There has been quite a lot of discussion about sorting our collections. Please post your methods as pages under this book.
I started out sorting into large freezer bags. These are strong, flexible and store extremely well.
As my collection grew, I moved to shoeboxed sized Sterilite containers. These hold more parts but consume lots of space.
As my collection got even larger I moved to LEGO buckets stuffed with loose bricks and the old freezer bags stuffed in any empty space, plus the Sterilite boxes.
Now I have settled on large, rollaround Sterilite drawers and sets of Akro-Mills "nuts and bolts" drawers for everything else.
The large drawers are used to store basic bricks in each unique color at sizes of 1x2 and up. For example, I've got a big drawer with all white bricks, all green, all black etc.
For the smaller sized bricks, like 1x1, I mix the various colors together into one big drawer of 1x1s.
I also mix 2x2+ plates and 1x3+ plates of all colors together. This gives me basic bricks in about a dozen or so colors, uniquely available, but then plates are mixed together by color and type. In other words, I have 1x3,4,6,8 plates of all colors mixed together. For now, it's easy for me to look in and take what I need and to assess availability.
For 1x1 and 1x2 plates, they are sorted by color in their own seperate mini-drawers.
Special elements are sorted in unique drawers and the colors are mixed together UNTIL enough of the elements warrant separation by color. For instance, I might mix all the 2x2 radar dishes together in a drawer until I see a trend that I've got a majority of yellow dishes. When I hit the tipping point, I seperate the yellow dishes and put them in their own drawer right next to the mixed-color radar dishes. This results in all the various colors of radar dishes being in proximity. As my collection of same-color parts, grow, the nearby drawer space expands accordingly. For instance, one day I will have a row of 2x2 radar dishes in each color.
In summary, I sort by part-type first for just about everything, then by color as my collection expands.
I tend to build by theme. As a result, I can begin a project and go pull all the respective types of drawers I am going to need and have them nearby, or re-purpose an entire storage set just for the parts I will need for the respective project.
For space saving tips I find myself buying buckets and instantly consolidating multiple buckets together. If I get even more crunched for space, I open the polybags by bag type and mix them with others of their same type. For instance, the bags with small parts all get dumped into a bucket together. To expedite sorting I can then just reach for a bucket full of parts, but know that there are likely only 25 or so unique parts in the entire bucket (even though the bucket could have thousands of parts in it). This allows me to set up a sorting assembly line of sorts. This process works extremely well when I go buy 10 of a single bucket, set, etc. It does not work well when I get backlogged on misc. sets.
I am interested in hearing how the rest of you sort and store your parts.
Ashley
Sorting before some basic things are identified is putting the cart before the horse. The following criteria will impact how one interfaces with a collection:
1. will other people have access to said parts
2. how much room is available
3. do MOCs tend to be bigger/less detail or smaller/high-detail
4. room lighting
5. resources one's willing to spend on sorting system including fixtures/bags ^and^ resorting time
6. adjacent spaces devoted to staging bins while building
7. personal color idiosyncracies or biases (color blindness, most/least-used).
8. typical MOC genre (miniature, sculpture, technic, or mosaic)
9. to what degree inventory levels need to be checked (eg, 'will 1-2 elements put the MOC over the fence?')
dp
by Robin of Vancouver, BC) about sorting...
Instead of re-stating what the folks above have stated (which is what I
used to do), here's something new that I'm trying:
I got 2 huge boxes (400/each) of holiday cardboard gift boxes
(top/bottom), which are roughly 8"x8"--they are quite sturdy, an have a
capacity of roughly 2x PAB full size cups. The boxes and lids are
sturdy enough that I have them on my racks stacked like books
(vertically), and have used MLCAD to create labels that visually show
what's in the box. Now, I only use this system for bricks I only have
2x PAB quantity... for smaller quantities, I use the Akro-Mils system,
and for really large quants (e.g. 2x4), they are sorted by color, and
place in DEEP "rolly-cart" drawers... Here's the kicker... AFTER the
holidays, many of the stores simply dispose of their seasonal gift
boxes (e.g. JCPenney, etc.), as they simply don't have the storage
space... so--if you're lucky, FREE is a great price to get organized...
