What is the state of your collection?

[HeartOfDarkness]

To clarify: how do you keep your collection organized? Do you have the whole thing in a couple of tubs, or do you keep it strictly seperated by category? Is it displayed on shelves, or is the whole thing spread out on your bedroom floor, with various bulk bricks and assembled sets randomly spread out in an enormous mess like mine (Last time I let a posse of three-year-olds in my room unattended :evil: )?

[Athos]

What is the state of your collection?

Unmitigated disaster. Spread across two states...

I really need to organize it all in one central location.

Steve

[Dr. J]

I have 4 white tubs.


One is used for plain bricks. Any color.

One is used for sloped and curved bricks of any kind.

Another is used for plates.

One more is used for "transportation and house" parts.


Then I have 3 official LEGO tubs.
One is used for all things Technic
One is used for oversize, or large parts (Castle walls, boat hulls, etc).
The last is used for base-plates of any kind

Then I use the 5477 Classic House Building "jar" to put base-bricks in.

And one more little set of drawers in which I put random small parts in specific drawers that I oftenly need, and don't have time to search through all the other tubs for.

That's about it... I may post pictures soon.

[ottoatm]

I'm sure this has been done before, but I don't mind answering it, I guess... I collect sets, so as sets they are stored... either in boxes or baggies, all in big plastic tubs in a dry place that doesn't get too hot or cold, and is out of the sun... Sometimes I wonder if I go overboard with storing/protecting these little bricks.

[Spongey]

I usually kept the sets on display...on my floor. Spare pieces were just jumbled around. Now, I'm in the process of tearing apart sets (except for the Black Seas Barracuda-too perfect), and sorting the pieces into bags. However, this isn't working for me, and I'll use the first couple of weeks of summer vacation to sort the pieces more definitively. Likely, I'll have small tubs strictly for certain pieces that I have a lot of, and small medicine, plastic, and other boxes to keep smaller pieces in. Although bags are probably inevitable for something, I prefer boxes for their convenience and uniformity.

[leaf_of_lire]

Two things: Lots of boxes and a plastic container thing. Just organize them by color and put special bricks in the plastic container. I keep my sets on tables and shelves though.

[Legendary_Corsair]

I have shelfs and tables for the sets I don't want to destroy(sets) and I have a long table for a workshop area,where I keep pieces in color/piece order.and some plastic bags and boxes for larger items.

[Ser Loktar]

It seems all of us have to get off our butts this summer and organize some lego. I myself have 2 floors full of my Xmas gift and that's comparatively clean.
I use the cool tubs with 3 compartments a 16 x 32 will slide into for my basic brick. I lucked out and got about a half dozen of these babies (full) for Xmas. (I'd say they're the best for uniformed stacking) All 1 x 2's, 2x 2's, 2 x 3's, and 2 x 4's (as well as all 1 x 346810's etc.) are grouped into stacks 10 tall and layed sideways in the tubs, which are all different colors. My modest collection of unused dgrey and others not numerous enough to warrant a whole bin (like light and dbley) are all put into smaller, ununiformed tubs which sit in one corner. My minifig parts are kept in a freezer bag which is full of little baggies full of arms I'll use, arms I won't, yellow hands, colored hands, useful leg colors, useless leg colors, torsos I'll use, torsos I won't, and my heads are all kept in stacks of 10 and fill a sandwich bag at the bottom.
It's not perfect (as I don't have any floor space to walk or build) but I'm working on it.

Keep digging your way out of the pile,
Ser Loktar

[eNiGMa]

Most recent pictures:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=193350

Four office file boxes:
One for my 1x1's, 1xn plates, hinges, "auto and mechanic" pieces, doors, and corners.
One for my 1xn basic bricks (sorted by color) and my plates (sorted by color).
One for my slopes (sorted by color), columns, bricks larger than and equal to 8x8 studs, and plates longer than ten studs on any side.
One for all my baseplates larger than 16x16 studs.

Four large LEGO set boxes:
One for vegetation, textured bricks, round pieces, rods, tiles, windows, printed and decaled pieces, fences, and chairs.
One for wall pieces, fabric and paper pieces (boat sails, etc.), minifigs, animals smaller than horses, and minifig accessories.
One for baseplates 16x16 and smaller, bricks larger than sixteen studs on any side, and large animals (starting with horses).
One for "odd" pieces (railroad tracks, X-Pod containers, etc.).

Two plastic LEGO tubs:
One for basic bricks 2xn and above (sorted by color).
One for beams (bricks longer than 1x10), arches, and wheels.

And everything except the baseplates and odd pieces is sealed in Ziploc bags. The minifigs are sealed in a small plastic tub inside their larger box, too, with the heads sorted and sealed in Ziplocs.

Oh, the obsessive-compulsion of our hobby. What's sad is that I've planned to spend my summer organizing my collection into even smaller categories!

[DARKspawn]

My collection currently lies strewn, half sorted, across my LEGO room floor. Normally it is diligently sorted by colour & type into tubs, containers & zip lock bags. Might start resorting this weekend

[SavaTheAggie]

A tempest sea of plastic and dreams, swirling and crashing against the shores of reality, pulling in all around who would gaze upon its splendor and releasing only those strongly affixed to the world around it. Unobtainable, undeniable, undefinable, it defies categorization and any organization. It is, it was, and ever shall be.

--Tony

[Emp.Justinian]

I have one huge tub with just about every piece of lego I own. I have an old sorting box with some lego bits in it, but I havn't used it for years. Every weekend I tell myself that I am going to organise it, but low and behold it's still in a pile. Most of my minifigures and anything I am working on are in a pile nest to my bed. Still this is better than recentely when it was all stored in thre unsorted tubs at my grand parents house who live two and a half miles away.

God speed

Emp.Justinian

[Troy]

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=42912

[Bruce N H]

My collection is currently sorted. Here's a more complete description of how I sort that was written when my collection was about half as large.

Bruce

[Brickzone]

I have a counter full of made up sets, as well as a set of shelves, and some space sets sitting around the place on boxes (because A: they don't fit on the counter and b: they'd look out of place with the castle, vikings and pirates).

Beyond that my pre-dark ages lego is sorted into ziplock bags kept in a crate, and my more recent bulk lego in ziplock bags kept in a separate crate. My pre-dark ages lego needs serious cleaning, most of my recent lego needs dusting and/or light cleaning (I mean really, who knows where it has been or who's touched it - eugh).

The gargantuan task facing me is a tad oppressive, and I'm not helping it by continuing to add to my collection! I should really clean each new set as it arrives but I'm too busy

I can't really permanently sort out my lego or break up new sets till I clean the unclean stuff! I'm waiting and waiting for cheap clear plastic drawers; I got some units in Aldi (cheap German supermarket chain) at €6 each but two with three drawers each - hopefully such things appear again in the "weekly specials" that Aldi and Lidl (similar chain) have. The only similar storage I've found in proper shops is one place that has vaguely suitable hardware drawers, but at €23 a pop for four drawers.