This guide provides helpful information on taking control of your out-of-control LEGO collection.

Feel free to post your own responses, too!

Sorting

What are the best ways to sort LEGO pieces? By color or shape? By size or function?

Reaper_Z's solution: Sorting thousands of pieces takes more time than I have to spend. I would assume that shape would be best, especially for the special molds.

Green Arrow: I'm a lazy bum when it comes it sorting, so invariably I end up spending way too much time searching for elusive pieces when I build, but over the years my collection has sort of self-sorted itself by themes -- not by design so much as by evolution: brownish (Old West), blue space (classic), gray-white space (UCS), colorful space (Star Wars), black-dark blue (Batman), train gear, and more than a few bins of miscellaneous (mostly old Harry Potter, dino hunters, arctic stuff). I am proud to say, though, that I did my first organized and deliberate sorting this year when I finally culled out all my minifigs and minifig gear into one bin. Big time-save there.

Storing

When you have to put your pieces away, how do you keep them organized, clean, and ready for building.

Reaper_Z's solution: ignoring organization, I get a sheet and spread it out on the floor. With all of my stuff on the sheet, cleanup simply involves taking the corners and pulling the huge pile up like one of those net traps you see in movies and comics. After that, I just put the whole bundle, sheet included, into a big rubbermaid container. When I want to take them out, I don't have to dump them out like I used to, I just pull the whole thing out and set it on the floor.

Displaying

Show off your creations without damaging your parts.

Reaper_Z's solution: I wouldn't know. I don't recall ever breaking any parts, except for the motor when the car ran off of the table. Anywho, Shelves work great when there's not kids playing with a ball, darts, or any other dangerous toys. Even a little ball will likely only cause disassembly and not actual breakage. LEGOs are pretty tough.

Cleaning

Remedy dirty parts

• weirdrichard: One school's solution is to use a mesh bag and soapy water.
• LEGO-faq: Subject 9 provides 4 ideas.
• Cleaning LEGO: List of ways tried by BrikiWiki members.

Feeding

Reaper_Z's solution:
I like feeding my collection with Mega Blocks, Better Blocks (If you remember those, kudos!), random things, including:
the wheel of a tape dispenser, some old plastic erector-set like pieces, Best-lock pieces, erector set pieces, coins, plastic bags, etc etc Examples: