Storing Lego in a Small Apartment

[lukiepete]

Hi all,

Lucas here (user name: lukiepete). I'm a travel writer and wannabe novelist, originally from Seattle, who, up until just a few months ago, had been living in Morocco for the last six years where I was teaching. My wife and I recently relocated to Paris for her work and now, without the teaching, I have a heckuva lot of downtime to write and build. It's pretty great. 

The only problem is Lego. Where do you put all of it? Paris apartments are notoriously small and as we've jumped straight into the deep end of the AFOL pool... well... we were curious if anyone had some storage solutions. We're thinking our next big MOC will be a human-sized Lego dining set or maybe some drawers (kidding... kind of).

This is my first post, so I'll sign off with some of our Lego specific things we dig: Our "AFOL-maker" was a DeLorean that we got for Christmas a few years ago. That got us remembering how fun it was to build with bricks. Since then, we've picked up Ecto-1 and the VW Camper Van, but we've mostly been about the Creator line and have all the current models (PR, PS, PC, & DO) with the Parisian Restaurant being the clear favorite. I'm also into the Star Wars line with the latest build the UCS Slave 1 (Boba Fett!). We're only now thinking of "investment" in Lego with a few newly retired UCS sets and promos tucked away for possible future selling.

[TheOrcKing]

Welcome, lukiepete.

[minicoopers11]

Hello! I met an AFOL from hong kong in billund...hong kong has small apartments much like paris, of course...annnnnd, he rented warehouse space for his LEGO. Sooo, maybe that is the solution?  

[TheGallows]

Hello and welcome. Tbh i'm not sure there is any thing you can do. You have probably found some nooks and crannys that you can put a few sets, but these spaces run out quick. Storing sets for investment is space consuming, that's kind of the short of it. I have to empty my office every few weeks and put my long term investments in the loft. It builds up fast, becomes annoying for my wife (and me) and generally gets in the way if I don't do this.

Storage of sets that you are building is a little easier. You can carefully break down the box's to flat and bag up the lego when not displaying. I cleared a cupboard full of used sets earlier in the year by doing this. And then proceeded to fill it again, such is the battle

Start small, be careful on the sets you are choosing to invest in. Maybe even consider just investing in smaller sets as space is at a premium.

Good luck.

[lukiepete]

18 hours ago, TheOrcKing said:

Welcome, lukiepete.

Thanks! 

16 hours ago, minicoopers11 said:

Hello! I met an AFOL from hong kong in billund...hong kong has small apartments much like paris, of course...annnnnd, he rented warehouse space for his LEGO. Sooo, maybe that is the solution?  

Maybe... but even warehouses in Paris are expensive. I might ask a friend outside, though! He has a big house. I didn't think of outsourcing storage

[lukiepete]

14 hours ago, TheGallows said:

Hello and welcome. Tbh i'm not sure there is any thing you can do. You have probably found some nooks and crannys that you can put a few sets, but these spaces run out quick. Storing sets for investment is space consuming, that's kind of the short of it. I have to empty my office every few weeks and put my long term investments in the loft. It builds up fast, becomes annoying for my wife (and me) and generally gets in the way if I don't do this.

Storage of sets that you are building is a little easier. You can carefully break down the box's to flat and bag up the lego when not displaying. I cleared a cupboard full of used sets earlier in the year by doing this. And then proceeded to fill it again, such is the battle

Start small, be careful on the sets you are choosing to invest in. Maybe even consider just investing in smaller sets as space is at a premium.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advise. The challenge is going to be finding a place for the longterm, larger investments (UCS stuff). Smaller sets are a good idea... though knowing which ones might take off gets a little trickier.