sorting

[Ben the lego king]

I am sourting my legos and I don't know what to sourt by, colors or diferent parts like technic, bricks, minifigs, plates (not bace plates.)

*as listed above

[Aliencat]

I sourt by color and defernt types of parts.

[Richie]

I mainly sourt by color. Special parts and small pieces are sourt by type

[Sir Dano]

This poll is flawed, where is the "I leave it in a big pile in the middle of the floor" option?

[Lord Felix]

when I sorted (I now have piles of legos everywhere, making building take much longer then it should), i sorted by color. Then I realized how hard it was to see what exactly the part was when it was mixed in with a lot of the same color, especially black pieces.

[Donut]

I sort mainly by color, this may sound weird, but I find enjoyment in looking for pieces in the bins.

[Ye Olde Republic]

I pretty much sort using the bricklink catalogue categories.

Trevor

[Mudpuppy]

I pretty much sort using the bricklink catalogue categories.

Trevor

That's a lot of organzing space...!

I'm sorting right now and I'm just splitting into groups of major color. Too much more than that... and I think I would go batty!

[KarenJ]

I sort by parts, not color. I may have said this before, but my recurring nightmare is sorting black parts on a black tray in a dimly lit room.

Sorting by part is much more logical. It is so much easier to find a 1 x 1 flat, whatever color you choose, when the 1 x 1 flats are all in the same place. If those 1 x 1's are all mixed in with bricks, handles, jumpers, hinges, bricks, etc... it's a lot harder to find a tiny little 1x1.

[Ye Olde Republic]

I pretty much sort using the bricklink catalogue categories.

Trevor

That's a lot of organzing space...!

I'm sorting right now and I'm just splitting into groups of major color. Too much more than that... and I think I would go batty!

I have a very diverse collection.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_republ ... 070852568/

Trevor

[Danarchy]

I miss the button "I just spend days trying to find a special piece because I don't sort" (due to lack of room)

Colour and special parts would be my idea, if I would have room

[Peppermint Pig]

In our house...

Basic brick: Separate brick from plate, sort by color. Uncommon brick colors stay together. Unusually large brick plates are separated. Plates get sorted further by 1x vs other types, with common colors separated and uncommon colors kept together, sometimes subdivided based on hue. 2x common colors are bundled together, such as Blue/Yellow and Red/White, while Black and less common colors tend to have their own separate storage. 4x plates are mostly sorted by commons vs uncommon colors. 6+x is sorted the same way. Very uncommon colors stay together in their respective size category. Black plates in general are segregated from everything else.

The more complex the geometry, the more likely it is categorized by shape (with an exception to slopes, which are stored by color) and then sorted mostly by type, but any item in large quantities gets split off by color. Short of that, common colors tend to be merged together.

Arches are sorted by black, grays, whites+colors. Subdivisions for arches based on usefulness (tan arches).

Old and new grays/brown are kept separate in 90% of all cases. Less likely with Technic parts since the focus is function over form/style/color.

Bionicle is organized based on function (feet, ball joint elements, weapons, torso elements, masks, armor/fairing/shoulder pads, etc), with large quantities getting their own bags.

Tile itself is sorted by color, with some less common colors merged for convenience.

Decorated bricks and tiles are kept separate. Decorated tiles remain unsorted. Decorated bricks and slopes are grouped together, while decorated panels tend to be segregated in the 'panels department'.

Small elements such as modified plates are sorted by type, with a strong bias towards further sorting by color.

Minifig elements are thoroughly sorted. Torsos are sorted by theme and/or 'usefulness' in castle. Torsos in town are sorted by profession and bagged together. Heads mostly sorted by individual type.

Pants are sorted by Solids (Black, Red/White/Blue, Grays, Uncommons), 2+ Color (legs differ from the abdomen/belt color), subdivided grays and colors. Dresses are separated. Short legs are separated. Peg legs, mermaid tails, and other oddities are kept together.

Plants are sorted by type if not kind.

Animals sorted mostly by type. Dinosaur/dragon elements may be sorted by type, but whole creatures are sorted by kind.

Cockpit windows are sorted by type, then color if necessary.

Doors and windows sorted by type.

Everything else is likely sorted by type.

There's more, but I should stop.

[Blueandwhite]

I think that once a builder has amassed a large collection sorting by both colour and type becomes necessary. I couldn't function by sorting by either shape or colour alone. I would go completely nuts !

[lord azreal]

Id love to be able to organize by type and colour but there would be so many peices wit their owncatagories it would seem pointless and a lot of work, curently I organize by colour

[Brickzone]

I sort by parts, but separated into colours where there are larger amounts in a category. E.g. modified 1x2 plates I mostly have mixed together, but black ones have their own compartment, and since getting an extra bag of dark bley and dark red jumpers, I have one compartment for those two combined also.

I also keep the categories as broad as possible, and only separate further to avoid having to store too much together, or to keep small parts out separately for easier access.

I have smaller parts in smaller compartments, and larger parts in larger ones. I have inbetween boxes for smaller amounts of larger parts, or larger amounts of smaller parts (e.g. a tub of modified bricks bigger than 1x1, mostly 1x2s).