I'll take some pics and post...
I sorted bricks and plates by color into the "shoebox" size rubbermaid totes with some luck but recently reversed that and re-sorted all those bins by size instead of color. This allows a quicker access to the smaller pieces of a particular color without having to dig through all the 2x6 and larger blocks. With those bins, I learned a valuable lesson from Tony Hafner. There isn't much in them, leave the lid off and stack the next box on top, save a ton of space on the shelf.
I have 4 "nuts and bolts" chest of drawers with anywhere from 20-40 drawers for smaller and more unique pices but those are pretty much full and I'm estimating need for a few more. At this point I'm going to go for the smaller drawer versions. Anything that outgrows a big drawer in the sets I have will go into a shoebox bin w/o a lid.
Then agian, I still have two or three unsorted rubbermaid toes to get to sorting, almost none of them containing basic brick. :|
I have around 100 shoebox-sized bins, stacked nested without lids as Sean says below, with the larger pieces and basic bricks/plates/slopes. I also have a bunch of smaller bins (maybe 40?) that are half that size, stacked the same way. And then I have some of the flat tackle-ish boxes. 95% of my sorted pieces are stored in one of these three types of containers, all of which fit fairly well in Ikea wall shelves. The big bins fit into a section width-wise, 2 stacks of bins per shelf. The smaller bins fit in depth-wise, with (7?) stacks per shelf. I only have one shelf that has just these- the rest are scattered about (like the Technic small bins sharing a shelf with the Technic tackle boxes).
If you really care for way more detail:
Basic pieces are sorted by color and type:
1xN bricks (black only is also sorted into large and small 1xN bricks)
2xN bricks (black only is also sorted into large and small 2xN bricks)
1xN and 2xN plates
4xN plates
6xN and larger plates
1:1 slopes
1:2 slopes
Other slopes
There are variations within this, like some colors have all of the slopes mixed together or black only has the 1xN bricks divided into longer and shorter ones.
Everything else (except for rare colors and trans pieces) is sorted by part type, not by color at all.
They are broken out like:
Radar dishes
2x2 round pieces
3x3 and 4x4 round pieces
Arches and round bricks
Panels
Wall sections
Car specialty pieces (chassis, fenders, etc.)
Train specialty pieces
Doors & Windows
Tiles
Decorated pieces
Technic bricks
Brackets and bricks with side studs (not including 1x1s)
Things with strings
…more
The smaller bins are sorted similarly, but contain pieces of which I have fewer:
Large curvy/slopey bits (ie 1x6 slopes, 3x8x2 and 3x12 curved wedges, 6x8x2 windscreens)
Small curvy/slopey bits (ie 2x2 funky “racers” slopes, new 1x1 slopes)
Turntables
Ladders
Fences
Things with strings
1x1 round pieces
Textured pieces (corrugated, log, and grooved)
Things with strings
…many more
Really small stuff fits into the tackle boxes. I have 4 for minifigs, 2 for minifig accessories, 2 for small Technic bits, 3 for various hinges, and 3 more for:
Trans 1x1s bricks and plates, and headlight bricks
Clips and Bars
Small wheels
Those are all of the easily-accessible parts. I also have a few rarely-accessed things sorted into Lego bins or large cardboard boxes, like baseplates, boat bases, really giant panels, flora and fauna, electric and otherwise motorized pieces, etc.
The main disadvantage I see in this is that specific small basic bricks, plates, and slopes pieces can be hard to find. My 1x1 bricks should be sorted out separately (just haven’t done it), as should 1x1 plates and 1x2 of the same. I also need to break out the decorated pieces bin into some tackle boxes. Another thing that is a bit awkward is when I buy in bulk and have a preposterous number of a particularly weird piece. Tossing 400 each of black and white 2x2 tiles in with the rest of the tiles doesn’t make sense, so I sometimes bag things and then toss the bag in the bin where the parts would go. I also have a “bulk” tub that contains baggies of pieces that I have in large quantities. That in particular would be confusing to someone looking through the collection, but works for me because I know for the most part what’s in there.
