Naming pieces

oceanangel

I was wondering if anyone can give me advice please. Ive been given use of the label maker at work from the other office but I can only print a few out and I also have a limited number of boxes/tins and whatever so whats the best way to name the pieces?

IE all the slopey pieces will go in one tin named slopes say.

CCC

It totally depends on how many types of parts you have, and how many storage bins.

But maybe

Bricks
Slopes
Plates
Other

If you have more bins you can start breaking those down - e.g. 1x bricks and 2x bricks.

oceanangel

thank you.

I have 20 bins. I kinda wanna store the bricks by size. I think.

vwong19

Bricklink catalog has part names http://www.bricklink.com/browseTree.asp?itemType=P
Lego parts webiste and this site has a list of categories http://brickset.com/parts.

If you have a large qty of a specific category you can drill down into subcategories.

oceanangel

aw, fab. Thank you
:D

This is hobby is much involved than I realised when I was bored in hospital and bought a minifig lol

BeardedCastleGuy

This hobby is only as complicated as you want to make it, there is no 'One True Way' for collecting Lego. Do what works for you, many folks have changed their sorting methods, some more than once. If you want to labels your bins as slopes, wheels bricks go ahead, sort by size? go for it.

akunthita

I would go with the BrickLink naming system, for several reasons. One is that you will familiarize yourself with names and if you ever need to buy a part you can easily find it on BrickLink. Secondly if your LEGO collection ever grows too big and decide to sell some, you can easily find and upload the parts you want to sell on BL because you already know their names. It is really the best to go with the established system. It will make your life so much easier. Have fun!

hmnicoll

akunthita said:

I would go with the BrickLink naming system, for several reasons. One is that you will familiarize yourself with names and if you ever need to buy a part you can easily find it on BrickLink. Secondly if your LEGO collection ever grows too big and decide to sell some, you can easily find and upload the parts you want to sell on BL because you already know their names. It is really the best to go with the established system. It will make your life so much easier. Have fun!

Or buy more :)

oceanangel

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think i was just trying to find an easy naming system as I have no idea what to call some of the pieces and 'hooky bit' looks weird on a container lol

hmnicoll

Why not use an image instead??

oceanangel

Ooh that would be cool when I get loads of odd shaped bits. :D

plasmodium

hmnicoll said:

Why not use an image instead??

It's not a bad idea, but when you have fewer pieces and you're sorting them by general type, it might be hard to get an image which really represents all the pieces in that box/drawer. I know one of my categories is "Human Artefacts", which is basically any kind of minifig tool/accessory/clothing/furniture etc. What picture would I use for that? :-P

hmnicoll

plasmodium said:

hmnicoll said:

Why not use an image instead??

It's not a bad idea, but when you have fewer pieces and you're sorting them by general type, it might be hard to get an image which really represents all the pieces in that box/drawer. I know one of my categories is "Human Artefacts", which is basically any kind of minifig tool/accessory/clothing/furniture etc. What picture would I use for that? :-P

Perhaps you could use an image of one of the most common pieces , or maybe even use multiple images on one label ? ;p

oceanangel

@Plasmodium thank you, I've been stuck for a general grouping name for those pieces. Lol at this rate they are gonna have no tape left in the label maker at work. They are gonna regret letting me use it lol

KiwiLegoMeister

I'm on a first name basis with my bricks.
There's Sally, and Polly, and Mary, and Marge ....

CCC

KiwiLegoMeister said:

I'm on a first name basis with my bricks.
There's Sally, and Polly, and Mary, and Marge ....

And lots of Rory?

emmtwosix

I don't have a very large collection of extras, but what I do have I've sorted into five, quart-sized Ziploc bags (with the itty bits secured inside smaller bags to keep them separate from their larger siblings.)

-Bricks
-Plates
-Slopes, Tiles, & Wedges
-Technic
-Minifigs/Other

Everyone's piece count will be different, I'm sure, but this split my extras fairly evenly per bag. If you have 20 tins to play with, you can further divide each category by size or shape and get even more specific (round bricks, axles, gears, etc), but I found this to be a pretty decent starting point to at least initially sort my pieces.

Pitfall69

I have so many loose bricks I would have to put a photo of me pulling my hair out on each bin.

Everyone has great ideas, but sometimes, storage systems can be as costly as the Lego you intend to store. I have built shelves and bought bins and pull out storage drawers and it still isn't enough.

Aanchir

Pitfall69 said:

I have so many loose bricks I would have to put a photo of me pulling my hair out on each bin.

Everyone has great ideas, but sometimes, storage systems can be as costly as the Lego you intend to store. I have built shelves and bought bins and pull out storage drawers and it still isn't enough.

Costly not just in terms of money but also time. Sorting pieces and putting them away is really a never-ending task, from my experience. Any time a certain type of piece outgrows its container you have to come up with a new sorting strategy, which might mean moving OTHER pieces around and finding new places for THEM.... and you don't want your sorting strategy to get too elaborate or you'll have a hard time remembering what's where (labels help, up until you need to change your sorting strategy and your previous labels become obsolete).

Currently, my Hero Factory parts are all in plastic Ziploc bags and grocery bags in my bedroom, and still I find it easier to build with them and remember what's where than with the vast collection of System and Technic parts I have sorted in my basement. I need to find a new storage solution for them sometime for sure, but I probably won't attempt anything as mind-numbingly specific as the tiny labeled drawers I used in my basement. Perhaps when I move into a place of my own I can come up with a lasting storage strategy for them. Beams in one place, shells in another, weapons and detail pieces in another... I can dream....

steel

I sort all of mine by colour and then size/type.

KirstyL21

I think I have spent as much time sorting over the years as I have building. My current obsession of storing Creator sets in their original boxes means that MOC's are a rather time hungry endeavor. Easy to grab the bricks you need but 3 days of sorting to get them back into their respective boxes can be tedious. Counting 1x1 rounds is mind numbing. I know it is a daft system ... But for now I can't help myself. Perhaps I need to adopt both methods ... A big batch of loose bricks sorted by type/colour etc for MOC's and my Creator sets as is. I can see my bank balance suffering with that idea!!! Oh boy.