How detailed do you get when sorting?

davesonmaui · June 2017

Aloha, I have decided to tackle the necessary task of sorting my collection which is medium sized (150 pounds?). I know I want to sort by function and size not color, but I am trying to figure out how far to break it down? (Clips in one drawer, or all 1x1's together, keep plates in one bin, or break down by size?)

The goal is to speed up building (MOCs and rebuilds of Sets) by sorting enough, but not make it too difficult to keep organized. Love to hear from some others on how you sorted your collection and how it worked out?

Mahalo!!!!

TheLegoMaster35 · June 2017

I recommend stacking like bricks on each other. For 1x6 bricks, 6 on one layer side by side, another six on top of that, and so on. For larger plates (4x4s and up) keep them with all other plates and baseplates.

datsunrobbie · June 2017

Tom Alphin has made some awesome labels, check out this thread:
http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/498240#Comment_498240

I've been sorting mainly using the categories from the proof sheet for those labels, found here:
http://brickarchitect.com/files/LEGO_BRICK_LABELS-CONTACT_SHEET.pdf

Once a type of part exceeds the capacity of a shoe-box sized container I decide on a case-by-case basis whether to get a bigger container or split the parts up further. Basic bricks tend to get moved to a bigger tub, smaller parts get moved to Akro-Mils-style drawers.

MrJackson · June 2017

I break mine down into element. 1x2 plates are in a different bag from 1x3 plates, plates in a different box from bricks, etc. The only parts that I don't separate are "strange" elements that I only have a couple of or that are ok in the same bag: technic L-beams, 1/4 round tiles with the 1x1 half-round tiles, etc. Everything is bagged individually. It makes sorting a nightmare and very time consuming but it's worth it on the other end when it comes to finding parts: it's much easier to find the red one amongst 2x2 roof slopes than it is to find one 2x2 slope amongst 5,000+ red pieces.

Recce · June 2017

For plates and small parts (i.e. other than standard bricks) I sort them by type, then my small trays gradually fills up and I had to separate them into multiple trays (e.g. 5 colours in this tray and 7 colours in that tray)

For bricks like 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 etc I just dump all the same coloured bricks into storage boxes. But they're also beginning to overflow so I'll be separating them into evens (2x2, 2x3, 2x4 etc) odds (1x2, 1x3, 1x4 etc) as I found myself mostly looking for bricks in that manner.

For the 1x1 bricks I just lump them all together.

Oldfan · June 2017

Likely, if your goal is to be efficient in your MOCing process, you'll want to keep "like" parts together regardless of size (i.e. 45 degree slopes, 2x bricks, 1x bricks, 1x plates, 2x plates, etc.). That way, you'll always be reaching for a certain type of part in as few large bins as possible. The downside is that you'll likely spend some time digging through the bins when it comes time to detail your builds, looking past all the 2x4 plates for a single 2x3, but your initial build efficiency should cancel this out in the end. I've talked to lots of builders who feel their creative juices flow better when they are physically handling lots of different parts, as opposed to having each individual size separated.

That said, when it comes time to greeble the final details, you'll probably want to have all your specialty pieces separated into their own drawers, so that you don't have to dig them out of a large pile of random-looking bars, pins, hoses, etc.

Also see http://news.lugnet.com/storage/?n=707 for more thoughts and a chuckle...good luck!

andywilson · July 2017

I've just bought the 10220 VW Camper - my second "big" set after the Saturn V - and, as a newbie, quite scared by the fact it doesn't come in numbered bags!

As I want to build this a little at a time, I guess it's best to sort the bricks in advance and then keep them in tupperware containers or something?

So the question is, what's the best way to sort them? By colour, or by bricks, plates, technicky bits. wedges, fiddly bits or something like that?

catwrangler · July 2017

@Oldfan, that addresses a creeping worry I've had about the sorting method I've slowly been working on. I keep thinking about where the different bins are going to be stored in relation to each other, and visualising how I've MOCed in the past (a lot of good ideas have come out of just handling the bricks, making abstract shapes and then seeing what else that could produce) and it's hard to escape the idea that increased granularity of storage could be a creative stumbling block for me.

Probably a good thing I didn't go too far into buying All The Containers With Tiny Sub-Containers In The World, then!

MrShinyAndNew · July 2017

For parts I have in any quantity, each part/colour gets its own bin in my dividable boxes. Boxes are mostly sorted by colour - I used to sort by part type but that meant opening too many boxes. Definitely don't put similar pieces together unless you have very few of them to sort through. Also I recommend not stacking pieces together as it takes too long. Once your containers overflow just get a ziplock bag for the extra.

stevecook132 · July 2017

andywilson said:

I've just bought the 10220 VW Camper - my second "big" set after the Saturn V - and, as a newbie, quite scared by the fact it doesn't come in numbered bags!

