Storage solutions: Xiaolong
Posted by Huw,
Andy, aka Xiaolong, shares the evolution of his storage and collection, from his very first set as a child, to now.
This is the oldest picture of me with LEGO that I could find. Proudly showing 044-1 to my younger brother at the age of 2½ in 1971. I don’t remember anything any more but it must have been a nice toy as it became a hobby, a passion and according to my wife, an obsession.
And this is a picture of my LEGO room 1. As you can see it is completely full.
Shelves all around and in the middle piles of cardboard trays. In the back plastic drawers with my building bricks.
So what happened in these 49 years. I’ll split my story in different parts and start with sorting.
As kids at home we had three big wooden coffins to sort our bricks. We got them from an uncle. They were casings of big mechanical typewriters. My father painted them and made trays in different colours. We knew what was where by heart.
When my girlfriend and I went living together in an apartment my father-in-law made these trays. They were custom-made to hold these little plastic containers. As from the beginning I understood that I need flexibility to change, swap and expand.
After a few years we married and bought a house that we renovated and of which the attic would be for me. The wooden trays turned out to be not so practical. They are heavy and as they don’t have handles it is difficult to move them around if you need a part of the bottom one.
I found these towers with drawers. They were the perfect size. Just a cm higher than my plastic containers so that you never have to dig deep to find a piece. I also gathered a few hundreds of these white containers by coincidence which are about the double in size. Now I could make all kind of combinations.
In the beginning these eight hold all my bricks, Minifigs, Technic, tracks and other train stuff.
But then I heard about AFOLS’s and LUG’s and best (or worst) of all LEGO became producing 200 sets a year instead of 20. (okay, I exaggerate a little but you know what I mean) In a few years the amount of ABS grew exponentially.
Unfortunately I still cannot find this type of towers anymore, so I had to find something else. I started collecting cardboard trays for fruit in different supermarkets. They are light, easily stackable as they all have the same size of 60 x 40 cm and most interesting of all: for free.
I use different colours for different things. E.g. the yellow ones contain everything organic: Minifigs (and utensils), plants and animals. Technic though is now back in the wooden trays and my train stuff in plastic bins.
The last two months I’ve rearranged my drawers and started with the well-known system of overflow in Ziplock bags which I put in green trays.
I keep old and used parts separate from new. Therefor I use a red and a green label. I also have containers that are lower. So I can stack them and as they are transparent I can still see what is underneath. To know from which part I have a lot more I put a piece in a small Ziplock bag.
Here an example of possibilities:
It starts with the old Macaroni bricks, with a little red dot followed by the new ones marked by the green dot. Next come the 4 x 4 Macaronis of which I only have new ones. From the grey and white ones I have many more as there are in a small Ziplock bag. Next come the old and the new minifig heads. I have a lot of new green and orange ones. The other colours are in a low container above it. The two white ones in the Ziplock are glow in dark white. On the right are 2x2 domes in the ‘rare’ colours and behind it those I have in greater quantity. In the left top corner you can see twice a low container in a high container. It saves space and I can still see what is in the bottom one.
In some places I even stacked four low ones and still see everything.
I do not need labels as I still know by heart where everything is. E.g. the second tower starts with 1x1 plates and the third one ends with all the big and specialised plates. One tower is for all that is round and one for all kind of slopes and wedged bricks. Half a tower for tiles and a half for transparent pieces.
Off-course you have to make hard decisions: shall I put round tiles with everything round or with my tiles, will cheese slopes go with the slopes or the raised tiles.
These things can change every few years when I rearrange. If I have 11 drawers with round, then I can complete the tower with round tiles but when I already have a full tower with slopes, the cheese slopes go with the raised tiles. That’s why my coloured canopies (Classic Space) from childhood are still with my transparent elements and my windscreens moved from car-parts to windows and doors.
Rearranging once in a while also makes that new moulds can find their place: ‘Plate, Round 1x1 with Open Stud’ is now next to Plate, Round 1x1.
