Storage solutions: crankybricks
Posted by Huw,
Catherine, aka crankybricks, shares one way of fitting as much Lego as humanly possible into a tiny space:
My partner and I live in London in a little one-and-a-half bedroom flat (and of course are proud members of London AFOLs), and our ‘half’ bedroom/box room is a dedicated Lego room for set storage, part storage, a small city and MOCs. So my first bit of space-saving advice is to find a roommate who’s willing to share with you in order to free up other space for Lego!
One of the most popular topics on our LUG discussion forums is #storage, where it’s not unusual to see CAD drawings of IKEA tables, conversations about the exact dimensions of Sortimo/Sortacase inserts, or shopping tips for Really Useful Boxes (RUB) drawers, a great UK brand that is a favourite among AFOLs.
I’ve engaged in quite a bit of IKEA gymnastics to maximise table surface (and storage space beneath) in this room while keeping the budget as low as possible. The current solution is a combination of RUB drawers with IKEA Linnmon tables on top, with a few different types of legs beneath to get them all at the same height - best explained in the image below:
This layout took quite a bit of planning to get tetris-ed into the room!
Within the drawers, parts are sorted to varying degrees depending on how much of a given type or colour I’ve got. They are labelled in a pretty unsophisticated way with a part blue-tacked to the front of each drawer. I didn’t really see the need to get the (much more expensive) transparent clear drawers as with inserts or dividers it’s hard to see the actual parts anyway, and the collection isn’t huge enough (yet) that I can’t remember where parts are.
In some drawers I use the RUB inserts, but these are also quite expensive and restrictive on shape/size of parts that fit, so in many there are just a mixture of boxes and ziplock bags. The drawers are about 9 studs deep which makes for super efficient storage of plates up to 8 studs long or wide - which is a double-edged sword as the drawers can get pretty heavy at that density!
For smaller parts I find the Lego advent calendar inserts are the perfect size to fit within these drawers. By cutting the individual ‘cups’ from the paper inserts , they can be freely lifted in and out of the drawer when using them to build. For example, with the arrival of DOTS my collection of 1x1 tiles has finally warranted being broken down by colour as well as just type.
Here’s Huwbot’s favourite drawer! I couldn’t resist this lot on eBay, just to experiment with, but have only used a handful of the parts in builds so far - for example the bracelets made for a cool modernist sculpture in a MOC last year.
You might notice that there isn’t any spare table surface to build on. It would be lovely to have a dedicated build zone but I just can’t bring myself to sacrifice any parts of the city, so MOC building mostly takes place on the floor. Previously there was another table over the central walkway, so the building used to all occur under the tables, with a little pop-up hole in the centre to get 360° access to the city. This does tend to result in sore knees and a stiff neck however, so a proper building space is top of the list for upcoming improvements.
Beneath the other tables and behind the drawers are some densely-packed unbuilt sets. We don’t really buy them to keep them sealed, but just don’t have time or space to keep up with building everything before buying more...
It’s well established that Lego expands to fill all available space (you might argue it is therefore a gas rather than a solid) so our collection has also found its way into the bedroom and living room. Only very special sets (like my Elves treehouse adaptation) make the cut for display outside the Lego room though.
Fellow London AFOL Jackie Britton (who you may remember from her recent Brickset feature) made a clever suggestion to pack as many unopened sets as possible behind a curtain under the desk, freeing up more space for buying more sets that we also don’t have time to build! There are a few more under the shelf behind that chair, and maybe a few shopping bags out of shot as well...
Despite appearances in carefully-cropped photos, things aren’t all neatly stored as I’m sure is the case for most people. If anyone is getting the impression that this is an immaculately tidy collection, I’d like to offer a little peek into the storage on the left hand side of the Lego room, where under the table lies the ‘box of shame’ (which is actually two 50L boxes and several bags) full of unsorted parts. Once social distancing can be relaxed, I’ll certainly go back to bribing fellow AFOLs with home baking to come over and help me to sort!
133 likes
34 comments on this article
I like the Disney castle modular.
It fits in real well.
Oh wow this is lovely!! Such a small amount of space but so much cramped in. I may have to take tips from this. Well done to the owner !!
Loverly work for such a small space. And I see a picture of your dream house (space) on the wall too...
Great compact city layout.
Finally, an actually substantial Clikits parts collection.
Great article, nice to have a peak into your LEGO room!
Nice collection and thanks for letting us know about RUB company!
I will be first in the queue for baked goods in return for sorting effort. It was a blast last time! :-)
"Beneath the other tables and behind the drawers are some densely-packed unbuilt sets. We don’t really buy them to keep them sealed, but just don’t have time or space to keep up with building everything before buying more..."
