Please help me categorise our lego!

[anxietrist]

So far I've got:

Large flat pieces
Body parts
Regular bricks
Vehicle bricks
Tiny pieces
Random pieces

I want to decide on the categories before I buy the storage so I know how many drawers/boxes I need!

Just get a couple of under bed storage boxes that can be rifled through, and a few shelves for creations and minifigs, and use your time doing something else worthwhile or frivolous.

But shove the boxes and instruction booklets in the loft for when the teenagers want to assemble it to eBay it.

I tried this as a teen. Didn't work. People bits in one pot. Electric bits in another. Everything else together.

If you are going to, why do people do it by colour?
If I need a hinge which is 2 upright studs on one side and 4 downwards studs on the other, I want a box of hinges.
I don't want to sort through the black box, the white box, the grey box. Then realise what I need was actually half red and half blue because they were the colours of the original model I got it in.

If you are going to do it I would suggest.
Traditional bricks.
Flat bricks the same as traditional bricks.
Flat bricks 3x3 or bigger.
Flat pieces without studs.
Slopes.
Windows and windshields.
Hinges and those bricks which provide right angles and bits which provide a movable link, (like towbars on a vehicle)
Wheels and axles
People.
Equipment people use/hold.
Small pieces.
(Perhaps separate the transparent small pieces)
The bits used for the undercarriages of planes and spaceships and their roofs, and nose pieces.
Large random bits.
The rest.

@anxietrist

So far I've got:

Large flat pieces
Body parts
Regular bricks
Vehicle bricks
Tiny pieces
Random pieces

I want to decide on the categories before I buy the storage so I know how many drawers/boxes I need!

Blocks Angles

You've got 6/8 of our drawers already.

It's mainly in a trunk but the smaller pieces filter down to the bottom and the DCs give up rummaging, so we have a drawer full of each type of piece to make it easier to pick particular pieces. It's a good mixture of both strategies.

I don't get the colour bit either, plus the pieces won't stand out. The DCs normally want function over style.

We had a Lego brick sorting sieve that was fun - a stack of boxes with different sized holes so the smallest bits fell through to the bottom, the biggest stayed on top, and a couple of medium sizes in between.

I know but my role is lego piece finder so organising it will actually give me more time to be worthwhile and frivolous

I just did this! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3943882-oh-my-that-was-sooo-satisfying

My classification -

Left, from bottom up:
Standard height blocks, minimum 2x2 or 1x4
All blocks smaller than 1x4
All thin blocks
Minifigures and their accessories

Right, from bottom up:
Wheels, wheel blocks, wheel arches (plus a couple of tubs of Bionicle and Knex hybrids)
Windows, doors, roof blocks and clear blocks of all sorts. The inverted 'roof' blocks are in there as well, but in a separate tub.
Large special bits that don't fit any other classification
Tiny and little special bits, like gems, up to 1x3 or 2x2

I think it's essential that the trays are not full, so that you can rummage easily. I could really have done with an extra couple of trays.

Another essential is that either your dc are old enough to keep it organised, or that you actually enjoy sorting and resorting!

We have a dozen drawers roughly that size, seven plastic tubs about the same size, a few smaller plastic tubs, two Actual Lego plastic tubs, two three-drawer tool boxes and four small-sectioned tool boxes (they're best for the little technics pieces).

I have no idea how most of it is organised because S1 dealt with that from the age of about 8.

My grownup harry potter lego lives in a display case. DS's lego goes in one of those big mat/drawstring bag things!

I really admire your Lego integrity OP.
I am a slaters and we just have a couple of those sacks that open up flat on the floor.
The dc sift through it and the noise drives me crazy but it’s low maintenance.

Slattern ffs, even my auto correct is lazy.

That will make it hard to build a random house out of multicolour random pieces until you have a weird gothic mansion with bits of a car sticking out of the East wing.

Or maybe I just don't know how to Lego like the kids these days

Having some sort of system definitely makes it easier to find what is needed. Our ds is very strickt if anyone puts the bricks into wrong compartment. Here we have:
Standard building pieces by colour except for:
Very large pieces
Wheels and accessories
Windows and doors
Connecting pieces
Small round pieces
Flat on top pieces, small and large separately
People
Accessories for people
Unusual items

People who organise by colour - why? Does it actually make anything easier to find?

It's easier for the DC to put away themselves in the correct box maybe I just have stupid kids even if it takes fractionally longer to look for the right piece when you want to build a set. It's also easier to see the difference between the different shades of colour if they're next to each other.

we sort by colour because we often build by colour - you want to build a WHITE house or a GREEN tree or a GREY castle. So then you can take just one colour box and have all the relevant pieces next to you.

However, we do have a LOT of lego. All my childhood lego (10 shoeboxes full) plus the same again that my kids have been given over 10 years. So that means there is enough in each colour to make a full model.

I categorised Lego once and once only - this is a foolproof system that lasted YEARS.

[clears throat]

You need one box for all the bits that feel like a salted razor when you tread on them, and one bo - no, wait, that's it.

😂 if all your Lego fits into one box, then no, you don't need to categorise it.

I think 4 is enough. Flat bits, bricks, people and specialist items (wheels, windows etc)

But really 1 big box of everything is what you're going to end up with after about a week.

@Fromage or skip the box and wear slippers

Here we go...