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So, most sets released since 2004, at least those I'm likely to want to build again, are bagged up and stored in plastic boxes. I usually take the minifigs out and keep them separately.
I don't have room for hundreds of empty boxes (see the other thread...) but I do keep those for licenced themes.
All my MISB sets (far too many these days I'm afraid) are stored in Attic/Loft #2 and are just arranged such that there is very little crushing pressure on anyone box.
I don't really MOC so having the pieces available is not really an issue for me. I plan to start a few discussions on displaying Lego when I get a few minutes.
I'm in the process of designing and building some custom storage units to maximise the LEGO storage space, but it'll likely be a problem until the day I die....
@yellowcastle I love the Town Plan set in your photo! Having bought my own one at a great price from a LEGO brand store a couple of years back and not built it yet, I now hesitate to break the seals when I see the prices the set is fetching on eBay now. This is true for many sets , and I'm sure I'm not the only one with this dilemma.
Additionally, I didn't pay much heed to box placement in my GORM. If I had done so, I would sure have put more of the interesting and/or rare sets up front. :o)
Post-dark ages sets are in ziplock pages, with the set # sharpied on them, stored in plastic see-through tubs.
I separate out all of the minifigs and store them in these wonderful clear acrylic organizers I found at the Container Store. The containers have 27 compartments in a 3x9 grid, and are almost the perfect dimension in height, width and depth for a minifig (and will often fit a large hat or weapon).
I haven't finialized my room setup yet....but pictures are coming.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S69873919
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30058508
My fairly modest collection (despite my wife's opinion to the contrary) is mostly disassembled and sorted by part type in a few different types of "small parts" organizers you can get at Home Depot. I have two large Stanley tool organizers that are just too huge to be practical (I want to phase them out) and a bunch of smaller 'Workforce' organizers that really do a great job of keeping stuff organized yet accessible. I also currently have a bunch of sets on my desk in various states of disassembly (awaiting more Workforce organizers) and a few favorites (8097 Slave I, Emerald Night, 4841 Hogwarts Express, Shuttle Adventure, Midi-Scale Falcon and Star Destroyer, Luke's Landspeeder) displayed on my dresser.
I can't wait until I get a man cave in my next house, in order to really have full access to my collection.
I use Ikea shelving for displaying my sets, Niklaus I think it's called, but it hasn't been available for a few years now.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000440141105#!/pages/Lego-Town-With-No-Name/429002295260
If i don't then i'll improve with my limited left overs in a big box or take it apart and make something different from the top. But i won't buy if my town didn't need it.
the boxs go in the spare room with instructions to remind myself what i have but with brickset...
At the moment I have my Death Star on a "cheeze-plate", it's a round plate you can turn, which is excellent. It's located right inside the room. All my stormtroopers, but one, are stationed here. Next to that I have my Hoth-scenario, which started up with the 2004-Millenium Falcon and consists of most of the Hoth sets released after that point. I think the only exception is the Motorized AT-AT. This is disdplayed on a desk, over the desk there are some shelves where I display various smaller scenes from Star Wars & Indiana Jones.
There is some space right beneath my two windows, under the first I have a Clone Wars-battle, I've only bought Clone Wars-sets exclusively made up of clones as they don't have to take their helmets of. This scenario mainly consists of ground-based Separatist vehicles. Next to this I have my Endor-display. At the moment it only consists of the bunker and two AT-STs, but after the summer I'm going to make a large forest, which will be Endor in one end and The Forbidden Forest in the other. Next to the Endor display, you might have guessed, it's Hogwarts. Hogwarts is my main re-building project and I'm slowly making progress, it consists mostly of HP 1-3 sets(I have 4 too, but that doesn't fit in). Hopefully I'll get to buy some of the new ones, but with Pirates of the Caribbean coming up and a tight budget, I'm not too sure.
Finally there's my workspace. Another desk, filled with works in progress and loose parts. This also has drawers, where I keep some sets and minifigures, and there are shelves over it, where I keep some small sets and my Collectable Minifigures. In addition to this I keep loose sets all over the room, on top of boxes or chairs. Under the work desk I keep my boxes of loose parts.
My empty boxes are kept in the attic, luckily, a lot of them fit into the Death Star box, which saves some space. Hopefully, my LEGO will get to stay when I move out, my boxes however, I'm not too sure about... I might bring my Death Star along, depending on how big a place I get.
This was a lot, but it feels so good to have someone to talk to about this, who actually listens, or rather, reads.
Once we move, I envision my ideal man-cave also being my office. It will be 40% LEGO, 40% comics, and 10% workspace (which would include my computer desk and a drafting table that hasn't seen the light of day in going on 5 years).