I hear you and I see you - I pack my obsession/collection into a smaller space.. but I love your room. Thanks for sharing
Your Lego room is wonderful and that planning picture is very helpful at understanding it. Are the Olov legs stable? I had heard that they were often hard to level. Thanks for participating in the series!
Not related to the storage solution (similar to mine) but the laundry hamper next to the treehouse is the same as mine
Impressive what you've achieved in such a small area.
It's like an ultimate Ikea showcase :-D
Though I can't really see a lot of additional room for more Lego.
Might be time to check out some new places to live ;-)
Wow, nice use of really tight space.
A great display ready for a show, I like the way the city blends from Western Victorian red brick to Eastern buildings similar to a large ever-expanding city. To allow more builds to be displayed there is still space to add shelving where your picture is. To continue the road, while preventing sore knees I would be tempted to build a Lego lifting road bridge over the space. Your London AFOL Flickr site has some fantastic space vehicles, from the small one spaceperson bubble scouts to the large galaxy explorer with tanker rover these should be on Lego Ideas (if not already).
I love your organization and layout. I think the Bounty hunters may have caught up with you though :)
Amazing to see the Disney Castle modular design in the gorgeous layout you guys made, glad to see it fits well :) Also the organization of your collection is very satisfying, and seeing all the colors makes me happy!
If anyone else is interested in building the Costume Shop I designed a while back, you can find it on Rebrickable here:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-14603/BrickBees/the-costume-shop-alternative-to-71040
That inflatable LEGO fish is cool.
space isnt a thing , just how manage it. very nice set up . btw i think we all have i box of unsorted i know i have lol
You know it is a serious robbery when there is a forklift on the roof of the bank!
Would love to see some detail of the buildings across the street of the bank. They look great
@mfg3000 said:
"Your Lego room is wonderful and that planning picture is very helpful at understanding it. Are the Olov legs stable? I had heard that they were often hard to level. Thanks for participating in the series!"
Yes, they are a nightmare to level, but I had already committed to raising everything to 900mm to maximise the under-table storage so just had to make it work! Also made exceptionally hard on uneven Victorian floors...
@BrickBees said:
"Amazing to see the Disney Castle modular design in the gorgeous layout you guys made, glad to see it fits well :) Also the organization of your collection is very satisfying, and seeing all the colors makes me happy!
If anyone else is interested in building the Costume Shop I designed a while back, you can find it on Rebrickable here:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-14603/BrickBees/the-costume-shop-alternative-to-71040
"
Thanks for sharing the link - it's an absolutely brilliant build, I have to admit I only bought the castle set after seeing your model on Rebrickable, and never actually built the castle... big fan!
Thanks for the lovely comments everyone :)
Some of the MOCs are shown on my Instagram page ( @crankybricks) but I'm not very good at photographing and posting things on there I'm afraid.
No space wasted.
The Halloween version of the costume shop is pure win! (normal one is perfectly fine, but the other pushes it over the edge)
I can confirm that the chocolate brownies offered in return for coming round to help sort the box of shame were incredible. And as the curtain suggestor, I can complete the circularity by noting that it was Catherine who gave me the seed part (a pink turret) that made me build a pink and lime castle, as mentioned in my 'meet a member' piece.
Nice storage room but all all those white pieces next to window are gonna get yellowed. 100%.
I'd reccomend buying blinds or something to protect your Lego.
Now this is optimizing space! So compact, well organized, and well-thought-out. I also really like the presence of MOC's in the collection instead of having a cluster LEGO sets. Keep these articles coming!
Hi Catherine, thanks for sharing. Great to see your setup up close
I do my best building on the floor as well! I dig your setup!
I really like the layout of your room, it looks fun and inviting. I particularly loved the architectural drawing! I don't know anything about the RUB drawers and how deep they are but it seems like they could be put on casters or something to let them roll out so the area behind them could be used to store unopened sets or whatever.
I will never complain about not having enough space again. Your Lego room is so well done!
Brilliant use of Ikea tables.
Many thanks, it’s caused me to completely rethink my up coming town layout
(Fortunately I haven’t bought anything from Ikea yet!)
Wow, really nice! Love the Elves Treehouse!
@mfg3000 said:
"Your Lego room is wonderful and that planning picture is very helpful at understanding it. Are the Olov legs stable? I had heard that they were often hard to level. Thanks for participating in the series!"
The olv adjustable legs are stable, we use them in limited number due to price (quite expensive compared to ADILS).
The adjustment takes a little skill, when tightening and locking the selected height the leg also retracts (shortens) the leg due to the internal screw-lock engaging (it was around 5-10mm iirc) so all you have to do is to take this into consideration when selecting your height.