Storage!!

I want to talk about the system that I use for storing my Lego. From the pictures, two main features are seen. The plastic drawer cabinet and white boxes. Every set I own gets put in a white box (if I have enough). My bulk lot go into the plastic drawers. Where each drawer is a separate Lego element. In the pictures of my collection you see 4 units. Last weekend I went out and bought two more of the 18 drawer unit. So total I have 3 - 39 drawer and 3 - 18 drawer units.

These are the main part of my storage. Sold by many home improvement stores as tool storage. They work perfect for Lego. I would be surprised if an AFOL hasn't used these. They are a nice compact size but are deep enough to hold bricks and plates up to 16 studs long. A minor complaints about these, they don't come with drawer dividers. The drawers themselves can accommodate a plastic divider to cut the drawer in half, but the Stack On brand models don't come with them naturally. You can buy dividers separately but they are expensive. Most people resort to business cards or cardboard and make their own. There are 3 models in the size pictured with a different number of drawers: 18, 39 and 60. Brands like Stack On and Akro Mils make smaller models which are about half the overall size of these. They have the ability to mounted on a wall but you need to supply the hardware for that. Being as they are made for small tools and parts they can easily hold any number of Lego you put in them. Don't tip these over though as your parts will fly all over the place. Depending on how many drawers and where you buy them, they cost around $15 - $25. Kmart has the 18 and 60 drawer models for $15 and $17.

The other part of my storage are these white boxes. These are sold by Ikea and are meant to store CD's. I found they are perfect for any size Lego set. They won't be able to hold any base plates though. Ikea used to sell a wider and shorter box but have discontinued them. The shorter box fit any size base plate and had plenty of room for the rest of the set. Anyways the current model is W 6 ¼" x D 10 ¼"x H 6". Being from Ikea you need to put them together which can take some time if you have 20 or more. The display tag works great for the set name or set number or both. One downside to these is that after you build them the bottom corners naturally have a hole, which can be bad for those pesky 1 x 1 round plates. My solution are 1" round mailing stickers from any office supply store. Just push those into the corners on the inside of the box and you have a fully sealed Lego box. The best part, 2 for $7.

I have lots of ideas for my storage system, one of which I have been working on for a few weeks. It's a surprise and I won't be able to reveal it until late this summer. I hope this information helps any new AFOL passing by. There are plenty of storage systems these are just the ones that work for me.