So the question is, what's the best way to sort them? By colour, or by bricks, plates, technicky bits. wedges, fiddly bits or something like that?

I used the @drdavewatford sorting method when I did the camper as it was my first big set after exiting my dark ages. Essentially three plastic containers, with the bricks spread through them as mentioned in his blog post here.

That worked for me, although I've since revised it to suit coloured drawers in a Really Useful Box tower set up that allows me to stand up and build.

Anyway, the most important bit is to have enough of the 'raking through Lego' sound that invokes childhood memories whilst still having fun and not getting frustrated looking for one small tile in a whole box of Lego.

I hope you enjoy the Camper, it sucked me straight back in and is the one kit I recommend to other people considering dipping a toe into the Lego waters - no one has been disappointed yet :-)

Astrobricks · July 2017

MrShinyAndNew said:

For parts I have in any quantity, each part/colour gets its own bin in my dividable boxes. Boxes are mostly sorted by colour - I used to sort by part type but that meant opening too many boxes. Definitely don't put similar pieces together unless you have very few of them to sort through. Also I recommend not stacking pieces together as it takes too long. Once your containers overflow just get a ziplock bag for the extra.

I also think stacking is bad for another reason - cracked pieces. I've noticed a lot of cracks especially in transparent 1x1 round plates that were stacked in used lots I've bought.

madforLEGO · July 2017

I say to start with sorting by part type, regardless of color into bins. This is probably the quickest way to start sorting. Then if you want to get more technical with stacking brick or plates, and doing it by color, etc. Then you can, but I agree with @Oldfan, start 'small' first in sorting by type regardless of color and no stacking. Then graduate to getting detailed in terms of stacking and sorting by color, as both of those will take up a lot more time, and possibly, space. At least with sorting by type, you have items roughly sorted to where you can find them quicker in general. Then you can take stock of what you really need to get 'detailed' with in terms of sorting.

MrShinyAndNew · July 2017

Astrobricks said:

I also think stacking is bad for another reason - cracked pieces. I've noticed a lot of cracks especially in transparent 1x1 round plates that were stacked in used lots I've bought.

I didn't want my answer to get too long, but also yeah, some pieces can be damaged by being stored assembled. They might lose clutch power, be cracked, wear out from repeated assembly/disassembly, etc. But in my experience these concerns are minor overall... if you're stacking/unstacking the same pieces so often to wear them out, you're wasting your life. Just get a bigger ziplock.

MrShinyAndNew · July 2017

madforLEGO said:

I say to start with sorting by part type, regardless of color into bins. This is probably the quickest way to start sorting. Then if you want to get more technical with stacking brick or plates, and doing it by color, etc. Then you can, but I agree with @Oldfan, start 'small' first in sorting by type regardless of color and no stacking. Then graduate to getting detailed in terms of stacking and sorting by color, as both of those will take up a lot more time, and possibly, space. At least with sorting by type, you have items roughly sorted to where you can find them quicker in general. Then you can take stock of what you really need to get 'detailed' with in terms of sorting.

My sorting theory has evolved thus: unsorted -> sorted by colour into bags -> sorted by part into single-compartment boxes -> sorted by part into multi-compartment art-supply boxes -> sorted by part+colour into multi-compartment boxes -> mainly sorted by colour into multi-compartment boxes, with exceptions for certain classes of pieces such as bars and hinges. For people beginning sorting, I now recommend skipping the "by part" phase, and just go straight to by colour, except maybe you should then sub-sort your colours into bricks, plates, modified plates, etc.

Paperballpark · July 2017

andywilson said:

I've just bought the 10220 VW Camper - my second "big" set after the Saturn V - and, as a newbie, quite scared by the fact it doesn't come in numbered bags!

As I want to build this a little at a time, I guess it's best to sort the bricks in advance and then keep them in tupperware containers or something?

So the question is, what's the best way to sort them? By colour, or by bricks, plates, technicky bits. wedges, fiddly bits or something like that?

One of the first large sets I bought was the Tower Bridge set - which has about 4300 pieces, and doesn't come in numbered bags! So think yourself lucky ;)

I tipped all the bags into about 15 different containers, and just searched through them for the pieces. You soon remember what pieces are in which container.

Fauch · July 2017

1300 pieces isn't that much. you could just separate the small and big pieces so that big pieces don't get in the way when looking for super small ones.

otherwise, for the largest sets I usually do a basic sorting by color. for the dominant colours : 2 colours per containers, those which contrast the most together (black with white or bright red with earth green for example) and all the other colours which have just a few pieces, I throw them together.

