LEGO Storage Podcast — Brick Architect × AFOLs Welcome
My latest thinking on strategies to organize, sort and store LEGO collections – on a podcast!
Last week, I participated in an in-depth discussion with brothers Grinch and West on their weekly conversational LEGO podcast AFOLs Welcome. The focus of our discussion was exploring strategies to organize, sort, and store your LEGO collection.
Listen to the episode on:
You can also watch us talk by viewing the episode on YouTube. (I even cleaned my LEGO room to have a less distracting background!)
AFOLs Welcome Episode 45 – The Brick Architect – Sorting and Storing LEGO.
While I encourage you to listen to our whole conversation, you can use these links to jump to a specific topic…
- 25:47 – Introduction – About Tom Alphin
- 32:10 – Making ‘The LEGO Architect’ book
- 35:41 – Making ‘The LEGO Storage Guide’
- 39:23 – LEGO Parts Guide / Most Common LEGO Parts
- 43:11 – My Goal: Creating resources for LEGO Builders
- 48:39 – Creative constraints of the LEGO System
- 50:12 – Favorite Theme / Set
- 52:55 – Expanding on my book in the future
- 59:37 – Sorting Strategies – Part, Color, Element
- 1:03:50 – How my sorting strategy has evolved
- 1:07:15 – Storing Air
- 1:10:01 – Increasing number of unique parts (and labels)
- 1:12:17 – Importance of a Hierarchal system
- 1:13:23 – Creating succinct part names for Labels
- 1:21:10 – BrickLink vs Brick Architect Hierarchy
- 1:24:45 – Storage recommendations for all ages
- 1:30:22 – When to stop sorting?
- 1:33:23 – Minifigs and Instructions
- 1:37:27 – Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoy listening to our discussions! As always, if you have any questions please leave a comment here or in your favorite podcast app — Thanks!
I finally got time to watch the full interview. Great from start to finish! I learned a lot from it, but the biggest impact was the “storing air” concept. Quite a wake-up call for me, but it’ll still be a struggle with my inner OCD self. Actually I do have several levels of sorting now, I sort my “main” parts in painstaking detail, less so for “special” parts (translucent, printed, stickered) and even coarser for the retired colors (old l. gray, old d. gray, old brown) that I separate out because they are so hard to eyeball in a mixed bin. Blessed to have a ton of space for my collection, but it’s never enough!
I’m glad to hear that the conversation was a good listen, and that you took away a powerful concept that you can apply with your own storage solution.
Did anything else stick out for you as interesting? Alternately, did you have any follow-up questions after hearing our conversation? I’m always eager to find out gaps in my own thinking or communications about this topic!