Storage solutions: Paul_DLH
Posted by Huw,
Paul_DLH shares his “Evolution of a Storage System” which culminates in an ingenious sliding door solution:
I’ve been collecting Lego since I was young with my first proper set being 6610 Gas Pumps (although we had some Duplo in the family). On occasion as children we were very lucky to receive a medium/large set for some Christmas and Birthdays, and we slowly gained a small selection of sets from Classic Space, Town, Pirates, Technic and Trains from some of the golden years of Lego.
However my dark age happened around 1993 – 2005 but that dark age ended with a cut price Lego Technic 8436 Truck and the rest is history. As finances became more available the collection grew, and grew. I’ve pretty much managed to collect nearly all the 12v and 9v trains and a fairly sizeable almost complete Technic collection and the collection has even developed into some Lego Retail displays.
I really like the fabric shop banners and have over the last 5 years slowly collected possibly one of the most complete collections of City Retail Banners. We have even joked we need to try and buy another house just for the Lego. My collection of built sets currently ranks just into the top 500 on Brickset and about 500,000 bricks. In addition, there is probably another 500,000 loose bricks.
For me, Lego collecting requires 4 areas of storage.
Manuals
As I keep my sets assembled, and as original as possible, there is not much need to reference the manuals. Plus with them being available online, its quicker to find a manual online than dig through the paper manuals. So once the set is built, the hundreds of manuals are stored in about 10 of these old Lego Basic Brick boxes in the loft. Stickers are rarely applied and usually put between the pages of the instruction manual.
Boxes
All original boxes are stored in the loft, boxes are flat packed or for those older style boxes that cannot be flattened, are put one inside the other.
Sets
99% of sets are stored built in blue plastic Wham boxes. They are cheap and stackable and most importantly, prevent dust. Sadly many of my sets are then stored in the loft/attic awaiting the perfect display solution one day. The dream is to have many display cabinets to show off the history of Technic.
Loose Bricks
This is where the storage of loose bricks evolved. As a child, we had an old storage box from a 1930’s Electrolux Vacuum Cleaner. It was great as it contained all our bricks, but it used to make so much noise as we searched for the small tile which had fallen to the bottom of the box.
Looking back it was not good for the bricks either as many had small scratches. Over time the frustration of spending hours searching for bricks created the need for an improved solution.
This led to the first kind of sorting. Like many, the first logical sorting was by colour. We had 8 baskets, one for each colour, Black, Red, Yellow, White and then smaller baskets for Blue, Grey, Clear, and Green bricks (not forgetting green was quite a rare colour back in the 80’s mainly just used for base plates and trees). Whilst the smaller bricks used to fall through the holes in the baskets. It was a quicker way of finding the required brick.
After the dark age ended and more bricks joined the collection, an improved storage solution was again required. This led to sorting parts by style rather than by colour. I started buying Zag and then Stanley parts organisers, they came in 2 sizes of case (one deeper than pictured below) and the small yellow tubs were independently removable from the case which allowed rearranging of parts within the organiser.
These were great but there limitation came when I had about 20 of them, it became more and more difficult to remember which part was in which case. It was a good solution which lasted over 10 years but the collection outgrew the storage solution.
A new solution was required and I’d recently managed to arrange a dedicated Lego room within our house. The room is around 12 square meters and whilst many people go for small drawer units, I wanted a flexible solution, and the idea of a Lego wall was born. I started looking at Stala Tilt Bins. This is not a cheap solution, per bin, but it is practical and looks good. The bins tilt forward to an angle of about 45 degrees, to allow you to quickly pick the part you need.
These bins came in 6 different sizes and whilst these were all a standard width, it did become more complicated as the depth varies and I did not like the stepped look. I solved this with a wooden frame on the wall that they were mounted on.
I wanted to maximise the number of storage bins as the room is quite small. My solution, was metal wardrobe doors usually part of a fitted wardrobe. I built a custom solution by mounting the Tilt Bins to the wardrobe doors with self-tapping wafer head screws, one size of Tilt Bin per door. This increased the density of storage, whilst still allowing easy access with the doors and bricks sliding to the side to allow access to the door behind.
And loaded with bricks. I wish I’d added a 4th sliding door!
