Sorting LEGO Like a PRO

DO NOT, sort by color...

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[lordlem]

I love having my bricks sorted but I have learned that u also want a tray of random unsorted parts that u can skim through to spark ideas. This is a

[danielmcbride]

I am glad you made this video, especially for those young lego fans reaching the point at which they might make the leap and sort their lego! I actually just resorted my lego a couple months ago by brick type. Growing up, like most kids, I did not have my lego sorted at all. When I was 14 I thought I wanted to be a lego designer for a living(I would still love this job, but my values are starkly different from those of the lego brand, so I don’t think I would be in place there) so I sorted my lego pieces the way I thought lego designers would. By this time, I had four huge bins meant for clothing simply filled with miscellaneous lego elements. I dumped out one bin at a time and sorted into eight large drawers and then used lego cups for remaining organization. I separated out my minifigures and sorted bricks by color. It worked quite well for me given that I didn’t have that many of any one color, and compared to not having my parts sorted, sorting by color was much better because I could see how many of a color I had and that would help me decide what I wanted to build. In fact, I would say it changed the way I built lego entirely! That said, I am nineteen years old now and for the last year I have wanted to resort by part type because I felt it would make it easier to build more complex mocs. Sure enough, it has been easier to build! However, I am in college and living with my parents so I have one room for my desk, my bed, my clothes, my books, my lego display shelves, and my lego building, so I don’t yet have room for your kind of set up. I currently have the same eight drawers holding part types of which I have the most(slopes and wedges in one drawer, 2x bricks in another, 2x plates in another, etc( and any additional types of parts are held in lego cups. This is not ideal, because I have to dump out the contents to access the pieces, but it has been cost effective for a long time considering the cups come free when I buy parts. I think however that I’m going to make the leap again soon and buy an organization for my other parts.

[jacksyoutubechannel]

*Additional* *tip* to save time looking for the right drawer (or bin): affix a LEGO plate to the front of each drawer, then put one of each element you can find in that particular drawer on the plate.

It's easy to change if the contents of the drawer change, you can use white plate to better blend with the ALEX drawers, and you can even use Command strips (though I'd recommend filling the back of the plate in with a mouldable glue like Sugru to get more surface area if you do) if you don't want to commit to using the drawers for LEGO forever!

[bethhubbs]

I live for the sorting and organizing of my Lego collection! I love buying a bulk lot from Ebay and sorting through it, identifying pieces for specific sets, figuring out what pieces are missing, ordering the pieces online and creating full sets. LOVE IT. The sorting and organizing and the pulling together a set from the pieces is so fun for me. I'm surprised Lego hasn't gotten into providing different storage ideas and marketing them. Edit to add: All of us middle-aged ladies would love that!

[kentslocum]

Due to severe space constraints, I use plastic bags to sort pieces by shape. Pieces of the same shape go into a small ziploc bag, then all bags of a shape type (plates, for example) go into a large ziploc bag. I don't recommend this method if you don't already have a lot of plastic ziploc bags, but this system has two distinct advantages--the transparent bags make it easy to find the right piece, and the squishy bags let you pack a lot of bricks into a compact space.

[TheCoolFactor]

Dude. This helps so MUCH and I do not even MOC or sort LEGO... Thanks, Tiago! The professional in you is what this community needs!

[jaseman]

I only use parts from the original Classic Space Sets - there are 777 different parts if you include the colour variations. I do sort them by colour and keep them in large plastic boxes, however within those large boxes there are zip-lock plastic bags - one for every type of part. So when I want to find a part, I first go to the box for the colour I need, pull out some of the bags and sift through them until I find the bag for the part I need. It works perfectly for me. I don't own any drawers to store my LEGO parts in - large or small.

[nancienordwick]

I just even love sorting legos as an activity. My creativity is boosted when they are not so organized, too.

[Brick_Science]

1:42
2% of Tiago’s LEGO Collection...

[lswhere]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but take a color photo of what's in the drawer, print it off and tape it to the front of the drawer. A handy visual clue to what's inside!

[edwardlees]

The Lego advent calendar trays are perfect for dots, 1x1 round plates and cheese wedges. I've been using them like that for a couple of years.

[Gabriel_builtonce]

I really appreciate how you manage to pack so much knowledge into all your vids and specially when you incorporate the family aspect/angle which frankly doesnt get talked about enough when arranging your lego room or space! I think its so important that the place you’re building is aesthetically pleasing and Lego sets can look like visual clutter very easily. Love all your content, best of luck and always enjoy these kinds of videos!

[derekl.]

I can understand why not to sort by color, and I might try it. I think most people sort by color because it is visually more harmonious, seeing the colors sorted out says "organized" more than seeing everything multi-colored, even when the parts are all the same, the mind just sees chaos and not order. One of my favorite courses in art school was color theory, but we never discussed organization through colors and how the brain processes that. Edit to add- if time is money, then you should be as organized as possible, but I dont mind a little searching, there is something enjoyable about it to me. By organizing into color then categories (not specific types) it still lets me hunt and search a bit but not too long.

[AcesPlace]

I'm a noob and a pro lol. Constantly buying new bins to rearrange and sort my bricks. It's scary how similar we all are when it comes to these things. Fantastic video

[airjitsuburst]

2:40 What I did to fix this problem was to get a picture of the pieces from either online or the last page of a Lego instruction booklet, Cut it out and paste them on the tiny cabinet

[stlbrickco]

Your original studio tour from a couple of years ago when you first started setting up in your own home, is what inspired my current system. I do use several Alex drawers and I love them for the exact reason you mention! I do however have quite a few parts cabinets on the wall above them, and I love them too! It is true each little drawer you open is time, multiplied. But it works for me and doesn't slow me down really.

[justbbricks]

I have a lot of parts, but I actually do sort by color, asides for around two dozen things I keep separate. As a MOC builder, it makes me more creative to look through rather than just for one certain piece

[robertnobles]

Something I have done to save space is to stack the bricks together. For plates I stair step them back and forth one stud so they are easy to separate. This method cut down my bins by 1/3 to 1/2!
I don’t have a large enough collection to dedicate a bunch of drawers and little dividers… yet!

[MrKlawUK]

I finally settled on this - combination of not having a dedicated room and storage capacity. My collection not so big so I have some combined - eg 1x4 and 1x6 together, but 1x2 separate so they don’t get smothered by larger plates. It’s dynamic so if there are eg a lot of grey parts (from Star Wars sets) they are in their own section so the smaller number of coloured parts don’t get lost.

[seanrea]

I have a bin sized collection, which I have only recently started to organize with limited space. One of the methods I have found for bricks is sort stack builds. Gather the type of brick and build them into a mass or column and put them back in the bin. For smaller pieces, resealable bags, crafting organizers, and set canisters work for containers.