Get your Lego
bricks sorted
Building stuff with Lego bricks is great. But as a collection of bricks grows it can take longer and longer to find the pieces you want. Extra time spent searching for pieces can drain away some of the fun of building.
So: how to make pieces more findable? Our suggested solution is set out below.
For an independent review of the SquirrelUp system take a look at Huw Millington’s article on Brickset.
1. Get some storage
To keep a collection sensibly organised you’ll need some containers. For a 13kg collection of Lego bricks We’re using 35 SquirrelUp boxes along with three 18 litre plastic boxes/drawers (we only sell the SqurrelUp boxes).
Most Lego bricks (or ‘elements’) are quite small, weighing about one gram. SquirrelUp boxes are great for sorting these pieces into.
A few Lego elements are much larger and we’re using one larger drawer for train track and another for mixed large pieces. The third large drawer is for unsorted pieces. This unsorted box provides a means to clear the table of bricks quickly without having to sort them.
Our collection could fit in fewer containers but we find it’s best to fill containers no more than ⅔ full to allow space for rummaging around without spilling bricks.
2. Organise bricks into families
A collection can be organised into families of elements, each family defined in a way that makes sense to the user. As a collection grows and containers start to get full, element families can be divided into more specifically defined groups. With their 1.6 litre capacity, SquirrelUp boxes are ideal for holding Lego brick families.
Our Lego ‘families’ are based on piece shape and we’ve labelled each box with a picture showing a Lego element that represents the pieces in the box in a way that makes sense to us.
For our labels we’ve used images from a database of Lego elements available at Brickset and Lego. Another great source for labels is Tom Alphin at Brick Architect.
3. Keep things organised
If you’re organising a Lego collection for a child you may find that keeping things sorted isn’t their top priority! We’ve found formalising a time to tidy the Lego area and sort pieces from the unsorted box as a regular ‘chore’ basically works. Helping your child with this chore can be surprisingly relaxing and rewarding. It’s definitely feels worth the effort when, later, you can easily find the pieces you need.
Further Reading
Brickset carries a collection of articles on how its members store their Lego bricks. VAEllen22 on his family collection is the pick of the bunch for me.
The Lego Storage Guide by Tom Alphin, author of The Lego Architect - An 8 chapter detailed guide!