Now that you know how to live peacefully with Lego, you’re ready to consider sorting methods. But first, take a moment to reflect on the play styles in your household:
- Set Builders – Enjoy building from instructions. Sets are then displayed or played with for a time. Likely to take apart and rebuild sets, or likely to resell sets after building them once.
- Freestyle Builders – Usually start building with little or no idea about what they will create.
- Creative Builders – Enjoy coming up with their own ideas and then finding the pieces to make their vision a reality.
You should also be honest about how much time, money, and space you are willing to spend on housing your bricks. Keeping these things in mind, consider which of these four sorting methods would work best for you.
Method #1: Sort By Set
Pros
- Easy to rebuild sets from instructions
- Easiest if you plan to resell whole sets
Cons
- Discourages freestyle and creative building
- Hard to resort after freestyle or creative building
Supplies:
- One gallon kitchen storage bags
- Empty basket or drawer
- Permanent marker (optional)
Instructions:
- Place each disassembled set with its instruction book in its own storage bag.
- Optional: Use the permanent marker to write the set number in the upper righthand corner of the bag, just in case the instruction book becomes separated from the bag.
- Store the bags together in a basket or drawer.
Method #2: (Mostly) Don’t Sort
Pros
- Easiest to maintain
- Encourages freestyle play
- Small storage footprint relative to collection size
Cons
- Can make creative building harder – builder must have firsthand knowledge of what the collection contains. Looking for the smallest pieces will be difficult.
- Rebuilding to instructions the most difficult, especially in large collections
Supplies:
- Container with tall sides (6″ or more) to hold your instruction books and baseplates
- Two or more small containers to hold the rest of your collection**
Instructions:
- Place all of your instruction books and large baseplates (16 x 16 studs or larger) in a tall-sided container.
- Optional: Give each builder a “favorite” pieces container to store their go-to pieces
- Divide the rest of your pieces randomly across the other small containers.
**For more information about recommended containers, see my post about living peacefully with Lego.
Method #3: Sort By Color
Pros
- No special knowledge of Lego pieces needed to sort
- Supports creative building, especially where the vision includes specific colors
- May reduce frustration for builders with Color Vision Deficiency (“color blindness”)
- Looks attractive, even to non-builders
Cons
- Some limits on freestyle building
- Tiny pieces may still be difficult to find
- Some first-hand knowledge of collection useful for creative builders
- May increase storage footprint
Supplies:
- Container(s) with tall sides (6″ or more) to hold your instruction books and baseplates
- Five or more small containers to hold the rest of your collection**
Instructions:
- Place all of your instruction books and large baseplates (16 x 16 studs or larger) in a tall-sided container.
- Place all of your minifigs in one of the small containers.
- Divide the rest of your pieces into four color families, one per container: translucent and metallic pieces; warm colors (reds/pinks, oranges, yellows); cool colors (greens, blues, purples); neutral colors (white, black, browns, greys). Once a color family outgrows a single container, add another small container and further subdivide that family.
**For more information about recommended containers, see my post about living peacefully with Lego.
Method #4: Sort By Type
Pros
- Supports advanced creative building
- Facilitates rebuilding sets from instructions
Cons
- May frustrate freestyle builders
- Hardest to maintain
- May eventually need to buy pricey storage containers
- Eventually requires the largest storage footprint
Supplies:
- Container(s) with tall sides (6″ or more) to hold your instruction books and baseplates
- Five or more small containers to hold the rest of your collection**
- Optional: One or more storage drawer units designed for small hardware parts or craft supplies
Instructions:
1. Place all of your instruction books and large baseplates (16 x 16 studs or larger) together. Store these vertically in a tall-sided container.
2. Place all of your basic bricks in one small container.
Need more than one small container for bricks? Consider sorting within this type by color.
3. Place all of your nouns in one small container.
By “nouns”, I mean anything that clearly represents a real life object in miniature: minifigs and their accessories, animals, plants, rocks, windows, doors, fences, food, wheels, chairs, weapons, etc.
Need more than one small container for nouns? Consider sorting by subtype within this category. For example, perhaps all minifigs or car parts get their own container now.
4. Place all of your plates in one small container.
Need more than one small container for plates? Consider sorting by size, shape, and/or color within this category. For example, perhaps all the non-rectangular plates get their own container now.
5. Place all of your tiles in one small container.
Tile potpourri getting annoying? Consider purchasing a unit of small drawers and further dividing your tiles by shape and/or color.
6. Place your other pieces in your last small container.
Need more than one small container for other? Or annoyed by the other potpourri? Consider purchasing a unit of small drawers and further dividing these pieces by type and/or color.
**For more information about recommended containers, see my post about living peacefully with Lego.
If you find yourself to know even more about sorting by type, I highly recommend Tom Alphin’s amazing Lego Storage Guide and Lego Brick Labels!
Sorting Tips
If you choose anything other than “unsorted” for your collection, these suggestions will make the job easier.
1. Have a dedicated drop box for “to be sorted” pieces.
To help with maintenance, keep a dedicated open container in your storage area for “to be sorted” pieces. Sometimes you will be in a rush to clean up and not have time to put everything back. Just be sure to take care of these pieces before the drop box overflows!
2. Disassemble before sorting.
Sorting takes a surprising amount of focus. Constantly switching between disassembling and sorting will tax your brain and your patience. As you take a creation apart, just let the loose pieces drop into a box or tray in front of you. (I usually do this while watching TV or listening to an audiobook.) If you’re sorting by set, go ahead and bag each set’s pieces before starting on the next one. Otherwise, just keep letting your pile of unsorted pieces grow while you disassemble everything.
3. Sort from a single layer.
After your pieces are disassembled, take a scoop of unsorted pieces and spread them out on a flat surface. I recommend a table or desk where you can sit comfortably while you work. Once the table is clear, take a break or spread out another scoop for sorting.
4. Find one category at a time.
To reduce decision fatigue, look for one category at a time, rather than assessing pieces in a random order. Start with whatever category catches your eye. Working from left to right, pickup pieces from the current category and drop them in an open container in front of you. Once that category is done, pick up an empty open container and start on another category.
5. Don’t sweat pieces that could fit in more than one category.
Especially when sorting by type, you will find lots of pieces that could fit in two categories. Is this $100 bill a noun or a tile? Is this brick with a hole in it a brick or an other? What about this piece that is part tile, part plate? While sorting, just make a gut decision and don’t second guess yourself. When building, you will at least know that your $100 bill pieces are in one of two places, which is still a lot easier to find than when they were unsorted!
6. Sort first. Buy containers later.
Use whatever you have on hand for your initial sort. Empty shipping boxes, leftover kitchen containers, bowls, or random bins. You might discover you already have exactly what you need. If not, at least you will have an accurate understanding of the size and quantity of containers to purchase.
Kaloumi Small Home Organizing is based in Edgewater, Chicago. If you live in Chicago or in the near north suburbs and would like my help in person, please contact me today!
One thought on “How to Sort Your Lego Collection”
Comments are closed.