How do you guys sort bulk buys?

[Madd]

I just bought my first  bulk lot.. So the wife and myself set at th kitchen table  sorting pieces from multiple sets... So how do you guys sort?

[Quacs]

I just bought my first bulk lot.. So the wife and myself set at th kitchen table sorting pieces from multiple sets... So how do you guys sort?

I like sorting roughly by type. It's relatively easy to pick out pieces when they are mixed with other colors.

Peeron and Bricklink both use good type categories to sort by (and I think they're the same). It also helps when you are trying to pick pieces for a set using Peeron since they list their pieces by type.

Among some of the more populous types (bricks, plates), I sort them by size as well.

Hope this helps-

[labfreak7]

I find that color works well too. If you break them up into bins by color, when you put them together it is easier to find the piece you need

[exciter1]

Here's a thread where some methods were discussed:

Pre-sorting vs One big pile

http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/4120-pre-sorting-vs-one-big-pile/page-2?hl=sorting#entry289032

[111ins]

color is ok to start but once you have 3000 black parts in a bin.... try finding 7x 1x2 inverted slopes

[Migration]

color is ok to start but once you have 3000 black parts in a bin.... try finding 7x 1x2 inverted slopes

This. I almost never sort by color.

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpickeraaaaaaaswssssswssa

[Jojoyojimbi]

if you're sorting to build sets what I do is print off the set inventories, then I take a gallon ziploc bag and staple to each page of the printed inventory, as I find a piece I cross it off of the bag's list and once the list is all found I put it into a box marked for that set and zip it up until I get all the bags/pages and build the sets,

[Ciglione]

I sort by kind of brick or element. The colors you can distinguish really easy. 

 

What I would like to know is what people here use for sorting. I use the little trasparent baskets from Ikea which you can close. But it makes searching pretty time consuming when you have more than 50 baskets. Also they always fall off the table when you stack too many.

[Madd]

I actually went to Walmart and picked up this.. So far so Good.. Works nice

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Food-Storage-Container-Set-with-Air-Tight-Lids-54-Piece/35003841

[Ciglione]

I would like to have a "pick a brick wall" in the basement of my new house. I will have to see how to build it.

[Madd]

I would like to have a "pick a brick wall" in the basement of my new house. I will have to see how to build it.

Hmmmmm.... Now you got me thinking.....

Something like this would work good i think

 

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Hmmmmm.... Now you got me thinking.....

Something like this would work good i think

 

 

I thought about these. They are nice, but expensive if you need a lot of different ones and time consuming.

[Ciglione]

I was thinking about buying some triplex panels. Make holes in the panels so these old fashioned plastic long-drink cups fit in. Put the cups in diagonally. Put the panels up the wall. Done! Fill them with sorted bricks!   

[Madd]

this is a cheaper option 30 usd

http://www.amazon.com/Stalwart-75-99641-Wall-Mounted-Parts/dp/B004C7RGW2/ref=sr_1_5?s=storageorganization&ie=UTF8&qid=1407098358&sr=1-5&keywords=garage+storage+bins

[Ciglione]

Awesome! I have to look where to find this in my area (Europe).

[tractorboy]

I sort roughly by size and type at the same time. It's a lot easier to sort the small parts when all the big ones are out of the way.

[CNH1974]

This seller is good if you are in the UK...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310898214653?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

He has different types to suit different needs.

[raynre]

Hi again. So I mentioned in another post that I bought my first bulk lego and am currently sorting through them by type. As I'm going through the pile, I'm adjusting the way I sort them to try and find the quickest and most efficient method.

 

For me, I spread out a section of the pile thin so i can see every piece. Then I start picking out the most common pieces and put them in there own separate piles (I have a big empty room). I'm only sorting by type so all the different colors go together.

The time consuming part for me is finding a few of the same pieces in one area, then moving them to their pile. Going back and forth between sorted piles and the bulk pile is where the most time seems to be spent. Esp as there are more and more piles, and if I don't remember where a certain type pile is, I'm wasting more time looking for it.

Sometimes I make smaller sorted piles next to the bulk and then move those smaller ones over to the main piles.

 

I'd love to hear what methods everyone else uses to get through their bulks. Thanks!

[jtayl230]

Hmmmmm.... Now you got me thinking.....

Something like this would work good i think

 

 

I have had horrible luck with these at work. We had a whole cabinet full of these with sorted air fittings, machine screws and other spare parts.  If you aren't extremely careful your entire setup becomes a bulk lot waiting for re-sorting.

 

I personally like something that has a lid or a seal of some kind. 

 

For common bricks sorted by color, I use the Sterilite 6qt (shoe box size) containers.  

 

For  gears, hinges, pins, connectors, minifig accessories, and other small sortable items I use these 24 compartment storage containers from harbor freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/24-divider-storage-container-94458.html

 

I find it easiest to do a pre-sort with a very large lot. I recently purchased a 60 lb lot.  

First I separated into several different 12 gallon tubs by general type  (basic bricks, plates, technique, minifigs and accessories, panels/windscreens/doors/windows, and other).  I did this over several weeks about 3 or 4 lbs at a time. I was very liberal in my groupings.  For example my plates grouping included anything the closely resembled a plate (tiles/modified plates/dishes/hinges). This helped make things more mindless so I could work on it while watching a movie, or have my young kids help.

Next wash/sanitize each group.

Then each group gets re-sorted.  Basic brick (1 x ******, 2 x ******, M x ******) gets sorted by color and put in a sterilite container, I pull out any specialized pieces like hinges or modified bricks.  All other parts are then sorted by function.  Anything that doesn't fit into the 24 compartment storage containers get a ziplock back (the kind with the easy open/close hard plastic zipper).  I know this makes picking out parts more time consuming, but with small children in the house and no designated lego room I find this to be the only option for me.

 

It is very time consuming to sort a large lot in this way, but I find it relaxing after a stressful day and my kids love to help.  Many times we end up building with the pieces as much as we sort. It is also a lot of fun finding interesting/unique pieces that I have never seen before, and trying to figure out to which sets they may belong.

 

Bulk lots of misc lego like this aren't about investment for me as much as they are about the fun that I have with my kids, and the treasure hunt through a mountain of brick.  

[Victorymike18]

^ This is essentially how I handle bulk sorts. ^

I tried taking a pile and sorting all the way down to the fine parts in one shot, and it was too time consuming with a lot of wasted motion finding the individual piles (and the space/effort needed for pulling out all the bins and bags that they go into).

Nowadays I do a "Round 1" sort into the general types with a few common sub-groups. Then I clear the table and dive into a full sort of each group. Of course it varies a bit, but generally speaking, a two or three round sort works the best for my time and space constraints.