How certain pieces are sorted is often a convoluted series of exceptions. In some cases, someone who has a good understanding of the general system without knowing the specific exceptions might look in 3 places before finding the part, or might miss a really weird bin. Two of the stranger ones are labeled “Where do these go?” and “Opaque canopies”.
One of these days, I’ll probably put this info on my web site along with pictures to help explain it… not my top priority.
--
Tony Hafner
www.hafhead.com
Sorting isn't a science. Unfortunately.
The methodologies to sort LEGO elements are as diverse as the collectors who sort them. There are similarities between all sorting systems. The range is from all pieces in the same container (small, active collections) to one type, one color piece per container (LEGO Model Shop comes to mind). So, now that I've stated the obvious, I'll attempt to describe my (somewhere in between) methods.
To start, I have more than 1,100 sorting containers ranging from bins 2" x 5" x 1-1/2" to 30 quart containers. The volume of bins I have is enormous. About 1/2 are "nuts and bolts" boxes - less than 1 quart. About 200 are 1 quart (4" x 12" x 4"). The rest are bigger. This translates to about 400 bins/boxes larger than 1 quart. Hundreds of gallons altogether. I keep about 60 11" x 17" paper boxes full of larger parts like Duplo, Beleville, big bricks, burps, etc.
To hold these bins and boxes, I have 10 shelf racks that have a combined footprint of about 80 sq ft. The height varies from 6 to 10 feet tall.
The way I have approached sorting has changed throughout the years.
I began by sorting into three boxes: Bricks, Plates and Other. I didn't concern myself about color or size. Then it became important to separate wheels and tires, large and small, bricks, slopes and plates. Still no color or "other" sorting, but that separation made it to about 10-20 boxes.
Jump ahead 20+ years.
Now, I separate the following:
Bricks: By size and by basic color (red, blue, black, white, yellow). I mix the "other" colors (grey, green, tan, etc.) by size only. Sometimes I have colored parts bagged within the bins of same size bricks. I have many bins for specialized bricks like arches, cylinders and long or tall bricks.
Plates: By size. I have a color subset for 1x2 and 1x4. I do mix shades of colors together within this subset (e.g. red and dark red, grey and dark grey, yellow and orange). I also include single color bags within the same bins of plates. I do not sort 1x1 square plates by color, but I do separate 1 round plates by color.
Slopes: By size and angle but not color.
Wheels/Tires: Very Large, Large, Medium, Small and Tiny. They're all black, right?
I separate all Technic bricks, axles, pins, bushings, gears and so on - by shape, not color (still, lots of bins!). I separate by themes (sort of): Train track, monorail track, electrical, etc.
I try to keep similar parts or families together to minimize hunting while building. This gets to be a problem when, for example the 2 dia. radar dishes are kept across the room from the 4's, 6's and 8's, because the bins used are of different styles or sizes.
Basically, if a part quantity exceeds "a few", it gets considered for separation. If it gets into the "tens of" range it is definitely up for separation. If it gets to the "hundreds of" then color separation becomes very important, although none of this guarantees a separation.
I have separate bins/boxes for large parts (e.g. burps, castle walls, windshields, columns, brackets, chassis), that are not separated by more than category, yet get into the hundreds. These are rarely used parts (by me) and are not accessed often.
There is one more area of "sorting" I do that many of you do not. I separate one of every shape and size of part I have into my "display" or "Element Collection". My primary purchasing has been, for about the last 15 years, to meet the goal of owning every kind of piece LEGO has produced - right back to 1949, when they began to manufacture the "Automatic Binding Bricks". Although my goal may never be completed, I have been able to attain the 95th to 98th percentile. I am always learning about parts I didn't know existed and seeking ownership of them.
My other purchasing goal, getting the parts needed to build large models, has been facilitated by LEGO Shop at Home (now LEGO.com), eBay, Bricklink and, lately, Pick-a-Brick. Many of the parts for ongoing models are kept separate from my "ordinary" parts bins. This prevents me from using them accidentally.
My collection exceeds 1,000,000 pieces! Although I keep my collection sorted pretty well (~98%), that leaves, at any one time, about 20,000 pieces to sort.
There was a time, before my introduction to the internet, that I knew (at least very closely) the number of pieces I owned (~450,000). Never since.
Wayne