Storage solutions: unslipped
Posted by Huw,
Mark, aka unslipped, gives us with more ideas for inexpensive DIY solutions to storage:
My post on storage is going to pale in comparison to everyone else’s since my LEGO passion is only in its early stages, but I really wanted to submit something as I look for ways to become more active in this wonderful community. I also thought it might benefit others who are just coming into the hobby and are looking for make-shift, DIY solutions while their collections are just beginning to grow.
I only recently emerged from my dark age (I’m still picking up the AFOL lingo – I really enjoy “dark age”… also SNOT!). As a child, my LEGO collection peaked when I was around 10 or 12 with the Pirates, Castle, and Space sets of the early 1990s. Like most teenagers I discovered new “concerns,” but I do recall making a large castle MOC in my mid-teens (although I told my friends that it was just something I did with my little brother to cover up the “shame” of still playing with my “toys”…).
As an adult trying to finish graduate school nearly 20 years later, I received some particularly nasty criticism on a draft of my dissertation that set me back from graduating for a whole extra year. One of the ways I coped was by buying 70400 Forest Ambush, telling my wife it was something I wanted “for my desk.”
Other sets, always small and easily stashable, quickly followed. I was always self-conscious about my growing LEGO addiction, even though my wife really didn’t care at all, and it took me some time before I felt comfortable building in the same room with her. Finally, it took another (more serious) emotional blow to bring me fully out of my dark age – one of my students committed suicide, and one of the ways in which I apparently coped was by buying some larger sets, including 75211 Imperial TIE Fighter and 75221 Imperial Landing Craft, as well as signing up for the VIP program at my local LEGO store. I haven’t looked back since.
Thanks to this pandemic, the study abroad I intended to lead over spring break for my students this year got cancelled, but I made the best of it by cleaning out our basement. At some point in the past, the house we are renting had a mouse problem, so cleaning took a few days … In the end, I was able to reclaim a large space for my collection! My wife had absolutely no designs on this previously uninhabitable space, so she was happy for me to take it. Moreover, my earlier self-consciousness was completely unfounded – my wife is thrilled that I have a hobby that brings me joy and is nothing but supportive.
According to Brickset (which I just recently joined and am still exploring), I have a modest 32640 pieces. Although this doesn’t include the numerous (and sizeable) purchases from Pick-a-Brick (both online and in the LEGO store), my collection is still comparatively very small.
In my new space, I’m currently using two folding tables (roughly 2½’ x 6’ or 0.74 x 1.80 m) purchased from Target for building and display, as well as two wire-rack shelving units purchased from Home Depot for storing parts and additional display.
I rebuilt my old Castle and Pirates sets which are on temporary display in the basement, and the majority of my Star Wars minifigs and vehicles are displayed upstairs on part of a bookshelf in the office that my wife and I share (on MY side of the office, of course!).
Currently, my workspace is dominated by a modular, minifigure-scale MOC of the Mos Eisley Cantina that I continue to work on, using an official cross-section of the building as a guide. I’m happy with the overall design, but I'm hoping to spend time this summer learning more advanced surface techniques to break the monotony of the plain walls. Dusting everything is a challenge: currently I just blow off any dust as I walk by/admire any given set or display area.
My strategies for storage seem to evolve every 2-3 months or so as my collection slowly expands. At first, I started with Ziploc bags stored in cardboard boxes with parts organised by colour before I transitioned to sorting by general types of parts. This worked when my collection was still miniscule, but I grew dissatisfied with it as my collection grew. Often I found that I had to rummage through an increasing amount of bags that continued to sub-divide into smaller and more numerous bags to find the one I needed, then to look through that bag to find the part I needed only to realise that that wasn’t the right bag after all. One word of advice – if your storage system causes you grief, you may find yourself not wanting to build at all!
A new solution came thanks to our two cats, for whom we order cans of Dave’s cat food that comes shipped in flat, cardboard trays in two sizes that fit one inside the other. Each tray is arranged by part-type (plates, bricks, etc.), and as collections of certain parts grow, I expand into new trays. For example, all of my 1x1 bricks (and similar) are in one tray, my 1x2, 1x3, and 1x4 bricks are in another, and so on as required.
If I happen to acquire more 1x2 bricks, I’ll just move those to their own tray and add it to the same stack. Some masking tape and a Sharpie marker are then used for my crude labels. Since these aren’t fixed drawers, it’s important not to stack them more than three or four trays tall to keep my access to them easy.
Presently, my trays are arranged on the shelves with tiles, jumpers, and bricks on one shelf, and plates on the shelf above. The parts that I use less often are farther up, which (for me) include Technic pieces and other speciality parts, but this may be different for you. On the very top shelf I store smaller builds that will ultimately be incorporated into my Mos Eisley build. The entire shelving unit is topped by a large cardboard sheet that will hopefully keep most of the dust from falling through the old hardwood floors above into the open trays.