The tilt bins can be easily removed and taken to the build area. Equally, if I have too many of one part, it can be upgraded to a larger bin with ease. I’ve considered labelling the bins, possibly using labels from https://brickarchitect.com/labels/. However, I’ve come to remember where the parts are on the wall, and it’s very visual. Adding labels would actually make the solution less dynamic I think as I would have to change the labels as I move the parts into larger or smaller bins.
I then needed a build area, I settled on kitchen cupboards with the legs removed and a sturdy Ikea kitchen worktop which was made to size.
I have a limited display area within the build room as well. Just two Ikea wall cabinets (which annoyingly they have stopped selling). I just keep a couple of the Modular buildings here on display. There are some additional small Tilt Bins as well on this wall.
I hope you enjoy a different brick storage solution that we have not seen so far.
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34 comments on this article
What a great idea. I love the shelf. If you ever come to Austria, don't forget your tools! I also like the shelf very much, so far one of the best solutions for the many bricks I have ever seen. Great job, thanks for sharing!
There have been many great solutions in this series so far, but this one is my favourite so far. Love the sliding doors with the tilting boxes.
very elegant, ticks so many boxes!
This is a principle used in many archives and museum storage rooms: cabinets with their short edge toward the wall, on rails parallel to the wall, so you can choose between which two the 'passage' runs. If I ever get the money that is my plan for my collection.
I like all the small bins, reminds me of a cinema sweet emporium. Interesting idea, usually found in book archive rooms to maximize shelf space in a small room, but you must be a very talented craftsman to get this to work smoothly. The mention of sliding wardrobe doors got me thinking about sticking the small bins directly onto the outside of an existing sliding wardrobe door if you happen to have one in your Lego room, while using the inside shelves for larger stowage boxes.
Please let me know if you found a place selling more economical vertical towers, like the Stanley, Clas Ohlson or Raaco parts stowage organizer solutions, as only seem to find websites selling Stala tilt boxes on a single horizontal shelve, which adds up if you are trying to do a dozen shelves or a whole wall.
This is the best storage solution so far.
I also just wanted to say that studded technic is the best!
Ingenious solutions! It's organized, dust free, pleasing to the eye and home made. It's just so clever. I'm guessing everyone reading wants to slide the walls:) Thanks for sharing your Lego room with us all!
Ingenious
Love the sliding door idea, well done!
@Paul_DLH the sliding door system is beautifully done-congratulations. It is impressive that you were able to fabricate them in a way where the doors carry the weight of all those bricks and still slide easily.
What are make/model of the collectible minifigure display cases mounted on the wall surrounding the television? And how do you create the backgrounds?
Thanks for sharing your system and its evolution.
In the library profession (which, as can be surmised from my screen name, is my line of work) we call this compact shelving. I love your solution.
I am wondering about your Collectable Minifigures displays. Are the frames custom? What about the backgrounds?
@Librarian1976 said:
"I am wondering about your Collectable Minifigures displays. Are the frames custom? What about the backgrounds? "
If i'm not mistaken those picture frames are Ikea Ribba frames and the backgrounds can be sourced and printed from the internet. (I know because his wall looks exactly same as mine:-))
I see Your point about finding manuals online but for me personally i feel like i should built with a lego book manual none online :)
Where did you get the Minifig displays! Love those!
Literally a wall of bricks! One of the more unique solutions I've seen here as well.
Love the minifig displays!
TILT BINS ARE THE ABSOLUTE PINNACLE OF THE VERY ZENITH OF THE DREAM
For years I have lusted after tilt bins; alas, I cannot make the financial commitment.
Thank you for rekindling the dream and showing how it is done perfectly.
Eye Spy the Inside Tour 2014 set!
@Schmopiesdad said:
What are make/model of the collectible minifigure display cases mounted on the wall surrounding the television? And how do you create the backgrounds?
I think they are ikea frames. They used to come with glass but the more recent ones have an Perspex “glass” in them.
So originally the frames were purchased from a seller who ran a website called hedgemaze frames, great seller but he was shut down in the end by Lego sadly. He tried to Make some changes to appease them, but it was not to be. The last few frames I’ve purchased from DC enterprises on eBay. They are slightly better as the Lego bricks are glued to an acrylic back panel, where the original hedgemaze frames the bricks were glued to the paper back ground.
