Heh, I forgot about those wrenches. Yeah, I used those too. And my teeth…
So does anyone have some good recommendations for how to store my growing collection with an eye toward easily finding/sorting things when I feel like reassembling something? Just dumping them into plastic storage boxes makes it pretty hard to put anything specific together in a hurry (and without dumping out a lot of pieces, but I don’t want to end up at the other extreme where I’m just ziploc’ing parts by specific sets. That would make it harder to just build my own stuff. Any advice on how to sort things? Color, size, both?
We settled on color. Then for really common colors that we have a lot of (black, light gray, dark gray) we further split in to “big” and “little”. When we got more complicated than this then we just spent all of our time sorting and cleaning up. Also keeping it simple lets the little kids help clean up.
I sort by part type, and then if there are too many of that type, then I break those up by color.
For small parts, I bought a bunch of plastic drawer shelf things from my local hardware store (I think it was Ace Hardware?). They’re nice since you can easily take the drawers out, lay them out and sift through them while you’re working on something. You can see them in the background of this pic:
For larger parts, I used clear plastic shoebox-sized containers from Target and got all the same type so they could stack. Then sandwich/freezer bags if I needed to divide stuff up within one of those containers.
Sacrilege!
Lego should be stored all mixed together in a big box that you tip onto the floor to rummage through when you need to build something or find a specific brick.
Sterilite drawers are quite popular. You can supplement with ziplock bags for smaller bits, or tackle box type things. (Basically what krushnine said.) What combination of sorting parts by type/size/color/function you use really comes downs to what ends up working best for you; if you have kids (as above) simpler is better.
I have stuff I got in 1970 in my collection and I’m still not happy with how I have it arranged. I have a few big bins - basic bricks in one, then some sub-sorting in the others with trays and baggies for things like “tires, windows, castle walls” etc. And a separate big tackle box for the Mindstorms stuff. A number of the kids’ favorite sets are ziplocked separately for easy rebuilding.
There comes a point where that doesn’t work anymore, sadly. Did you know there’s a word in German for the sound LEGO makes when you’re swishing your hands through them looking for something? GRUSCHTELING.
Awesome, a word just or that sound? It is iconic :)
I jokingly wished for just such a service before I knew it existed. I’m not sure I’d actually use it, but I’m interested to see if they can make it work.
It looks like they have some kind of plan in place for lost pieces (there’s a “most common missing pieces” bag provided), but I don’t have much confidence that it will work.
Yay, my DeLorean arrived! I like look of the finished set, but it’s definitely the most fragile Lego vehicle in my collection.
My favorite step:
- You begin to develop strong opinions on Plano vs. Stak-On and
Rubbermaid vs. Sterilite.
I’m not scary into Lego, but that resonates as a fan of both component-heavy board games and tabletop war games.
I gotta know: the flat 2x2 piece behind the driver’s seat, is “SHIELD” misspelled as per this image on Amazon (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/811h%2BTsmo2L._SL1500_.jpg)? If it is, I’m very sorry for bringing it to your attention (but thanks for letting the rest of us pedants know!)
Maybe sets with this issue will become a collector’s item, since it sounds like they might fix this sometime:
https://legocuusoo.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/226962-information-about-the-back-to-the-future-set-flux
Yup, it’s misspelled on mine.
Never heard of that word, sounds like something English-speaking people would make up ;)
Maybe “Kruschteln”
Well, my parents always called it “Scharren”, as in “Er scharrt mal wieder” (“He paws/scrabbles/scratches? again”).
I have no idea if Ralph Hempel is German or not. So take it up with him. He’s at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, so I guess we can Blame Canada yet again!
Maybe if his name was “Krautwurst” (actual name of an aircraft pliot I encountered while traveling).