Each one of my trays of parts are sub-divided by a variety of household containers. This was in part prompted by a restriction on the types of plastics that were recyclable in our county – I felt guilty throwing out all that extra plastic, so I found uses for them. Yoghurt cups, take-out containers, plastic berry boxes, and even an old plastic first aid kit were all thoroughly washed (with vinegar in some cases) and used to separate parts within the same trays (like 2x6 plates from 2x8 plates, etc.). Each tray allows me to scan quickly for the part I need over a flat, horizontal plane, which I find more efficient than digging vertically through a Ziploc bag. Finally, some of my ‘greedy grabs’ of the same part and colour from the Pick-a-Brick wall at the LEGO store are stored separately in the upper shelves, either in larger repurposed plastic containers or PAB cups.
At present, I’m quite happy with my storage system as it is capable of easy growth and utilises containers that I already own – so far, the only things that I paid money for were the two tables and the two shelves which can be repurposed for other uses at home if my environment changes. We plan to buy a house in the near future, so not investing in a particular type of storage system right now is advantageous for me.
Admittedly, my system is not pretty, but it is cheap, and if you are just starting out as similar strategy could be one option for you. Of course, the downside is the inconsistent pattern of obtaining my containers – collecting containers of uniform sizes takes time, and many are taller than my trays and thus inhibit my ability to stack them neatly. I have no doubt that my storage will one day evolve into the system of plastic drawers I see in some of the other posts but, for now, this inexpensive system works for me at this early stage of my hobby.
Anyway, I hope this post provides some inspiration to other AFOLs who are just emerging from their own dark ages, and I hope that all of you continue to build while staying healthy in these crazy, crazy times!
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15 comments on this article
Nice,I Like the Cantina build your doing there :)
a) Nice canteen,
b) I couldn't agree more with what you said about ziplock bags deterring you from mocing. I have tons of "ziplocked" pieces (oftenly ziplocks inside other ziplocks as well) due to lack of space for more than six drawer units and it's a real burden to build when 5-6 different ziplocks need to open...
I love how you are using all recycled materials and all the parts are easily accessible. You have some beautiful sets there, too. Thanks for participating in the series!
The Cantina looks good. I’ve been planning one for a while, but I should finish the Rancor pit first!
I have the same problem with ziploc bags, but persevere as I don't have the shelving space to set up as much I would like.
My storage system is very similar. I just can't allow myself to spend hundreds of dollars on storage systems when I could be using the money for buying more Lego! I have been working on a design in my basement for storing my bricks , but real life has gotten in the way multiple times and my plans have been given a lower priority. One of these days though...
What few of my parts that I have somewhat sorted are in the five Mondrian colors and orange, sorted by shapes that I have used regularly when building cars. The parts are all split up into color pairs (black/yellow, red/white, blue/orange) in three Iris cases with a fourth for all the generic parts used for all body colors (head and taillights, windshields, bumpers, steering wheels and seats, wheels, wheel mounts, license plates, etc.), and they're all store in various self-sealing bags. Most of my design is done on computer, so by the time I'm ready to actually build I have a parts list in front of me. I just have to dump out all the bags of one color, and put them back as I confirm that they're not needed. Whatever I have left, I pull by the quantities listed on my parts list, and return them to the case with the rest, or I keep them out and build right out of the bags. The only problem I have with storing them in bags is that some of the bags eventually split open and I have to separate out all the loose parts from the bags so I can put them in a new bag.
I think where your system fell apart was in filling bags with other bags. Even with boxes, cases, drawers, or trays, you can always rifle through any bagged parts, but if you bag other bags of parts, you either have to leave them mostly empty or you have to dump them out to look through the contents.
Gah! Right now, go, and replace all those cardboard boxes with plastic bins. The off-gassing of the paper is what discolors the plastic. Don't consider the cost, consider the investment in preserving your collection.
@Maxximus said:
"The off-gassing of the paper is what discolors the plastic."
I'm not sure this is true. Discolouring of LEGO parts has long been known to be caused by a bromide additive in the ABS migrating to the surface, causing a yellowing effect, especially of white, blue, and grey elements. Old bricks & UV light make the situation worse. (It can be effectively reversed though, with the miracle of retr0bright!)
Many of the built alien & ADU vehicles, which have been waiting patiently for three years to invade/defend the city, are stored in archive boxes & those large cartons that LEGO LEGO.com deliveries come in; no sign of the yellowing which I have extensively combatted on much of my childhood LEGO.
I do love this series. Id also love some articles on how other afols clean and maintain their bricks on display, especially methods for sticker presentation and what people do to help discoloring of white bricks. And seeing how other people store or bind their instruction books would be super cool. Thats my currant organizational project. Id like to bind them in three ring binders like trading cards but i just cant find the rigbt sleeved pages!
I’m all for recycling. Bravo
I'm in the same spot as you, just getting started on a functional LEGO space. I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only one repurposing take-out containers. :)
I love your use of take-out containers as I also can't throw out plastic. In my kitchen I have several big, round plastic take-out containers that would be perfect for sorting while building. Great idea! I was saving them for potlucks or picnics when the time was right but now I'm going to use them for LEGO! Thank you for this great idea!
For those that consider keeping their legos in the original boxes, you may want to consider the Box Throne storage. They were designed for board games but in principle I don't see why they couldn't be considered to store most lego sets. Sure its a very expensive option, but Lego isn't cheap either.
Nice cantina. It's cool to see what other people without thousands of sets do for storage. Cool collection