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Subject: 
Re: Building habits
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.storage
Date: 
Wed, 4 Apr 2001 04:57:51 GMT
Viewed: 
3775 times
  
In lugnet.starwars, William R. Ward writes:
"Anthony Babington" <hottsnoz@swbell.net> writes:
...I've been giving serious thought to sorting my collection, even if only
by color. lazy though I am, i know that all my really cool pieces are
cowering in fear at the bottom of the huge (60 gallons) tub which houses the
bulk of my collection. Perhaps I have just found a project to occupy my
summer? truly, an automatic sorter would make everybody happy... ::ponders a
moment:: hmmm, can light sensors differentiate between colors?

light sensors can, but not very well.  Vision command can and if you do make
an automatic sorter let me know. ;-)

If you're going to sort them, DON'T do it by color.  It's the most
obvious choice, but it's a bad idea.  Sort by size and type instead.
Think of it this way: Say you want a blue 1x4 brick.  Would you rather
dig through a pile of blue bricks, or a pile of 1x4 bricks of all
colors?  With the latter, the color jumps right out at you.  With the
former, you can't tell a half-buried 1x6 or 2x4 from a 1x4 unless the
angle is just right.

Well that's just going to far.  Maybe I'm miss reading this, but I would not
suggest to someone who says he's lazy to sort by type and size.  You end up
spending more time sorting than you do building.  Please take a step back
and just sort by type.  I might even go another step back and sort only the
pieces you use most by type.  What it boils down to is what you build is
going to determine how you sort.

I build town buildings so my buckets are as follows:
--1x* bricks by color (useful for building walls)
--rectangular flats by size(1x*, 2x*, 4x*,6x*)
--flat wings and other shapes
--2x* bricks by color (not used very often)(storage)
--1x2x* slopes (commonly used)
--1x3x* and 3x2x* slopes (not used very often)
--inverts
--castle walls(not used at all)(storage)
--wheels/tires
--minifigs
--technic parts
--technic beams (keeping in theme with seperating 1x* bricks)(not needed)
--electric stuff
--4.5v train track
--monorail track and posts
--9v train track
--other by color
system subject to change at anytime.

I've tried to keep it to as few buckets as possible to make sorting quicker.
I also bought a bookcase to put open bins on.  I can now sit in front of the
bins and throw pieces into them.  Some of the less used stuff is in covered
bins under the bed.  This system is still in the works.

For years I sorted by color.  And I finally got around to re-sorting,
using categories of size/shape instead.  And I love it!!!

Another problem with sorting by color that I had is that out of sheer
laziness I would tend to build models that were all one color.  To
find the right piece of another color I'd have to rake through or dump
out that color's bin.  Why do that when you've already got all the
blue pieces spread out in front of you on the floor?  So the result is
rather monochromatic and boring models.  Sorting by size/shape makes
it a lot easier to put interesting color accents into models, since
it's no harder to find a dark grey whatsit than it is to find a blue
one.

I'm sorry that you created boring models.  I had my collection of 300+lbs
sorted by color for 15 years and I never ran into that problem.  I also
never had to dump my legos to find a part, I just bought wide flat buckets
to put them in.  Makes it easier to find parts.

I did however have to change my system when I added more legos (200+lbs)
since January.  See new system above.  I'm still working out the kinks.

Jonathan D.

comment:
I just hate it when people say never sort by color.  Sorting by color is
okay depending on the size of your collection.  After building a few things
sort out the hard to find pieces or pieces that you use the most.

question:
I see a lot of people with sytems that involve sorting everything by type
and size and I just can't figure out where they get all the time to do it.
When I build, I like to try different pieces and change my models at will.
Which means I usually end up with a large pile of pieces left over at the
end.  I would hate to have to sort that into a bunch of tiny little draws.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Building habits
 
(...) To clarify, I mean don't sort *only* by color. Putting 6x16 plates in with 1x1 bricks and everything in between, all of one color, makes it a lot harder to find something. It sounds from your description that you yourself sort by size/shape, (...) (23 years ago, 4-Apr-01, to lugnet.storage)
  Re: Building habits (Warning: Long-Winded!)
 
In lugnet.storage, Jonathan Dallas writes: <snip!> (...) My question to you is: where do you find the time NOT to sort your collection? My LEGO collection was still relatively small (~ 5,000 pieces) when I realized just how much time I was spending (...) (23 years ago, 25-Apr-01, to lugnet.storage)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Building habits
 
(...) If you're going to sort them, DON'T do it by color. It's the most obvious choice, but it's a bad idea. Sort by size and type instead. Think of it this way: Say you want a blue 1x4 brick. Would you rather dig through a pile of blue bricks, or a (...) (23 years ago, 4-Apr-01, to lugnet.starwars, lugnet.space, lugnet.build, lugnet.storage)

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