One of the reasons I keep the sets in the closet is because it is dark and cool. UV light is the worst enemy for ABS plastic and will deteriorate the bricks over time. This is how white bricks become yellowed and gray bricks become brittle. Also why the change in color of gray, I think, to make the bricks more resistant to UV degradation. Heat plays a minor role in degradation.
I came across a method of reverting the degradation of old bricks, I guess I should post somewhere because it is useful information, but I'll need to dig up the links.
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Retr0Bright+Gel
There's also one that uses soaking instead of a gel form. (with credits to TBB's roguebantha: I hope the admin won't mind, but you can delete my post if you find it inappropriate that I used the link)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3455254823/
When I posted the links in our group's site, I thought the most valid question was the use of sunlight. It's UV and heat all in one yet it is recommended to help in the process. Other members suggested that you could do away with the sunlight, but I just don't know how long that takes.
I hate yellowing, that's why I also hate white as a color for the bricks...can't stop thinking about the future of my stormies because of that.
I don't hate white bricks though. White bricks actually look really cool. I just hate yellowing ;)
As for why the role of sunlight would change from bad to good, it has to do the with environment the brick is in. The radiation is energy that drives a chemical reaction. In a normal environment this reaction goes in the degradation direction. In the hydrogen rich environment of the solution the reaction does in the other direction, reversing the yellowing effect. However, in both cases the UV light is the source of the energy for the reaction.
Thanks for posting the link. Anyone have any success with this method? (Maybe this should be a separate thread?)
I would leave it to others to do a statistically significant study. :-)
I just recently (last year) started buying loose brick and duplicates sets for parts - all for my first attempts at MOCs. I only started collecting in 1999 (no lego as a kid (girl) - but my brother did and I played with his), and began with just Star Wars, so that's a good potion of my collection. In 2007 I started branching out, and now I have a bit of everything, but I generally refuse to buy Clone Wars. Anyways, I started just with buying/building sets, but after joining a local LUG last year I have decided I want to start building MOCs, and now I have all this loose brick and needed to figure out a storage system. I found 3-drawer 'wide' plastic storage units at WalMart that work great (same ones that 'Nannan' has if you saw his recent video). I also bought a bunch of different sized smaller organizers there to fit inside the drawers for subdividing (they are technically for cutlery I think).
Full boxes: Go into "really useful boxes" in the loft. The big sets go into 2x84L boxes end to end.
Random/old bricks: Into smaller really useful boxes (9L ones), ordered broadly, e.g. 'flats' '1-wides', '2-wides' etc, but no more than that, I like to make stuff, not sort!
Then, the rest of it (the majority) are just put into 19L / 35L / 65L really useful boxes by theme, some built stuff & some not built, all mixed up. I find this a good compromise; dont want to be too sorting-focussed, to allow creativity, but want the themes seperate and dont want it to descend into chaos.
Is anyone concerned with humidity, since Summer is around the corner?
The loft I have double insulated the inside of the roof to ensure constant temperature and no water drips. However having a logburner I have to ensure nothing is near the chimney breasts - if you store your Lego in a loft and have a working fireplace then this is something to remember as it does get rather hot.
All boxes are kept and stored inside other boxes, which I find the easiest way and to save space. These are then kept in large cardboard boxes. The exception is UCS sets with their inner boxes and ring-bound instructions. All sets that are not made up are kept in ziplock bags in large plastic stackable storage boxes - all sorted by theme: castle, pirate, town and sub-theme. Instructions are kept in box files, again sorted by theme.
Any fabrics like pirate ship sails are kept in ziplock bags in a separate box file, and unused sticker sheets also in individual ziplock bags. The amount of ziplock bags I buy in waitrose in one go must make the cashier wonder...
I have some rudimentary shelving in the loft for display, otherwise made sets are on the floor.
MISB are kept in plastic storage boxes - I do not have many now, but they take up more space.
I also collect Duplo promotional bricks, and these are kept in individual ziplock bags, then in a ziplock bag for the year - 1 for UK and 1 for other, and then in a plastic storage crate. Minifigs like the collectable ones are displayed/kept in commerically brought take-away tubs. These can found cheaply in pound stores in the UK.
I find that although I need a lot of ziplock bags and storage crates, if does work and can easily find things/sets. Also it keeps it relatively tidy. If you are looking for somewhere for storage of Lego, then I find the loft perfect - no sunlight, no pet interference, and easily claimable as your own space - my partner never ventures into the loft, even before it became a Lego loft!
My main concerns are wasps, since they make their nests by chewing up wood and cardboard etc, and water drips (we have an old house with an old roof) ... hence sealed plastic boxes for everything. Totally agree; I'm concerned that one day she'll go up there and see the thousands of £ worth of sealed Lego and make me sell it all :)