One of the frames I had the bricks supplied loose and glued them to my own design.
Here is the link to their eBay shop (no affiliation to me)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/DC-enterprises-UK?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
I saw these tilt bins just yesterday at the dentist office. I thought, wow there would make for a good LEGO storage solution. I haven't seen them in the Brickset storage articles yet.
Fast forward one day and here they are! Great work to make this idea come to life!
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"Eye Spy the Inside Tour 2014 set!"
Yes and no......it’s 100% accurate, with new bricks, but sadly I did not go on the tour. I bought some recreated stickers and genuine bricks.
@Librarian1976 said:
I am wondering about your Collectable Minifigures displays. Are the frames custom? What about the backgrounds? ]]
Sorry to disappoint, these are just purchased frames, most recently from
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/DC-enterprises-UK?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
@TheLegoFan said:
"I see Your point about finding manuals online but for me personally i feel like i should built with a lego book manual none online :)"
Don’t get me wrong, the original sets when purchased are built with paper manuals. It’s the only way, but then they go into storage. With online available if needed for quick reference.
Seriously, what a clever solution. I'll have to consider doing something like this if/when my collection grows to be anything close to this size.
Hah, there's a hardware store here in Amsterdam with sliding doors with tilt box cabinets filled with screws, nails and whatnot, just like your setup! Great minds think alike. Wonderful solution, and so practical indeed.
The sliding door/tilt bin idea was really awesome. Now I'm wondering if I can convince my husband I need that in the back office/my Lego storeroom.
@nushae:
Our local LEGO Store has an even more efficient storage method for the back room. Instead of sliding parallel to the long side, they move perpendicular to it, controlled with large flywheels at the end that you spin to engage rack and pinion systems that the stacks all ride on. Doing it this way, the entire side of the room can be filled with shelves that are tightly packed, with only enough room left over for one aisle. As you move each stack toward the other side of the room, the aisle shifts to the next set of shelves.
@PurpleDave
I think you & @nushae are both describing exactly the same method!
That type of archival storage is indeed efficient, but it would be incredibly infuriating if used for parts storage when building MOCs.
@Paul_DLH is onto a winner with his method.
I Like the Technic loader on your build table. Is that for loading Maersk Containers onto the train flat cars? If so I would love to see some more pictures of that if possible.
@TheVisionIslandsReed said:
"I Like the Technic loader on your build table. Is that for loading Maersk Containers onto the train flat cars? If so I would love to see some more pictures of that if possible."
I think you mean this one. I saw it online and built it with the instructions after souring a ton of parts. Lots of cogs! One function of the crane does not work smooth, but I think it’s more my build that the design.
http://www.jurgenstechniccorner.com/instructions/Portaalkraan.pdf
@PurpleDave said:
" @nushae:
Our local LEGO Store has an even more efficient storage method for the back room. Instead of sliding parallel to the long side, they move perpendicular to it, controlled with large flywheels at the end that you spin to engage rack and pinion systems that the stacks all ride on. Doing it this way, the entire side of the room can be filled with shelves that are tightly packed, with only enough room left over for one aisle. As you move each stack toward the other side of the room, the aisle shifts to the next set of shelves."
Sounds like the Idea house vault in Billund - make sure not to get squeezed in between the shelves ;-)
@sid3windr:
No doubt. Unlike this shelf system, you can't simply push them apart if you get trapped inside. The gearing is so extreme that spinning the flywheel takes very little effort to move a shelf that could weigh several hundred pounds. If you can't reach the wheel, it's extreme enough that you'd be more likely to rupture the gearbox than make it spin backwards by pushing on the shelf.
Really cool parts wall! I probably would not have thought of that.
I love the Ikea wall cabinets too for displaying the modulars. Keep the dust out and looks great!
Thanks for sharing. :)
I like the way you store all the pices, but I love the way you show the Collectible Minifigure Series!! That is the idea I have in my mind. Can you tell me how do you make the wallpapers at the back of the minifigures. Could you, please, send me those wallpapers? I have all the series completed, and I want to show them. (herisanmilazio @hotmail.com)