First-stage sort of all the parts from all 14 of the Friends sets. In January I did a review of each of the sets in 14 days called “Fortnight of Friends” and these are the parts after dissassembling all the sets.
This first pass uses a bunch of my sorting bins to divide the parts into the following major categories. Each one will require its own second-stage sort (and perhaps in some cases, a third) before the parts reach their final resting place. These categories are totally arbitrary and seat-of-the-pants, and though they do roughly correlate to how I store the parts, really anything that reduces entropy is helpful.
Left column:
- Slopes, curved slopes, and anything that has a curved upper surface
- Animals
- Tiles
- Cylindrical parts and anything that has a curved side
- SNOT pieces and Technic parts
- Modified plates
- Wheels, fenders, and other car parts
- Small parts (1×1 rounds, jumper plates, grille tiles, Henrik/cheese slopes, etc.)
- Transparent parts
- Bars, antennae, flags, and controls
Middle column:
- Panels
- Printed parts and modified bricks (grille bricks, log bricks, bricks with clips on them, etc.)
- Fences
- Minifig accessories, including the new flowers (which should probably go under foliage) and bugs (which should probably go under animals)
- Foliage (plant parts and old style flowers)
- Minifig and minidoll body parts
Right column:
- Bricks
- Large parts (tall bricks, windows, doors, large detail parts, etc.)
- Plates
Now that I’ve finished the initial sort, I need to process these further.
I’m having trouble deciding how to integrate these into my collection. For bricks, plates, and tiles, I sort by color and then within the bin for each color I have Ziploc bags for each size, so I can put the new colors into their own little mini-categories, probably just one bag for each color… But for the other parts, I generally sort by type, and I’m worried the exotic rare colors will get lost among the ordinary ones… so should I mix them with the other colors and maybe never see them again? Or should I put all the purple pieces together regardless of shape?
This is a problem I’ve been facing for some time and I keep going back and forth on how to deal with it. Any new ideas out there?
Maybe just use a large bead/floss box or caddy to keep the purple pieces separate but still sorted? And put a big label on the side saying PURPLE LEGOS, so you don’t forget =) Here are some examples:
http://folkandwhimsy.com/craftsupplies.htm
http://www.acmoore.com/p-24784-floss-caddy-17-compartment-7×10-12×1-12.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Plastic-Storage-Container-Locking/dp/B000RB3XOM
Yes, I think of those as tackle boxes but I’m familiar with the type. I prefer the Stanley hardware organizers though:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005QWYF/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bilwarsbri-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00005QWYF
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G1CUK0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bilwarsbri-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001G1CUK0
The problem is when does a color get “big” enough to be treated as a normal color? The new pastels are obvious but what about orange? Dark purple? Dark blue?
I recently tried these out:
http://www.toolsnworkwear.com/store/product/1/W54018/Performance-W54018-Portable-30compartment-Organizer.html
It’s nice because you can see and access everything at once without taking up too much desk space. It’d be good to keep you colour together without lumping together all of the different pieces.
That’s not a bad idea but I am not sure the tilting bins are very efficient – too much volume is lost in order to allow them to move the way they do.