Last year, in Skaerbaek, I had the chance in a workshop to talk about sorting, storing and transporting with someone from TLC. What I can say (some Scandinavian companies are still in negotiating) is that I proposed an open and flexible system. Trays of about 60 x 40 cm and containers of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 so that you can always change and rearrange depending on type, colour, amounts and new moulds.
Displaying
As children, we were fortunate to have a play room which was for 90% a LEGO room. The train 720-2, my 3rd birthday present, was almost always running while we were building and playing. I still adore the sound of running LEGO trains. In this picture you can also see what got me into Technic and models: the helicopter 852.
Later these planks were cut and hung on the wall all around the room so that there was more place in the middle to play.
Another few years later we got two more brothers and all this went down to the basement between the freezers and shelves with food. My parents had a restaurant. I kept my nice models in my bedroom as those three were not so gentle with the bricks.
In our two-bedroom apartment I had two bookshelves at my disposal. But models were also scattered around in the living-room, even on the floor.
On the coffee table you can see another important and dear model: 5580. As soon as I saw it in the catalogue I was desperate to have it. I got it as a big surprise for my 18th or 19th birthday. My parents even went to The Netherlands to get it as it was not yet available in B. It became the start of a second line next to the Technic sets.
Further on to the attic in our house. Finally, I had a permanent place for my 9V train lay-out and plenty of shelves.
As a responsible husband the inevitable happened. I became father of two fantastic boys. Growing up they liked LEGO as well and claimed some square metres. Always more and I had to shrink.
Of-course they were entitled to have their own bedroom and so the attic got divided in two and I moved to their old bedroom. Those few weeks in between my Lego was under their bed, on their wardrobe, in and on our bath (no worry, we also have a shower) and on the hallway.
In the first year there was enough place but my collection grew fast as there is Bricklink and a lot of irresistible stuff during events. Remember, my three younger brothers were not so gentle with my (city)sets.
That’s why about all my trains, city and theme sets are broken down and put in plastic bags in black and pink trays.
In the last few weeks I also have cleared a few shelves to make place for more models.
I prefer planks hanging on iron bars because this way I can easily adjust height and it gives the highest possible surface. I am aware that it doesn’t look beautiful that everything is cramped but I do not want to take sets apart.
At the window side there are two old bookshelves. These were also made by my father-in-law. One each for his three little girls. One was willing to help and learn and got the big one. Guess who I married.
In the green boxes there are all kinds of spare plastic containers. In the three big bricks parts that still have to be sorted and on the bottom a few things I try to sell.
The big white containers at the right are for big parts like boat hulls, burps, lurps, 2x bricks, …
Under there all kind of sets that I bought used and are waiting to be checked and cleaned brick by brick with a tooth brush.
When I MOC I have to do it in parts and sections as I don’t have floorspace any more. Usually I combine a few sets from a certain theme and I build a whole world around it.
This is from many years ago when I still had floorspace. It’s a F1 circuit and next to it an off-road track. It evolved over a few years into a big track with more decoration.
A second is this wedding on Catavinia, a place far, far away where representatives from all kind of species from the universe are invited.
In this last example something completely different. Most people from my decade will recognise 391-1.
Sets I build at the kitchen table. In the past I used an inner tray but a few years ago I found this KUGGIS tray in IKEA. It has the right size and is much sturdier and easier to move around.
In our living-room I only display the one or two models I last built.
Collecting and storing
As you guessed by now, I have a lot. Too much according to a certain member of my family as I buy faster than I can build. But hey, once I will retire I will have a lot of time.
All these awaiting sets are in my 4m2 LEGO room 2 on IKEA Ivar shelves, the same bookshelves you could see above in our apartment. According to Bricklink I would be rich as I even have MISB sets from the ’90. But I never bought any set to sell. I only buy things that I like and luckily I’m not a completionist.
It is also better to buy when available then later. I still regret holding 7191 in my hands and hesitating. The next time I went to that shop they were gone and I never saw it again. 76023 is the first set that I bought with the thought: better safe than sorry, I still can sell it again if necessary.
That’s also what I tell my wife. Everything I buy is an investment for my (grand)children as an inheritance.
Or if we end up in a residential care centre and have absolutely no cent left to buy dry bread, I can still sell a polybag.
