Storage solutions: curtydc
Posted by Huw,
Curtis Collins, aka curtydc, shows us another very neat and tidy LEGO room today:
At 8 years old, I received my first Lego set, a little blue bucket of LEGO, 1708 Blue Ribbon Savings!. This little blue bucket which I unfortunately no longer have, is what started me on a never ending and ever evolving process of sorting Lego.
Between that little blue bucket and what I’m sharing with you today, I’ve used plastic storage containers in various sizes, ziplock bags, Sterilite brand plastic drawers, and a large wooden chest.
In the 5 places I’ve lived since moving away from home after getting married, my Lego “room” has been in a small walk-in closet, a single room basement that frequently flooded, two separate non-climate controlled single car garages, and finally a small bedroom in the basement of our current home.
I recently moved my family, household, and entire Lego collection across 6 States, and I’ve spent the past month putting my Lego room together, and it is finally in a state of order that I’m happy to share.
The Majority of my bricks are sorted by part and color in Stack-On drawer organizers (which are no longer produced in this style, hard to find, and very expensive), Workzone drawer organizers (from Aldi, very affordable, but usually only available during early spring time), and Sterilite 16qt. stacking drawers with plastic drawer organizers from the Dollar Tree (good luck finding any in Oklahoma City, I cleaned them all out).
I keep a bucket of Lego for my kids to play with (you can spot it under the table in the green Lego bucket). My wife often finds good deals on second hand Lego from thrift stores, which I’ve started putting in this bucket. They do have their own massive collection of Legos in their toy room, which is usually a mess, so they tend to want to play in my room when I’m in here. I’ve started picking up Lego from around the house that they neglect to clean up and putting it in the green bucket. They don’t seem to have acquired my organizational skills yet.
For displaying Lego sets and MOCs, I converted a north facing basement window (which provided very little light) into a built-in shelf where my larger sets reside. My most recent purchase was a 9 cubby shelf from Target where I have on display several small sets, some Lego books, and craft organizers from Hobby Lobby which I use to store minifigures. Atop the 9 cubby shelf are some expandable spice racks from the Container Store, used to display some of my custom Brickheadz characters. Mounted to the wall are three custom modified Kasseby shadow boxes from Ikea for displaying minifigures. Kasseby shadow boxes are the best in my opinion, because they are front loading, making them convenient to change out which minifigures are on display.
Next on my list of things to do is to replace all of the yellow and blue stacking bins in the Workzone drawer organizers with clear plastic stacking bins, which will make it easier to see what is in the drawers at a glance.
I don’t use labels, because I would rather be able to see the parts through the drawers, and I more or less know where everything is. Labels would have no benefit to me, as I often find myself changing things out when a drawer becomes too full. I would hate to have to replace labels all the time.
The Dollar Tree drawer organizers fit perfectly inside the 16qt Sterilite stacking drawers. I use these drawers for overflow and other bricks and pieces that are too large to keep in the Stack-On and Workzone drawer organizers.
I use clear acrylic display cases to display some pop culture Lego cars along with their micro Lego Dimensions counterparts. I keep some useful technic bits and plant elements in some orange tool organizers that I probably got from Home Depot a long time ago. Here is an example of some Star Wars minifigures in a craft organizer. I have several clear stacking bins on standby for sorting bricks and keeping the build area tidy.
I have a small closet where I’m storing my MOC photography equipment, a few extra shadow boxes, some unused storage, and some buckets containing Power Function elements, unsorted minifigures, zip lock baggies, my complete collection of Star Wars Microfighters (the best thing to happen between Lego and Star Wars), and a collection of Bionicle elements that sometimes come in handy.
I don’t have any unopened sets. I enjoy building a set as soon as possible, and most sets get torn down and sorted into my collection shortly after building it. I don’t save boxes, and I only save instruction from larger sets, and collectible sets. I don’t usually try to collect any particular theme, as I’m more interested in building my own creations.
If you are interested in seeing my MOCs, I have a flickr account under the name curtydc.
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23 comments on this article
Nice Unit 02!
I find this overwhelming to look at.
Very nice and clean. Congratulation for the label opinion!
I wanted to say to some previous people sharing with us their Storage Solution but I didn't wanted to sound like a criticism: If you are spending some reasonable time creating, you kind of know every type of part in which drawer is, and labels are not so helpful.
In fact there is a lot of wasting time to make and change those labels.
I am speechless. I want this room at my home right now! Envy is a very underestimated word for what I now feel :)
It's simply the best LEGO room I have seen so far.
So this is what AFOL heaven is like? Worth checking out the Flickr photos, first time I've seen anyone use 4 canoes in a spacecraft! If you haven't done so already please submit your original spacecrafts to Lego ideas.
This is really a pleasure to look at. And not cluttered at all!
The Workzone organizers are good stuff, I use them too (although not as many).
it's a great combination of different storage solutions.
I tend to agree on the labels - they might come in handy for the less used boxes when the kids join the party!
A tidy desk is a sign of a warped mind :)
Wow, never seen such a room before... it’s a little bit unbelievable.
I love the drawer full of dinosaurs! Congratulations on your move and your new Lego room. It is fantastic and your Flickr photos are interesting and intriguing with a wide variety of unique characters. I laughed out loud at the line about the plastic tub under the table belonging to the kids. It was good to read on and learn they have more than the one green tub in the Lego room! Thanks for participating in the series!
I'm very impressed [read: envious].
Just out of curiosity and ignorance: if I've noticed correctly, so many AFOLs in the US have basements. Are basements a common feature in American homes?
Me likes!
OCDgasm
@TerryWright said:
"
I'm very impressed [read: envious].
Just out of curiosity and ignorance: if I've noticed correctly, so many AFOLs in the US have basements. Are basements a common feature in American homes?"
Yes, especially in the colder climates (Northeast, Midwest). When there's lots of snow on the ground all winter long, it's nice to have a place for the kids to run around without getting all bundled up for the cold.
That said, nowadays the basement is regarded as the entertainment center, a playroom, or bulk storage for all the stuff that we tend to collect, depending on how you want to remodel the space.
Of course, for LEGO fans like me, the basement is just another big room for keeping your LEGO collection...
Great organization and work area for building. I'm glad you mentioned that you don't use labels because I have been using them for years and need to change them after a lot of reorganizing during the covid quarantine. I've been putting it off but now I realize it's unnecessary.
When i look at these i love what people do to store lego and how tidy they are but when i look at my collection i think... What a mess
WOW! Wish I had the floor space and time to have a room like this. I’ve put it on my lottery win ‘to do’ list.
@oldfan said:
Yes, especially in the colder climates (Northeast, Midwest). When there's lots of snow on the ground all winter long, it's nice to have a place for the kids to run around without getting all bundled up for the cold.
Thanks, oldfan!
In the first image there was some LEGO Slippers?
I need a pair now.
My OCD loves this :-)
Impressive. As your creations.
Now THIS is what I hope to have my LEGO room look like by the end of this year. I just started buying almost the exact same type of organizer boxes and am currently thinking about the best way to sort pieces into them.
Great to see the way you did it.
And re: basements, those are very common in private homes in Germany too. Not so much in the UK, I know.
Finally an actual storage solution, not display solution.