Sorting Them Bricks Part 1

Last weekend, I went to my parent's house in Manila to retrieve my old stash of bricks. I've always known that I still have a crate full of bricks back at home. The only problem is, I didn't have the time to clean and sort them. Since I started the blog, I've been thinking of ways to augment my current inventory so I could seriously get into MOCing. This motivated me into finally going through the excruciating task of sorting through my dusty collection.

The Stash. Contains pieces from Fabuland, old Lego City, Futuron, Space Police, Ninjago, TMNT, Sponge Bob and many more.

My current storage solution just consists of old plastic wares I stole from our kitchen. I'm still at the point of determining my actual storage needs so I have to put buying parts bins on hold though I've already scouted several department and hardware stores just to get an idea on what's available locally. Also, funds. Still working on that as well.

My make-shift parts bin containers. Hoping to upgrade into something more professional in the near future. 

It took me a total of four (4), three to five hour sessions to complete the task. The pieces in my collection is so diverse that I found it hard to choose which sorting scheme to use. To make things simple and to get something done immediately, I decided to group the pieces by color or shade. I tried doing a monochromatic scheme but figured this won't do since I ran short of containers to put each color in. Also, I realized that there will be more sorting sessions moving forward since I'm actually convinced to use a brick-type scheme. This seems to be the best approach given the current diversity and volume of my bricks.

DAY 1: Started with a one-color per bin rule but soon ran out of containers. Ended up putting bricks of the same shade in one bin.

DAY 2: Blacks, grays and browns seem to be dominating my brick collection. Surprised that there are plentyof oranges as well.

DAY 3: Had to look for additional containers.

I finished sorting through the bricks on the fourth day. One concern I encountered during the entire exercise is deciding on what to do with damaged and faded bricks. These are still usable but definitely have gone through a lot of abuse. For now, I kept them in a separate container just in case.

DAY 4: Sorted and ready for use!

Aside from the main bricks, there were also some pieces that had to already be sorted by brick type as seen below.

Chairs, plates, wheels, horses, flora.

Small parts, printed pieces, connectors. 

Tiles, essential pieces for adding details to your creations.

Sorting really is a bitch. It's a very exhausting ordeal that every AFOL must go through. Despite that, it's definitely rewarding since it gave me an easier time looking for the bricks that I need. My current sorting and storage system is adequate but definitely not efficient. Will have to revisit this again in the near future as soon as I obtain the storage solution that's perfect for my needs.