Subject:
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Re: Storing for Growth and Storing Long-Term
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.storage
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Date:
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Mon, 14 Feb 2000 18:25:56 GMT
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Viewed:
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2826 times
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In lugnet.storage, William A. Swanberg writes:
> I can't answer your second question, but as to your first, there is one
> right answer as to how to sort your Legos: whatever works best for you.
>
> My personal preference is to sort everything by size, as I easily see the
> different colors and pick out what I need. This is what works for me, but
> others may sort by color, or by some combination of the two. My best advice
> is to experiment some with different sorting criteria, and then stick with
> whichever one you find the easiest to manage, and the easiest to find the
> piece that you're looking for, in the right color (provided of course that
> piece is in your collection to begin with <g>).
I recently found a great way to sort LEGO by both color and shape.
My experience has been that it is much easier to find a particular color in a
bin of same-shape parts than it is to find a particular shape in a bin of same-
color parts, so if you're only going to sort by one criteria, sort by shape.
I learned this the hard way.
So I recently scrapped my monochrome-bulk-tub sorting method and bought a wall
full of Akro-Mils storage drawer units. Then I spent a week or two sorting my
entire working collection (aprox. 20,000 bricks) by both color and shape. I
used one drawer unit for each color. Within each color, I used a standard
drawer layout so that the same parts are in a consistent place, regardless of
the color. I put my Technic beams into their own drawer unit sorted by size
only, and I have extra bins to hold gears, axles, and other "specialty"
parts. The bins that I bought also came with a bunch of free tackle-box cases
which I use to hold small, rare parts that don't categorize easily.
Here's a link to a somewhat old picture of my LEGO "workbench". I've since
added one more tier of drawer units which I haven't fully expanded into. It's
not the best photo, but it should give you an idea of how I've categorized my
collection:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=135
I find that this setup works very well. When designing/building, I can
quickly put my hands on any desired piece in any color that I have.
Everything is within arm's reach. It took awhile to sort everything, but I
find that I enjoy my LEGO a lot more now that I'm not always searching for
parts as I build.
If (when!) my LEGO collection ever outgrows these drawers, I will resist the
temptation to add more drawers. Instead, I plan to store the excess in bins
in a nearby closet where I won't be tripping over it every day, but where I
can still get to it on those rare occasions when I need a large quantity of
one particular part.
These Arko-Mils drawer units must have been designed with LEGO in mind. The
drawers are a perfect 8-stud width. I haven't found an online reference to
the exact Akro-Mils part number for my bins, (they're similar to the ones that
are linked from the lugnet.storage web page) but I have found that having
different-sized drawers with dividers is a major plus when sorting the
different volumes of LEGO pieces that typically occur in nature.
Hope this helps!
p.s. I've been told that having insufficient storage for your LEGO means that
you're not building enough. That must be true, because I know that it
couldn't mean that you have too much LEGO!
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Storing for Growth and Storing Long-Term
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| I can't answer your second question, but as to your first, there is one right answer as to how to sort your Legos: whatever works best for you. My personal preference is to sort everything by size, as I easily see the different colors and pick out (...) (25 years ago, 10-Feb-00, to lugnet.storage)
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