How to Organize Your LEGO Collection Like a Pro

If you’re lucky enough to have the pleasure of a large Lego collection, I’m sure you’ve had the idea at some point to make an attempt to organize it. A hefty task, I know. However, a necessary one if you hope to build a MOC in any reasonable amount of time! Obviously organizing thousands of tiny little plastic pieces sounds like a near-impossible job, but I’m here to try to help it get done. Let’s talk about getting your collection straight.

Levels of Abstraction 

The first step is deciding how much you want to sort by, and on what scale. You could have as few as 3 or 4 large bins, vaguely categorized or have hundreds of tiny bins that meticulously have every single piece separately. The choice is up to you, but as I’m sure you’re aware, the finer of a tooth you comb with, the longer it’ll take to comb. So keeping that in mind, set your expectations reasonably. The worst thing that can happen is sorting half of a stash and leaving the rest in a mixed up mess hidden away. Start by choosing between a small, medium or large amount of sectioning before anything.

Setting the Right Course

Sweet, now you know how fine to sort based on the size of the stash and amount of time at hand. Now comes the next important question: How will it be sorted? Each of these choices fall pretty well into the levels of abstraction previously discussed, but in theory you can use any of these methods no matter how fine or coarse you want to sort! However, this is my short list:

 

Sort by:

Color of piece

Size of piece

Part number

Part category

Part connection

For example, there are 4 bins to sort into, how does it get dispersed? I would start with color. Have a white bin, color bin and black bin. Then, the last bin could be small black bricks (like claw pieces or burnt hotdogs) while the other black bin is for larger bricks. Just like that, building has become significantly easier!

Want to get more granular? No problem! Sort by all colors: red, blue, green, yellow, black, etc. This should split into 10-20 different bins depending on how strict you want to be about color differentiation.

Finally, there’s the finest, sorting by individual parts. Something that I, myself, have subjected myself to. It’s the most gratifying at the end but takes by far the most time and effort. Hundreds of bins are necessary depending on the size of the collection. Wait, what happens if you sort by both color AND part…

Sorting Devices

The last thing to figure out before the sorting begins is where they get sorting into! Tote bins, drawers, shelfs, you name it. Listed below are a selection of sorting options though, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

Akro-Mills Bins:

These are well known within the lego community, as they’re well priced and serve their purpose well. If you’re sorting into individual pieces, these will usually work the best. Just to note, the quality isn’t the greatest, which usually shows up in the edges of the bins being scuffed. However, this can be solved easily with a razor blade.

Vertical Drawers:

What’s great about these larger drawers is that they can be divided into whatever you need by putting other bins inside each of the drawers. Or, if you need more room, they offer plenty of usable storage without any extra bins placed inside.

Large Totes

Mass storage galore! Sorting by color or size, and want to be able to stack all your pieces away up and out of sight? Just simple totes will do the job just fine.

Cardboard Boxes

It’s like a tote, but even more cost efficient. There’s nothing wrong with using cardboard boxes, the best ones I’ve found are long, wide and not too tall. This allows for a good spread of lego to be seen which leads to less digging and more building. Just remember, small pieces love to get stuck between the flaps at the bottom. Ask me how I know!

Part Shelfs

For the active builder, what’s great about these is the ability to take each bin out and see what’s in each one without needing to label. Essential drawers without the requirement of pulling them out.

Go and Build!

As you can see, there are many different ways to sort whatever vast or small collection that’s taking up too much space and being too disorganized. There is no right or wrong way to go about it though, it all depends on your individual situation and circumstances. Hopefully this can help point you in the right direction though!

 Happy building!