How to store smaller parts of Lego

WESTIEKaTH

Looking for advice here all you lovely people. Just wondering just how do you all store all the small parts of Lego. I am fine with the minifig parts and accessories its the smaller Lego brick parts etc I am struggling with. It takes me ages to find parts for orders when they come in. I started to buy compartment boxes but that's not much use tbh.
I did think of evicting my daughter so I could use her bedroom but don't think that would go down well
Any advice would be appreciated.

Brikomania

I put them in small zip loc bags in bigger containers, denominated by a remark, so I know where they are.

leopard37

Stack ons

Jay37

Likewise, I keep them in ziplocks. Depending on quantity I will have two; one for 1x1 pieces (and vague equivalents) and a separate for 1x2s and these are then kept with the larger pieces of that particular colour. Still doesn't mean I'm going to find them any quicker!

Oldfan

If necessary, label each bag/box/storage location with a unique ID and keep a separate spreadsheet-list of all the location ID's and what they contain that you can reference. It's worked well for me over the years to keep track of what I have stored in all those boxes in the basement...

Aladine

My best way: over a year I kept all empty chocolate powder boxes (size 7x14 cm and 20 cm high) to put small ziplock baggies in. These boxes can be labelled easily outside (on the small side) and are stored side by side on a bookshelf (just the right size for a bookshelf)

Brick-Cat

I use those raaco storage drawer cabinets or similar when on offer. wilko compartment organisers are ok too,but as with any storage system it’s a work in progress as more and varied parts are acquired.
Label and label some more,then when you’re done labelling, label a bit more ?

WESTIEKaTH

Thank you all - some great ideas there - much appreciated.

Calibrick

I have a mix due to the sheer volume of stuff I have (my first six months, I was able to fit all of it in a closet). I always put the location in my private comments for each listing so it's right there when I pull orders. :-)

1. My small parts are in Akro-Mils storage bins with dividers; each bin has an assigned number, e.g., A1-1 is storage bin 1, row 1, column 1.

2. My TEENY parts, such as 1x1 round plates, technic pins, etc. are in compartment boxes (think bead boxes with dividers). Those have a similar principal nomenclature, e.g., CASE TWO 2-1. I then store these out of the way on the wall using (yeah, it's weird, but it works!) a wall-mount sneaker display. They're easy to get, they're cheap, and it actually looks oddly different. I like different.

3. I found minifigs were taking up WAY too much bin space, sooo I did a bit of an odd thing: I bought wall-mount "rods" (basically a rod that sticks out of the wall that you can hang things on) for $6 on Amazon, then bought reusable thick plastic bags (like 12x12") with built-in hangers and self-sealing. Each one holds a stack of minifigs - I number those similar principal, but it's more like BAG 1, BAG 2...

4. Lastly, I caved and bought two industrial racks that hold bins last year for all my 2x2 on up plates, bricks, and larger pieces like bionicle, baseplates, engines, larger wheels, tires, etc. and took over the spare bedroom. They're a godsend and worthy every stupid penny they cost - halved my order-pulling time, and my time is super-valuable to me. :-) And since I could write it off as an expense on my taxes... :-)

WESTIEKaTH

Thanks Calibrick - some good tips there too. That is my problem, as I purchase more items I am just running out of room (although I have no where near the stock you have). I have threatened my daughter that unless she keeps her "make up" room (small room which she has taken over as her dressing room) tidy then, they will all be in black bags and my Lego would be in there !!
It is the small items I am finding hard to cope with - find the compartment boxes good but then they start to overflow lol. Think I am just going to have to build an extension on my extension - wonder if my husband will agree ………….

brickadoon

Hi Westiekath,

I use a mixture of Marko Tools drawers (search Amazon...) and ALDI storage units for the small stuff, and iPad boxes for bigger stuff.

Anything with a large quantity goes into some plastic multi-drawer cabinets I bought from ASDA. I have a couple of large boxes I use for REALLY big stuff (baseplates, airplane wings etc) and instructions/stickers.

We experimented with bead boxes for the really small stuff, but they're a bit fiddly to get stuff out of.

Like Calibrick, I use the Private comments field as a 'stock location'.

See attached photos of our spare room

Rich

WESTIEKaTH

Wow brickadoon - that's amazing - so well organised
I too found the bead boxes handy but fiddly to get items out so I bought a pair of eyebrow pluckers and I have to say they work a treat!!
Thanks for your advice though - certainly good tips again.

Wild Bricks

We have found that the fewer bags you have to open the faster you can go at putting away and pulling orders. The white cardboard bins started out as category storage (ie, all 1x8 plates in a zip top bag w/the colors inside their own bags), but have decided that is taking too much time. We have recently purchased another store's inventory and storage so as we integrate their stock we are changing it up and trying to randomize it as much as possible so there is only 1 layer of bags to open.

When we first started growing out of our $1 shoe box storage containers we did a lot of research on what type of containers would be best. We settled on the AkroMills containers, but as we add the bead/thread boxes from the other store I am finding that they hold much more of the small items and are much easier to get in and out of than we had originally thought they would.

We have found that the Sterilite stackable drawers are the easiest for large qty items. You can buy 2 5-drawer units for around $44 dollars. We popped them apart and rearranged them so that all the small drawers are together and the large are together. As you can see we have tried just about everything and have decided that no 1 type of storage would be the answer.

WESTIEKaTH

Wild Bricks - that is amazing. It must have taken you ages to sort all those items. Amazing!!! I take far too long to sort and add my items to my inventory - I am so disorganised - I try but with the lack of storage I find it difficult but I muddle through