(I feel this will work so well, when I plan to build tower of orthanc soon. searching in a pile of black pieces is the worst)

Bobflip · July 2017

MrShinyAndNew said:

madforLEGO said:

I say to start with sorting by part type, regardless of color into bins. This is probably the quickest way to start sorting. Then if you want to get more technical with stacking brick or plates, and doing it by color, etc. Then you can, but I agree with @Oldfan, start 'small' first in sorting by type regardless of color and no stacking. Then graduate to getting detailed in terms of stacking and sorting by color, as both of those will take up a lot more time, and possibly, space. At least with sorting by type, you have items roughly sorted to where you can find them quicker in general. Then you can take stock of what you really need to get 'detailed' with in terms of sorting.

My sorting theory has evolved thus: unsorted -> sorted by colour into bags -> sorted by part into single-compartment boxes -> sorted by part into multi-compartment art-supply boxes -> sorted by part+colour into multi-compartment boxes -> mainly sorted by colour into multi-compartment boxes, with exceptions for certain classes of pieces such as bars and hinges. For people beginning sorting, I now recommend skipping the "by part" phase, and just go straight to by colour, except maybe you should then sub-sort your colours into bricks, plates, modified plates, etc.

This was roughly my path as well. I realised it was much easier to MOC things when you can grab a few containers in the colour scheme you want to build with, and treat them like palettes. Much less scavenging around, and much more inspirational to see what you've got to work with right there in front of you.

I've currently got a set of those plastic multicoloured drawers for plates, with handmade and hotglued dividers, a bunch of compartmentalised trays for bricks and slopes, some smaller ones for the more fiddly and decorative pieces, and some other drawers and trays for Technic/'under the hood' type pieces and the miscellaneous categories I haven't fully worked out how I want sorted yet. Bars and hinges I've included in the colour sorted trays as they can be good for greebles, but there's definitely some things that work best sorted by type.

I'm in the thick of packing to move right now, but can upload photos once I'm settled in the new place!

piratemania7 · July 2017

Depends on the day and my level of OCD.

Thoughtsonblocks · July 2017

I keep most of my sets together, but I do end up with loose lego's from creator and classic sets I buy specifically to part out. I also have been working towards building up a much deeper collection of dark and light bley bricks for doing custom Castle MOC's. To organize them, I have a couple different storage and sorting solution. For most of my loose lego's, I sort them into the below pictured storage units I buy at Harbor Freight (Brand is "Storehouse") for about $9.00. They have handles, an opening door and inside, 3 different size REMOVABLE trays. This makes it way easier to re-arrange as needed, pull trays out for specific building projects, and dump out or sweep in parts. I love these things. I have a box for each major color and for less common colors, they get sorted into storage units that have one color per tray. Each color is different as to the exact level of sorting as each color tends to have wildly different quantities and types of bricks. Sometimes it gets very specific, sometimes pretty general. There might be a tray that's all sorts of white slopes or curved pieces, other times one tray will hold just one specific type of lego. For my light and dark gray bricks, I had to go all the way and grab the normal drawer storage units that I see alot of people using on here. Every piece type gets its own spot, not mixed with any other pieces. The other thing I love about the Storehouse storage units is that they are highly portable, storage is limited in my house and I tend to build in various places, so moving around the drawer storage units is a terrifying proposition. But the Storehouse ones I can just grab by the handle and wander off. They come in three different sizes, the standard that I have pictured with the white bricks, I large one that's the same foot print but deeper and has only larger storage trays and then a small one that's half the size and has just smaller storage trays:

Switchfoot55 · July 2017

^Great, another reason for me to spend money at Harbor Freight...

Madkins007 · July 2017

I started by stacking the bricks and similar pieces, but got tired of it when it was time to put away a torn-down kit, etc. Too annoying for my taste. Like everyone else, my method is based on personal quirks, available space, budget ($0), and what I had to work with.

My small/medium collection is stored a few different ways. The smallest parts are in small drawer parts boxes (1x1 round plates, minifig hats, 1x2 slopes, Technic pins...) The drawers are clear and grouped so I don't need labels most of the time.

The rest are in plastic shoeboxes, sorted so I can quickly sort them visually. The current boxes include: 2x2 bricks (2x2 plates are in a drawer), 2x4 bricks and plates, 1x2 and 4 bricks (again, the plates are in drawers), 2x3,6,10 bricks and plates, 2x8, 12, and bigger bricks and plates, and so on.

