one big and two small ones) allow me to bring all my bricks to whatever room I like in no time. Grab the boxes, spread the trays and go. Needless to say the other way round it's even better   (We all know - sometimes the bricks needs to be gone instantly)

Since I don't have too many bricks I order them by category or type (depends on the amount and logic). The different colors are always visible because the trays/storeys aren't that high. I also know I'm more the type of person who needs to know where a part is (primary for its shape/function). If the right color is not available, I might still find another fitting color in that spot, before changing the specific building technique for example.

Kids are also pretty happy with this system, If necessery I'll add boxes in the future and do a little re-sorting.:)

[hugore]

Hi,

As my son is now 1 year old, i decided to present him his mom's and mine Lego collection from our juvenille days (in the 1990's).

We had some old and bent Billy frames from IKEA and used, after a bit of research and a trip to IKEA, several Stanley 1-93-980 and 1-93-978 to store the pieces. We could get each of this elements for 9€, which made our decision easier since we needed to buy 20. 

A part of the end result can be seen in the link below (image way to big for direct attach)

1-93-978 are particularly useful to store larger plates or leaves. I can fit 46 leaves in each drawer without forcing them, which is quite good. In lenght, both can store up to 1x20

https://imgur.com/a/h1EPm31

Parts are separated by color and function. We still have a long way to go, but I am so far impressed by the Stanley elements. I think I will remove the drawers, to add more space for more elements per Billy Frame.

I always said that becoming a father to be able to play with Lego again, without being frowned upon or being called a manchild. The dark ages are over!

Cheers