PLOG 67: Forever Sorting Lego

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

Lego made an inside joke years ago by including a fake movie poster as a sticker for the Palace Cinema modular building set, with the movie called "Forever Sorting." That concept seems to now be the story of my life.

I am forever sorting my Lego collection, but by "forever" I mostly mean procrastinating and not getting the job done.

Here's part of my history with Lego. When I had a house with a huge living room area, I had a plan to make the most amazing Lego City ever. I had combined my Lego collection with 2 others that I had acquired over the years and the parts had all been put in plastic tubs. When I went to sort them, I went with the amateur decision of sorting by color.

I actually had my entire Lego collection at the time sorted by color, but guess what? I couldn't build with that system. For me, I realized I needed to take the more time consuming option of reorganizing my Lego pieces by type. This realization came about mostly because of my frustration of looking into a plastic bin of all black parts and not being able to find what I needed.

With moving multiple times, and having to store my Lego collection for several years, I just didn't get the sorting job done. My awesome Lego City never became the reality that I wanted it to be. I kept collecting the modulars over the years; I also bought a bunch more sets either because I thought I could modify them into modulars or just because I liked them (super hero stuff and awesome vehicles).

Now I have even more plastic bins. Some of my sets, such as vehicles are stored in large plastic bags inside of bins. Other sets are just in little shoe box size bins. I also have a more recent addition to my collection - gallon ice cream buckets. Please don't think of me as a hoarder, but I have kept my plastic ice cream buckets from the last few years and cleaned them out and used them to organize stuff.

Now I can proudly say, inside of giant plastic bins waiting to be organized, that I have 21 gallon ice cream buckets worth of Lego to finish sorting. Something that motivated me to recently start sorting again was deciding to sort twice. First, I'm sorting into 6 major categories: plates, bricks, tiles, slopes, minifig stuff, and other. I've been doing this during the last couple of days while watching TV.

Then, I will sort them out into the individual bins (such as 1x2 plates, 1x4 plates, 1x6 plates, etc.). That step will be easier than my original method because they will already be together by type. Even though this system may seem like more work, it makes the organizing less intimidating. It's also nice to just sit and sort while watching movies or the news.

I wonder how long it'll take to sort the 21 ice cream buckets worth of blocks into my main collection. I guess we will find out... eventually.

Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!