I also have some big boxes. A wise man told me once: “You can never have too much LEGO, but there is a problem if it enters the bedroom”. In this picture you can see above what I sleep. My wife has to sleep above the other big black car (of which I’m now certain I will build and keep) an orange one and some other sets.
I don’t like boxes. To me they are just to hold and protect the ABS from production site to my house. I would love to just let them be recycled. But that would affect the inheritance they say. So I fold them flat, even the Architecture style ones, and keep them in my garage. It’s a big ugly pile which takes too much place.
I keep my instructions in binders. Once I had a few thick big ones I started to use these PP boxes with rubber band but I think I will move on to shoebox style.
Last few weeks I cleared this little warehouse by putting about everything in big brown boxes that I put in a pile on the hallway of the attic. I just kept some special sets and some models that I would like to build in the near future. I saw a lot of beautiful things that I had forgotten about and a few doubles.
Tracking
If you looked at my list here at Brickset, you wouldn’t see much. I’m somewhere between 149000 and 150000. Went looking just for this article.
It is a very nice tool but I like a lot of data, and so I have an Excel file to record everything.
Naturally it starts with set number, name, year of release and number of parts.
But I also record date of buying (or acquiring), name of the shop (or event), city, price paid, …
My brother is making a Qlikview file to organise everything so that I can easily find whatever I’m looking for. Here you see the selection of Technic and helicopter.
There are different fields like:
- build/still in box/parted
- new/used/from my childhood/build from stock parts
- my own tag system
…
And when I select a set there will be a picture and more information but that is still in development.
So that ends my story. My dream is (like a lot of us) to win the lottery. We would just buy a nice, simple, not too big, house but with a big basement, attic, garage, warehouse, workshop or whatever place of about 80m2.
There I will have plenty of shelves to display all my models. And between shelves that I hang 10 cm above each other I will place the cardboard trays as drawers.
And in the middle of it all a big table, say 4 x 10 meters, for a 12V and a 9V train connecting different cities and worlds.
My biggest fear is that I will never see all my LEGO together at the same time.
But luckily I know the most important thing in life: be happy with what you have, not unhappy for what you don’t have.
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13 comments on this article
I love the boxes :) very nice might try making my own
Just when you think the Storage Solutions have reached their zenith, another beautiful story comes along.
Thanks for the great read and lovely sentiments.
"Be happy with what you have, not unhappy for what you don’t have."
great story.
Love the old picture of you and your baby brother. Nice to see people's early memories.
Wonderful (life) story! Well done. Nice collection! Hope the lego-sets that actually entered the bedroom, didn't cause too much trouble ;)
The pinnacle of the storage series
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"The pinnacle of the storage series"
Lego Storage Through the Decades!
Great article, thanks for sharing!
I'm really excited to see if anything ever comes about from your discussions on organizer trays.
I've spent hours on Amazon, Walmart, etc. looking for a system JUST like that, but they don't seem to exist.
It's either drawers with static dividers, tool bins with big molded-in handles, or crafting boxes with flimsy dividers/garbage lids.
An organizing system based on easily-divisible modular units that fit within a larger structure (either a sliding drawer, stackable bin, or a combo of both) is like the Holy Grail of sorting!
To keep boxes or not to keep the boxes is an age old question.
It is also why I do not mind getting stuff for myself in crappy boxes:
1) I do not care about breaking the seal of a beat to @$% box
2) I do not care about throwing those out.
Great collection. I wasn't intending to comment but then I read about your Excel spreadsheet. I do exactly this too! With the same sort of information it seems as well: date, store, price paid, etc.
Love your race tracks and various MOC’s! Nice to see some older stuff in there, so many of these articles only seem to focus on very new sets, especially Star Wars UCS.
Having reached a certain age, with more Lego sets than a child should have, I started wondering what's gonna happen to them . My kids had their own sets, but they have outgrown Lego, for now.
I'm guessing my sets will be too old and outdated for my grandkids. So I was wondering... What's gonna happen to them?
My favorite picture is the one with that alien gathering. Such a cool scenery.