Storage Anyone? :-)

Ayrton1310

I have a collection of about 60,000 pieces of Lego and last year organised them into about 15 containers. I want to further divide them and the end goal is having a single (not necessarily box but section) space for each part.

What is everyone else doing or how do you store/organise?
I saw recently a very cheap way of doing this by getting takeaway tubs and stacking them on shelves, has anyone done this and how do you find this system?

CCC

There are a number of threads on this that are worth having a look at:

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/51/how-does-everyone-else-store-their-collection

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/2399/what-have-you-done-to-your-house-to-accommodate-your-lego-hobby-addiction/p1

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/526117

Ayrton1310

Thank you @CCC . You are very helpful. Are you the wise elder on the forum? ;-p

Huw

I'm the 'wisest elder' :)

Take a look at https://brickset.com/article/15709/review-really-useful-scrapbook-drawers

That's what I use, I now have about 80 drawers c/w/ dividers.

CCC

Ayrton1310 said:

Thank you @CCC . You are very helpful. Are you the wise elder on the forum? ;-p

I have a good memory.

Wise is subjective, although Huw is wisest of all (proof above).
 

Ayrton1310

Thanks for that link @Huw,

The only problem I have with really useful scrapbook drawers is their shipping to Ireland is £85 (even if I buy something for like £2) which at the moment is too high, that why I'm looking at doing the storage with takeaway tubs. I got the idea from the mini Millionaire on Youtube. She/They used the system for a while and then they moved to the inserts for the really useful scrapbook drawers. See their video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdipM0d7A94

Brickfan50

Huw said:

I'm the 'wisest elder' :)

You're in your forties, right? It's six years after I took my username. But certainly it's true that you're wiser :-;

ACWWGal2011

For the most part i use Sterelite drawers(the 14x14 ones), some stack ons, shoeboxes, and misc container

catwrangler

@Ayrton1310 My one suggestion if you're using the fast food tubs is to buy them in multipacks from Euro shops (I'm up north and here I always see them in packs of about 10 in Poundland, so they'd be very economical to buy in bulk) - I've found that they're very hard to adequately clean if they've actually been used to hold food; the grease seems to linger in that post-nuclear-war-cockroaches kind of way...

Ayrton1310

@catwrangler , the takeaway tubs can be got off eBay. 250 of them for about €40 including postage.

Ayrton1310

Plus, they would obviously be new!

omnium

Ayrton1310 said:

Thanks for that link @Huw,

The only problem I have with really useful scrapbook drawers is their shipping to Ireland is £85 (even if I buy something for like £2) 

You should investigate Parcel Motel. A colleague of mine uses them to ship parcels from UK to his flat in IRL and he says the extra cost for parcel forwarding is worth it for the savings that can be had for shopping with Amazon.co.uk, for example.

I currently use a mix of Really Useful hobby boxes for small items, Stanley drawers for small to medium sized plates, bricks and other commonly used stuff and takeaway boxes for less commonly used items.

large88

Im using Iris drawers (thats what they are called in the Netherlands) of about 20 euro per 6 drawers. There are no dividers for these drawers so I still use ziplocks in different sizes to keep stuff sorted.

Also I use the cabinets frequently sold at Aldi, they cost a whopping 7 euros per cabinet.

Ayrton1310

Yeah, I have 1 of those Aldi organisers as well. I only bought one though and there in Aldi Ireland in February I think. There €10 over here.

madforLEGO

I'm still kicking myself for not pulling the trigger on Amazon selling those Iris 6 drawer carts for only 15 USD per. Now they are hovering around 30+ USD

large88

^That would have been a good deal

Most of my Lego buddies started using these. I believe we actually caused a shortage when 3 or 4 of us were purchasing drawers at the same time from Iris directly ;)

Ayrton1310

I'm still liking the idea of using takeaway tubs until Aldi has those organisers again. I can get 500 1L tubs with lids for  €60 to my door! I was also thinking of buying zip lock bags and having each piece in a bag and three bags per tub. That would get me storage for 1500 separate lots! See the tubs here

Ayrton1310

I found these today on another forum. There in a shop called Dealz, not sure if there only in Ireland though. I don't know the actual dimensions as yet but €1.50 for a triple drawer is a good price all the same.