My problem boxes are 'vehicles' (wheels, axles, chassis, etc.) and 'buildings' (walls, boxes, scaffolds, etc.) These become 'catch-alls' but I don't really have enough parts or smaller bins to sub-divide them intelligently.

gmonkey76 · July 2017

I looked into sortimo t-boxx for the same thing @Thoughtsonblocks did with his black cases, but at $60 a case I quickly realized that was a no go. May have to take a tip to harbor freight and check those out.

masterX244 · July 2017

Paperballpark said:

andywilson said:

I've just bought the 10220 VW Camper - my second "big" set after the Saturn V - and, as a newbie, quite scared by the fact it doesn't come in numbered bags!

As I want to build this a little at a time, I guess it's best to sort the bricks in advance and then keep them in tupperware containers or something?

So the question is, what's the best way to sort them? By colour, or by bricks, plates, technicky bits. wedges, fiddly bits or something like that?

One of the first large sets I bought was the Tower Bridge set - which has about 4300 pieces, and doesn't come in numbered bags! So think yourself lucky ;)

I tipped all the bags into about 15 different containers, and just searched through them for the pieces. You soon remember what pieces are in which container.

or 5800 after bricklinking for a project. and a few missing ones between those, too or a color/part screwup... then the fun gets real when you need to find a part for hotfixing...

Thoughtsonblocks · July 2017

I also use the small version of those yellow/black "storehouse" cases to store pieces for special projects or rare item sets (mini-fig accessories etc). In particular, for my city, I am replicating the modular building sidewalks for the whole city, so I need modest quantities of a dozen or so pieces for when I am adding in a new stretch of side walk (curb, actual sidewalk, drains and fire hydrants). So I have one box that holds all my key components, and I know when I am getting low and need to restock:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/0n/u9mfmf7jb85j.jpg

datsunrobbie · July 2017

http://imgur.com/gallery/zZOz7

Spotted this today on imgur, The poster says it is from Legoland in Illinois - anybody on the forum?

gmonkey76 · July 2017

^Can't say for sure, but it looks like the set up they have in Schaumburg.

Recce · July 2017

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that all my built sets stay built, either displayed on shelves or stored in big storage boxes and drawers.

The parts that get sorted are extras from sets or from those brick sets like the Classic series. Though sometimes I do buy discounted sets purely to part out, e.g. Chima Speedorz and duplicates of some City sets etc.

Paperballpark · July 2017

The Evolution of Lego Sorting (by Remy Evard)

Let's assume you start your lego collection like most of us did: with one set.

1. You don't sort your Lego. You just keep them in the box they came in.

(Then, over time, you get another set, then another, then another. And your pile of bricks grows. How do you cope?)

2. You start sorting your Lego. You sort it by set.

(Your collection grows.)

3. You give up on individual set boxes and toss all your Lego in a big storage bin or a Lego denim bag, or a couple of your large set boxes. You become very familiar with the sound of someone digging through large bricks looking for a 1x1 transparent red plate.

(Your collection grows.)

4. You begin to sort your Lego by category: normal-looking bricks in one set box, other pieces in another box.

(And grows.)

5. Ok, you realize you actually have to sort it. You decide to sort the obvious way: by color.

(And grows.)

6. You keep sorting by color, but you get pickier about how you do it, and you start filtering out by type for the first time: probably the first things you sort out by type are minifigs and wheels. You realize you already had baseplates sorted out separately.

(Let's just assume at this point that between every paragraph, you keep adding lego to your collection.)

7. You cave in and actually get a storage system. Maybe it's rubbermaid bins, or piles of blue buckets, or fishing tackle boxes, or ziplocks. But now you've got a system.

8. You grow weary of digging through all the yellow bricks looking for that one specialized yellow piece somewhere in 2 cubic feet of yellow. But you think of how much work it's going to take to split by part and you don't do it.

9. Sorting becomes difficult enough that you decide, in some cases, not to break some sets down and put them in your main pile of lego... instead, you store them as a set, because that set is so cool just the way it is. (Ok, so this set is from the 80s...) The pieces for that set are either in their box, or in a ziplock or something. Congratulations, you've just invented Set Archiving, and now you have two ways you store your Lego: broken down by parts, and archived by set.

10. You give up and decide to sort your parts by type rather than by color. You go get more bins or tackle boxes or whatever your container of choice is, you dedicate an evening or a weekend or a month to it, and you split by type.

11. You have now invented your own Lego categorization system. You have no doubt separated out bricks, plates, wheels, minifigs, slopes, and so on, but you've also clumped "things with curves" together, and doors and windshields together. You also have a category called "misc". Your categories, amazingly, don't look much like the LDraw categories.

