Storing & Sorting Your Lego Pieces

[Brickmaster]

Lego sorting techniques; do you have any?

Once, years ago just before my dark ages I had sorted all of my lego bricks by color - within afew months it was a mess again, but im going to give it another try. Albeit with all the random bins and messes, I dont think it will be an easy task, or a quick one.

Before I get to far along, I'd like to ask the community; how do you sort your bricks? Is there any technique, or just some random bins with the whole mess - Yes, I do admit half the fun is digging through the mess to try and find that one peice - or an evenbetter one for the situation. But with a larger and larger amount, this task can get more frustrating than fun.

So far I've just been doing it with corrisponding colors - but am wondering if I should condense this process further once I've completed this task; basically color and style of brick, like slopes, printed, etc.

I literally have an entire story of this house for lego :-$ (the attic is considered a third story as its so large - so it's my area. Space and bins are not a large factor)

As I sort through the random bins I also have decided its most efficient to sort out all of one color from the bin, then do another; seems to work.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips?

Sorry if this topic has been created (None came up on the search for me)

[Siegfried]

There is already a topic on this here, but to answer your question I sort by colour mostly. Some parts I sort by type if I feel that they are more of a function piece, for example wheels, technic bits, SNOT parts, hinges etc. I store most of my parts in 4 litre containers and sub-divide if there is too much.

EDIT: Thank you kind mystery mod/admin!

[SlyOwl]

There is already a topic on this here...

Umm...that's this topic... :-P

My sorting story:

To start with, as is standard, my Lego lived all over the living room floor, and in 2 Lego tubs when it needed transporting or tidying away. Sitting in the middle of this, I would happily build for hours, loosely sorting 'useful' (cool X-D ) parts into groups nearby; they'd be mingled with the rest none-the-less, but in an extremely vague sort of order - I knew where to find them. However, one thing I refused to do was the norm for my friends of that generation - let a mixture of K'NEX, green and metal army men, bits of paper and blue tack and a motley assortment of everything else, including instructions, into my Lego. IMO, once you do that, you're doomed. I kept my baseplates at that time seperately (at least, at the back of the pile) and my instructions very seperate - they had their own box! I was rarely allowed to keep any boxes - as space was limited, my Mum would cut the pictures of the alternate models and main picture out and glue them into little collages which I kept with my instructions. Of course I did have a loose sorting system in one tub:

You can see slots for more dividers and 16x32 boards slide in for the lids, and I used these to sort out grey parts and wheels...but nothing serious or permanent... :-)

My first real sorting began when I moved house; I had been given the second largest bedroom to accomodate my Lego (by now my parents had decided that I wouldn't stay up all night playing...I think I've gone back to my old ways though - Late night builds on! :-D )...but by then my collection had got too big for the two boxes and so I expanded, sorting by colour only (everything, including minifigs), except black, which was divided into bricks, large parts and other parts.

I only really began to sort by type when the Recording Studios next to my house were redeveloped into flats, and I came across a pile of interlocking trays in the skip and I took these onto my desk and sorted my bricks into them. As my collection grew, I had to rearrange the trays time and time again. One major problem was that there were too many trays - they outnumbered the tray-cases, so I placed the trays inside my desk drawers. My Gran was throwing away a mid-sized amount of the same ones, and I picked these up too. I had to move all my castle BURPS into a tub, but that was it. At this point, I was sorting by type only, apart from my 2x4 bricks.

I then expanded on these trays and drawers by storing parts in flower pots and medicinal bottles e.t.c...but this was inefficient, so when I had built up a reasonable collection of plastic bags off BL, I used these. I sorted my bricks by colour only (much more efficient) and that's where I am now...my only loose parts being my Fabuland crow, my elephant and Xpod cases, as well as cloth parts.

I like my system, but I do enjoy (and miss!) a good old rummage through a box of mixed up Lego, like at an uneducated friend's house X-D

SlyOwl

Edited December 17, 2007 by SlyOwl