Hanzo

I don't have a ton of misc bricks and pieces (that aren't already built in sets) so I use these from Dollar Tree.  They are fairly large and due to their shape they stack, they work for me and at $1 each they hold up pretty well.  Obviously they are only for smaller bricks/pieces/odds and ends.


https://www.dollartree.com/Jot-Plastic-9-Compartment-Organizer-Case/p368597/index.pro

Ayrton1310

They look good alright, just postage from America would be through the roof expensive.

Hanzo

Ayrton1310 said:

They look good alright, just postage from America would be through the roof expensive.

Do you guys not have an equivalent to our "dollar stores" there?  Us Yankees love our cheap Chinese crap. 

Mr_Cross

I have some raaco cabinets (that I thought were competitively priced when I bought them about 8yrs ago for about £15 each) but coming back into the hobby again earlier this year the price on those has gone up and I've seen others not necessarily better quality, but certainly better value. However, I'm not keen on replacing them for something cheaper because I'd rather not have dissimilar cabinets with drawers.
The raaco come in a variety of options using about four different drawer sizes and although some are alarmingly priced, there are sometimes deals to be had at maplin when they're in stock.
I'm also using some wham boxes for the fiddlier components, although if I had more disposable cash I'd probably have bought these (also from raaco) or something like them because they have removable trays.
I'm not done sorting and reorganizing my collection and that's what I'm using these things for. I'm considering a bricklink shop too and I already know I want a wholly different system for that, probably using a lot of standardized tubs or storage boxes... I'm part way through my research on that and I feel like I've looked at so many options that don't fit my two main criteria: 1. Really good low price per unit on a bulk order. 2. A product that looks like it will be around in a few years time should I want more.
I'd prefer a good quality product as opposed to the "takeaway" pot approach, but I may still go that way... for quality however...
Currently, it seems, to me at least, only Really Useful or Wham look like they're going to be producing the same styles and they are both looking a bit expensive for what I want to spend on the business set-up costs (not including inventory).

Ayrton1310

Hanzo said:

Ayrton1310 said:

They look good alright, just postage from America would be through the roof expensive.

Do you guys not have an equivalent to our "dollar stores" there?  Us Yankees love our cheap Chinese crap. 

We have Euro stores but they don't seem to be at the same standard as the dollar stores over there!

MaffyD

^ economy of scale - logistics of getting things to a small island is never going to compare well with transport to one of the most populous, rich and consumerist continents in the world...

Ayrton1310

I managed to get two of these in Lidl during the weekend, they're averaged sized units and can fit a good bit of Lego in each tub. They were marked at €10 each but when I got to the counter he gave them to me for €5 each! 

omnium

Mr_Cross said:

I have some raaco cabinets (that I thought were competitively priced when I bought them about 8yrs ago for about £15 each) but coming back into the hobby again earlier this year the price on those has gone up and I've seen others not necessarily better quality, but certainly better value. However, I'm not keen on replacing them for something cheaper because I'd rather not have dissimilar cabinets with drawers.
The raaco come in a variety of options using about four different drawer sizes and although some are alarmingly priced, there are sometimes deals to be had at maplin when they're in stock.

Those Racco cabinets look very similar to the Draper ones I use.

I was wondering what brand the large blue cabinets were that I see in the Lego room on Channel 4's Lego Masters TV show. They look similar to the Racco and Draper cabs, only larger.

omnium

@Mr_Cross
By the way, I bought some Raaco cabinets from here for £17 each last week:
https://www.paperstone.co.uk/Search?q=raaco+steel+drawer
They've gone up in price again, but they're still cheaper than anywhere else I've found. If £24 is too expensive for the 40 drawer ones, it might be worth keeping an eye on their site to see if they go down in price again.
And they are basically the same as the Draper Expert ones I bought previously. Instead of blue, they are black and have "RAACO" stamped on the top.

Mr_Cross

^ ooh! Thanks for the heads up!

madforLEGO

Resurrecting this thread as Amazon (US) has the smaller IRIS 6 drawer storage cart for 17.45

madforLEGO

madforLEGO said:

Resurrecting this thread as Amazon (US) has the smaller IRIS 6 drawer storage cart for 17.45

It is back at 17.45 again