12. You realize you have piles of stuff that don't fit easily into the categorization system: RCX bricks, train track, those huge A-shaped pieces, monorial supports, and rubber bands. You get a different sized drawer system for stuff like that.

13. Your collection is now clearly housed in many different types of containers ranging from buckets to drawers to bins to individual tackle box components.

14. You begin to develop large piles of lego in various states of being sorted, i.e:
the sorted stuff
the stuff you've kinda sorted and is ready to be put away
piles of lego you aren't going to sort because you think you'll use it all to build something else anyway
lego sorted some other way than the way you sorted into drawers to see if this way works better than that way did
your building projects
your new boxes of lego, some opened, some not
oh, and let's not forget your various models and MOCs

15. You begin to develop strong opinions on Plano vs. Stak-On and Rubbermaid vs. Sterilite.

16. The original categories you made begin to follow this life cycle:
- They grow too large to fit into their container.
- You divide the category into two categories in order to get them
to fit into the containers... one for each category. (Now you
have windshields, doors, and windows, each as a different category
of pieces, each in their own containers.)
- You store those subcategories together, but as parts of them become
too numerous or too hard to find, you split them out. So your tackle
boxes now have a different compartment for each type of door.
You realize that at this point the endgame is that you will have a
different compartment for every type of piece you have.

16.5. Every once in a while, you open a drawer you haven't opened in a while and discover that you've been sorting some piece into two separate places in your drawers. This throws your categorization for a loop.
How exactly do you categorize the 1x2 plate with the little robot-looking thing on it? Oh no... partsref doesn't have it either, augh!

17. You rearrange your house so that you can fit your storage system into, hopefully, just one room.

18. You give up on the "one compartment for every piece" theory because you can't keep up with that. Instead, you start putting some of the similar things into shoebox-sized bins. The way you decide what to compartmentalize and what to put into bins together is to think about how long it takes to find an individual element. It's ok to dig through a pile of windshields looking for the trans yellow blacktron hood. It's not ok to dig through a pile of slopes looking for the specialized corner cap slope.

18.5. You document your categories so you don't get lost.

19. You develop a multi-stage sorting system. It may take a piece several hops before it ends up in its final resting spot, but it's a bit more efficient to sort this way, and you can do some of it while watching a video.

20. Bizarrely enough, you actually give up and go back to sorting by color. Only this time, you sort by color after sorting by piece. So you now have a bin for yellow 1x3 plates, and a bin for black 1x3 plates, and so on.

21. Finally you create an "overflow" system of buckets, where, if the bin of 1x3 yellow plates is full, you just any additional ones into that overflow bucket, along with other plates. (One of the first indicators that you should do this was that you didn't have a compartment big enough to hold all your Lego horses...)

22. You begin to toss most pieces directly into overflow.

23. You now have what, to a stranger, would be a bizarre sorting system. You have some parts thrown together in bins by type. You have some parts split out with a separate bin for each part. You have some parts split out with a separate bin for each color. You even have some parts split out by how old they are: red 1x2s from the 60s, red 1x2s from the 70s, new red 1x2s that hold really well, and all the other red 1x2s. And you have an alphabetized pile of large buckets for the overflow pieces and another one for the 1st stage of sorting.

23.5. That stranger would also think you were certifiably insane. Or at least retentive.

24. You start looking for a new house. One with a large basement.

25. Vision recognition becomes interesting to you.

26. You begin to long for the day when you could sit at your desk and actually reach every piece you owned without getting up.

27. You decide to keep a special set or two at your desk, away from the huge sorting system, just to play with a few great sets without having to sort them. And then you add another cool set. Pretty soon you're digging through 3 inches of bricks trying to find that 1x1 transparent red plate and you think about sorting your bricks...

-r'm

Remy Evard

Source:
news.lugnet.com/storage/?n=707

LostInTranslation · July 2017

^Ohhhh that sounds soooo familiar!!

Mr_Cross · July 2017

Thanks for copying that across, was funny/painful on a second read too!
I'm restarting my sort process currently. I've actually always sorted by colour then part. The problem for me is that as I sort, I tend to get side tracked and end up fiddling with interesting possibilities when I discover a part I'd forgotten I had. It is a very slow process with seemingly inordinately more back steps than forward ones!

Chicagolander · July 2017

datsunrobbie said:

http://imgur.com/gallery/zZOz7

Spotted this today on imgur, The poster says it is from Legoland in Illinois - anybody on the forum?

Yep, that's at LEGOLAND in Schaumburg. https://chicago.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/

Astrobricks · July 2017

^ Poor sad Willis Tower hiding in the corner behind the ladder :(

How detailed do you get when sorting?

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