Hey EB. I am in the middle of a big move to a new home, and it's about a 1 hour drive from where I am currently. I am just about to start packing my room and was wondering what sort of measures I should take to protect my lego sets and creations, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Thanks!

Kyle

It depends how much you have and how big they are. I'd say dissassemble sets and try to protct mocs is bubble wrap. Ihave no expecience with this.

Well, since I recently finished moving myself, I think I can give you a bit of advice.

Firstly, if you have lots of large sets built, then you should take care to disasemble them in a way that will allow you to reasemble them fairly quickly when you get to your new home. If something is attached by only a click hinge or one or two studs, then those should be taken off the main assembly, but try not to break apart sections that have a ton of inter-connecting pieces. Also, I'd reccomend that you put all the minifigs and acessories from your sets into individual plastic bags, as these will be a lot easier to find after the move if they are not mixed in with the regular pieces and assemblies.

Now, if you're like a lot of people here and you sort loose pieces in tackle boxes and other containers, than I'd suggest leaving everything in there and simply taping them shut. If you have lots of lose boxes or extra space in other ones, then try to squeeze as many odds and ends into them as you can. I'd also reccomend that you keep at least one box on hand until the very last day of the move, because you'll want a place to put pieces that you may find as you clear furniture and other non-lego stuff out of your room.

I probably have more advice I can give you, but first I need to know something. What kind of collection do you have exactly, and what kind of themes do you collect? Do you have display shelves with sets on them? Do you have a town display on the floor or on a table? If you can give me more information about your lego collection, than I'm sure that will help me and everyone else posting here in giving you advice.

Edited August 13, 200915 yr by Grevious

I found large plastic bins very helpful in my recent move. I didn't have a lot of time to disassemble my collection, so I just crammed as much as possible in the bins and put the top on. Like Grievous said, any bits that can be removed easily or are likely to fall off should be removed, and minifigs should definitely be bagged. I had a town display, and putting the modular buildings into large bins was the best way for me to transport them. Good luck!

Make sure you have lots of photos of anything you are transporting built. That way anything that can get damaged (and if it can, it will) gets damaged you can fix it like the photo.

Don't keep too many models crammed into one box, unless they are small/medium then you can baggie each seperately and if they lose parts they are all together with the model in one bag.

Large ones like modular buildings can go into one box each with bubble-wrap/airbags or alltogether with bubble wrap.

I have been giving moving a lot of thought recently

Interesting topic! I am interested in this as well as Stacy and I have contemplated a move to a larger house recently (need more LEGO space). I agree with the thought of taping storage boxes together for loose pieces. In regards to MOC's, I like the idea of bagging them to keep the pieces together. My thought is if they fall apart, it just gives you a chance to build a bigger and better Rev 2.0.

I hope Hinckley will jump in here as he recently did a cross-country move with his whole collection.

-Dave

If you happen to be anal about your LEGO's like me then you have each set in it's own bag and all those bag's in a giant rubbermade tub, and all the instructions in a binder, in their own individual sleeves.:)

Otherwise taking apart large items and letting the rest ride in boxes, they are LEGO's after all, most vibration from the car ride won't damage anything, some stuff might break apart but the pieces should be fine. Any loose pieces should be secured in baggies.

Store each set/moc (even the smallest) individually in a plastic bag, so that you will be able to reassemble them easily if they break. That makes a lot of bags, which means a good primary protection against shocks! Then add a lot of crumpled newspaper between the plastic bags than contain your sets/moc, and put it into large boxes.

I moved earlier this year and have a few tips:

- Plastic tubs with sealing tops are your friend here. Nothing goes in boxes unless its in some sort of sealed container first.

- Chances are there already is a significant amount of tupperware/plastic storage things in your home already. Use these first. They're already paid for and going to be making the move anyway, why not make them work for it?

- Inexpensive plastic containers from the grocery (Glad/Ziploc for those of us stateside) are invaluable. You can get a variety of sizes and use them to house individual models/Mocs so that if anything does come apart in the move (which it will) the parts are still together.

- the cheap containers can be easily stacked in larger cardboard boxes for the move and padded with newspaper to keep them settled. On a side note, they come in really handy after the move for housing the onslaught of left overs from take-out/fast food you'll be enjoying for a few weeks while you settle in.

- If you use multi-drawer systems (like those typically found at hardware stores) to organize small pieces, DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING IN THE DRAWERS. I made this mistake thinking I could wrap the drawers in paper/plastic then unwrap them with no issues. This is a colossal waste of time and material. There are some small sizes of the aforementioned plastic containers that are almost identical in volume (it seems) to these drawers, use them, one for each drawer.

- If you can, tape the inside seams of any cardboard boxes used just in case a container inside bursts. Didn't happen to me, but I'm glad I did it. Actually, I paid someone else to do it, and it was their idea, but you get the point, right?

- Move things yourself if possible. If you're making a trip or two over before the move (or during) take a few fragile things yourself.

I lost quite a few creations in my move. Quite frankly, it has created a new opportunity freeing up a lot of brick and I have enjoyed using some previously 'forbidden brick' so I shouldn't complain, but probably still do.

Enjoy the new abode!

I moved my entire collection (about 85000 pieces/300 sets at the time) two years ago with no problems. Sealed plastic containers work well. As others have said, remove anything that is likely to come off (stuff like antennas), but you shouldn't need to do any major disassembly of models. If your new location is only a hour's drive away, it's a good idea to move everything yourself and do it in multiple trips if necessary.

- If you use multi-drawer systems (like those typically found at hardware stores) to organize small pieces, DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING IN THE DRAWERS. I made this mistake thinking I could wrap the drawers in paper/plastic then unwrap them with no issues. This is a colossal waste of time and material. There are some small sizes of the aforementioned plastic containers that are almost identical in volume (it seems) to these drawers, use them, one for each drawer.

I use the Stack-on drawers discussed in the pinned thread, and this was the one part of the move that took some thinking. I took out the individual drawers and packed them tightly into the same plastic boxes I used for models. I then placed thick towels over them to keep the parts in place, followed by some books to hold the towels down. This worked surprisingly well and there were hardly any cases of any pieces spilling out of their drawers.

I'm moving myself this weekend and preety much all the sugjestions meantioned are good. If you have alot of techinc or model team type sets, i would wrap them in bubble wrap (remove all loose items like antennas, mirrors, wings etc. and place those in a serperat bin or baggy) and place the models in either boxes or plastic bins. The wrap will generaly hold everything toeghter, as well as keep them from getting banged up.

I'm also moving at the moment, although it's only 4km away!

I'd recommend bubble wrapping and bagging individual sets/vehicles/etc, and using the actual boxes S@H uses to send your Lego purchases; if you have them, they're a really convenient size.

Secondly, I've packed some of my larger sets with my blankets, sheets, and towels to keep them safe. This works really well with the SW Imperial Star Destroyer for example.

Thirdly, I've packed some of them really haphazardly so that they'll break apart in transit and I'll be forced to make new MOCs out of them. Ah well!