Storage solutions: chief7575
Posted by Huw,
Greg, aka chief7575, shares his LEGO storage solutions:
I have had LEGO since I was a child, with most of my early sets consisting of Classic Space from the 1980s with the occasional town racecar set sprinkled in. My wife also collected LEGO as a child, mostly town sets and even having some large buildable people sets from her days of growing up in Germany. When we got married and moved into our house we both had our sets stored in various plastic tubs and containers. For the most part, Sterilite containers have been our saving grace.
Several long and skinny 32 quart or bigger Sterilite plastic bins house all of our older sets, I think we have at least 8 between our collections. These have been very useful as they keep all the dust, etc out of the older sets and conveniently fit underneath beds, so they stay out of the way! I still have all the original boxes that my sets came in, as I am a bit OCD about having things complete. My wife didn’t keep any of her boxes, but simply bagged up each set in Ziploc bags, with the instructions when possible.
Fast-forward ahead to a couple of years ago when I discovered the wonderful world of LEGO trains! I had barely picked up any LEGO sets for a good 35 years until I discovered trains again. My dad worked on the railroad during his life, and he had made us a model railroad layout when I was a boy. I still have all of our trains from growing up, both HO and N scale.
I was amazed of how awesome the sets were and once again, I got hooked on LEGO! One thing led to another – now I was buying all sorts of sets (not just trains), but Creator Expert, city sets, Marvel, you name it. Well, where to put all of these things?? Plus, I have a 5-year-old daughter who loves playing with LEGO and the mini figures and between her and my wife getting Harry Potter and Friends sets, we are swimming in LEGO. So now, every single room of the house has LEGO scattered everywhere! (and now DOTS in every nook and cranny, too).
I started storing all the boxes inside each other and that worked for a while, as the train boxes are huge and can “eat” several other smaller boxes. But soon an entire closet became filled to the max with sets. So, using some skills my dad had shown me growing up (he did wood-working as a hobby), I decided to build a solution. This was not my first choice, as I had explored getting pre-built racks and storage at various stores. But none of them really fit what I needed nor actually fit where I needed, plus the price of them where downright outrageous at times!
We had finished our basement (paint, ceiling, carpet) a few years back and have around 400 square feet (ca. 37 m²) of usable room down there. I got some lumber, used the saws and crafted a nearly 7 foot high, 2 foot deep, almost 8 foot wide, shelving structure, just to house all the boxes. I did this because I could make it the dimensions that I needed, to fit everything on the shelves and into the space I had available.
The plan is to use all the shelves for box storage, though the top currently houses miscellaneous sets and parts. Those will be cleared off soon. You will also notice 3 large Sterilite tubs to the side. Those hold all of my larger sets from my childhood and 1 container holds nothing but LEGO train tracks.
Since we do so many box within a box these days, I have been keeping all the instructions in a separate place. The instructions and any small polybags, get saved and stored in a 3 tier Sterilite Modular drawer system. (17x14x7). Thankfully these stack/un-stack and I currently can also store them underneath a bed. While I have tried to group instructors together by theme – we are quickly running out of space, and I am simply trying to fit things in.
Lots of people mention IKEA shelves when storing/displaying their LEGO, and we are no different. I have resorted to displaying some of our models in exactly such a manner (I forget which type of shelf these are). And also, an ottoman for the Falcon, because, hey it fits on it.
During the lockdown and lack of new sets available, we have started to utilise Bricklink and have started to buy pieces in mass to build our own creations. Well, that creates a new situation, how to store all of those. Again, turning to Sterilite, I have found some nice divided cases and some 7 qt tubs where we can put the bulk purchases until they can be grouped together for our builds. I also found a 2 sided HDX organizer at Home Depot, where all the miscellaneous extra parts from new sets can go.
Finally, I went back to the need to build a solution. In order to display and play with all of our trains/city sets, etc, I decided to get back to building. Over the course of the past couple weeks, I got more lumber, screws, nails and devised a 2 shelf system to fully support our LEGO addiction (and I also built a new pantry for my wife) in the basement.
I used 2x4’s for the corner supports with 1x3’s running along the sides and underneath for support. The shelves are ¼ inch sheets, white on one side. There are 3 shelves in total, and they can be moved around as needed. This gives us double the space to utilise, plus it gets the LEGO directly off of the floor.
We started to set up the modular buildings and fairground rides as well as 1 train running. It will take a while to eventually get everything set up, but that’s all the fun right there! Plus I will be able to add LED lights to the underneath portion as I have an outlet handy. There is ample space to add the rest of our city and trains to play with. At least for now…..
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13 comments on this article
I love the table set up, I dream of having the space to put the coaster up with other fairground sets.
I like how the display tables have a raised "underground". Does it help with the dust situation?
Nice joinery! 'Up' is definitely the direction to go in.
Your Storage Solution has inspired me (in a strange way...) today; I've never kept the boxes but just now I questioned why I'm keeping manuals when online instructions are just easier, especially with limited building space.
Over 20kg of paper just about to go in the recycling!
(Could they be put to any useful purpose...?)
Is it just me or is it a requirement to have the UCS Millennium falcon to be featured on here haha.
Haha, I saved up months before buying the Falcon. It was my first Star Wars set too! As for the dust, I have noticed that on the first large shelf that I built, the sets that are currently stored on it do not have much dust at all, if any. I am hopeful once we get the rest of the trains and the smaller city buildings set up, there will be little maintenance on the lower level.
Having a dedicated table must be great. I'm working on my annual summer setup on the family dinner table. I have to take it down before the school starts. Good job my friend.
I’m weeping on how mint your classic space set boxes are. I am envious of the boxes you’ve kept from all those familiar classic space sets.
Those boxes are pristine! Have you checked to see if any of the Brickset entries need a HD box scan for the ones you have? Sometimes the older sets get stuck with a small image.
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"Those boxes are pristine! Have you checked to see if any of the Brickset entries need a HD box scan for the ones you have? Sometimes the older sets get stuck with a small image."
Oh, that’s an interesting comment. I had not thought to check if any of the older sets I own could be used to enhance any photo information. I own at least half of the space line from the 80s and as a couple of you have pointed out, the boxes are still in very good shape. I’ll have to go through them and see if I can help out. Great suggestion!
Thank you all for your wonderful comments and for everyone else who has posted their solutions. They helped me out as I tired to design our new display/play shelves and tables.
^ Thank you.
Seeing those space boxes is nostalgic! I wonder if the flattened boxes in my basement will make me smile as much in twenty years:) Your shelving system looks great and the height of the table you made looks like it is perfect for a five year old daughter to play at:) Thanks for taking the time to contribute to the series!
@Your_Future_President said:
"Is it just me or is it a requirement to have the UCS Millennium falcon to be featured on here haha. "
Nope, i didn't include any ref to my MF in my article. lol
Steve Largent was The Man!