Sorting Bricks - Scott Sanburn Style

For many AFOL's (Adult Fan of Lego's), sorting is an important part of the building process. For me, it was an evolutionary process. First, when I was young, it was one large plastic bin. I used this for awhile, and then I bought my first chest of drawers at Sears. From there, I went to plastic storage "shoe" containers, sorting by color. I had that from 1986-1994. I bought a few more drawers, and put special pieces into it. From 1994 to 1998, I bought one or two more 60 drawer holders, and put more pieces in there.

Then, in August of 1998, I moved into my own place. There, I set up, in my humble opinion, a really good way of sorting bricks to be the most efficient at building. I sort it by the brick itself, color for BASIC bricks, and just by the shape for the specialized pieces. It took me a few weeks to set this up, but it has reduced my building time by half, not looking for pieces. Anyway, here is what I do, click on the pictures to see a larger version.

	OK, here is the start of the sorting process, the usual pile of bricks. Now since I seem to buy a lot more than jus this nowadays, it seems small, but the process is the same.
	OK, here is stage 1 of the sorting. I usually sort between the BASIC Bricks and plates, and all the other parts, which I consider specialized parts. T
	Here is a further shot, where I sort out by color of the BASIC Bricks and Plates. Stage 2.
	Here is stage 3, where I separate by element and color of each of the bricks and plates. They are ready now for placement in various locations.
	Here is stage 4, where I put the bricks in the various drawers, and I put the plates in the SNAP-ON type bins.
	Stage 5 is for putting everything else away. This is the longest part of the process, since there are so many categories.
	Here is a close up shot of the cylindrical parts. You can tell I grouped by size, not by color and size. I will change this eventually.
	Here is a shot of the plates. This will also change eventually, mostly due to quantity. : )
	Here is an interesting shot, you can see me sorting out some BASIC bricks I have in this Meijer shelf thing I bought for 5.00. You can see the TV in the background, as sorting bricks is not too demanding. I did get some stuff sorted, but my last full sort was back in fall of 1998!

	This is my current system here, I have a starting box, where I put the parts in. I usually do a few bags at a time. If I put too many parts in, it seems to go slower.
	Here is my current system, I have my sorting box here, and I have several of the Meijer food containers that hold various items, such as colors of BASIC Bricks, plates, etc. I try to get it broke down into about 20 or so categories for easier sorting.
	Here is a the other side of that box. These are more for specialized parts on this side, such as tiles, decorated elements, minifigs and accessories.
	OK, when the bins are full of their respective items, they are stacked as so before I put them into the various bins. You have to be careful, as I have had a few accidents with this!
	Here is a shot of the special category bins, I stack them up when they are filled. This process takes awhile as you can imagine.
	Here is a shot of the BASIC Brick bins, they are by color.
	Here is a shot of the tan bricks. Umm.... tan.......
	Here is a shot of the various categories. This is the minifig bin. The minifigs I do not want to keep together I put the parts in here. Otherwise, I put them in a separate container.
	This is a shot of the TECHNIC bin. As you can see, I have one full already, and it keeps filling up!
	No, I did not buy a lot of the Addidas Soccer Bus set. Why do you ask?