How to sort old LEGO...

Do you have a lot of LEGO to sort and don't know where to start? I'm trying out this system for sorting and storing our family lego bricks, and it involves finding pieces in different categories. The categories are for our Lego collection but you could adapt this to the kind of Lego sets that you have stored.

How my LEGO SORTING SYSTEM works... for me



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Do you have a big box of Lego, just like this, and you don’t know where to start? You know, maybe it’s your kids’ Lego, or maybe it’s your Lego—or both mixed together—and it just kind of ends up like this. It’s like a Mumbai mix.

And what happens is that it never gets used. This has been in the garage for over a year because it’s just... it’s just overwhelming. My wife mocks me for saying that Lego is overwhelming, but it is! The kids don’t know where to start with it; I don’t know where to start with it. Every attempt we’ve made to sort this or get it into some kind of usable state has eluded us—until now.

This is the channel where we try new things to make your family happy, and the thing I’m doing to make my family happy today is making the Lego usable again.

Have a look at this—I think I might have found a way to do it. The problem is that if you’re looking for something, there’s no easy way to rifle through. Well, you can, but it’s such an unpleasant experience. There must be some kind of basic sorting we can do that’s easy and makes us feel like we’re making headway. And also, it has to be simple enough that we don’t just give up after 10 minutes. I think I might have cracked it—or at least made a start with it.

What you’ll need for this method—and obviously, your Lego is going to be completely different from ours, but hopefully, this system will help you—is a way to find general groups so you can at least start separating your Lego and actually get started playing with it again.

The system is this: I bought some Ikea freezer bags. I know, I know, great for the environment, isn’t it? But anyway, I’m trying to make it less horrendous than it is. So, I’ve got these Ikea bags—the big ones, the huge ones—and I got some tape you can write on. It’s like paper tape, sort of like parcel tape. And I’ve got a Sharpie.

Now, I’ve got a 20 kg box of Lego. I actually weighed myself on the scales, which is always a fun experience, but I know for a fact this box came out at 20 kg. So, we’re just going to start with the main box and work on weeding it down. I want to pull out 20 kg of Lego!

I’ve just seen this—I’m an ADHD dad, by the way, so this is overwhelming. My wife is right to mock me for it; my brain just explodes at the thought of even starting on this. But I’m already spotting stuff we can use. By the way, this is from the Galaxy Explorer—the classic 1979 Galaxy Explorer—which is in pieces in here somewhere. I know it’s worth a lot of money, and there’s also sentimental value there. These pieces were so precious back when Galaxy Explorer came out. If I can at least harvest some of these, I might be able to sell them on eBay or do something that honours them. If it doesn’t bring us joy, we can let go of it. But let’s at least pull out the stuff that could be used again.

So, here’s the system. Come over here. I’ve got the bags, and I’ve labelled them. The labels tally with a very basic breakdown of ways to sort Lego. This is just a big sort. I suppose we could get more finickity once this first sort is done, but at least you’ve got a fighting chance of finding something—or using something—or selling something online.

This is my system so far. Tell me in the comments how you would change this. What I’ve got at the moment are the 1x2x3 bricks, which are actually sticks, aren’t they? I should’ve called them sticks, but anyway, the 1x2x3 bricks—I’ve even got the L-shaped threes in there.

Then we have sticks—the 1x however long they are. Then there are bricks, the classic brick. I thought this would be the biggest bag, but looking at the potpourri—the Bombay mix of Lego we’ve got—I’m not sure there are that many bricks in there. I’ve got a funny feeling we might’ve filtered them out on a previous attempt.

Then we’ve got slopes—those strange pieces—and I’ve got loads of these from the 1970s. Then we have 1, 2, 3 plates—like the 1, 2, 3 bricks, just the small flat ones. Then there are stick plates. I don’t know if I’m using the right terms. If you use different terms, let me know in the comments.

This is just something I can remember as I go along while trying to get the family involved. Then we’ve got the 2x plates, which aren’t sticks but are wider plates. We also have tiles, anything shiny and flat. I’ve put a selection of different tiles here as a visual aid to help with sorting.

For older Lego, we’ve got a 1970s Lego bag. Look at this vile stuff in here! Tell me if I’m wrong, but I assume there’s still demand for it—things like old windows, grabbers, and wheels. It’s fascinating, really.

I’ve also created categories for weird stuff, arches, screens and seats, train parts, Technics, minifigs, wheels, and clutches (things that grip or click). The idea is to just get started and feel like we’re making progress.

Let me know if this system helps you. Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button—it really helps me keep this channel going. And right here is what YouTube knows you’re going to love watching next. Oh God, I don’t know where to start!

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