Parts Stash: The Sorting It All Out

 As each batch of cleaned parts finishes drying, I load them back into a storage box and take them upstairs to begin the sorting process while watching a movie.

Actually, I have found sorting LEGO to be very relaxing and therapeutic!

The first phase is to just seperate everything by color.  Some plastic compartmented trays are helpful for this

When finished, I place those piles into large zip bags for future break-down by type and element.

It is at this point that I also seperate out all Technic elements and throw them in a seperate box regardless of color.

Another plastic bin is the repository for any 'not-LEGO' parts that I run across. It never fails that any pre-owned collection of parts that I have ever acquired contains a number of those undesirable knock-offs.

More to come....

Let The Cleaning Begin

 I am now well into getting a handle on the newly acquired LEGO parts hoard.

Just yesterday, I finished counting the parts.

Did I just say "counting the parts?!!"

Yep, I was curious as to how many pieces were in this lot, so I took a rough count.

This was done by quickly moving ten elements at a time from one plastic box to another and making a checkmark on a piece of paper for each 10 pieces moved. 

This goes faster than one would think, and I was able to whip through 1000 parts in a little around an hour's time.

The grand total:  roughly 15,000...

That's a lot of LEGO!

Now I am in the process of cleaning all of it, a ritual I use whenever I acquire previously owned LEGO from yard sales and such.

The first step is to load a large plastic kitchen sieve full of parts.

This is placed in a larger mixing tub filled with water, a little dish soap, and a cup of vinegar.

The batch is taken out to the garden hose in the back yard. They are soaked and swished around in the cleaning solution for several minutes.

To remove any caked-on dust or other substances, a tooth brush is kept at the ready. 

After the cleaning, the garden hose is used to thoroughly rinse all of the parts.

Finally, the batch of parts is taken to the basement and spread out on a beach towel to dry.

I try to seperate the parts as much as possible to allow water on all surfaces to evaporate.

I have found that 2xN bricks and slopes tend to retain water inside the recessed circular holes inside the bottoms , so I end up shaking that out right away.  It typically takes a day or two to allow the batch to completely dry, with the help of periodically re-arranging them on the towel if any are still sticking together from water capillary action.

After that, the clean and dry parts are ready to gather up, sort, and integrate into the collection!

To date, I am on the 5th batch of the cleaning phase from the newly acquired stash.

 Approximately eight to ten more to go.

Then, the sorting begins....

Cheers!

A New Parts Stash To Process

 Jeez, It's been a long time since I've posted here on the Double Decker Couch.

That's largely because I've been extraordinarily busy with many other things aside from LEGO building

That all changed last week, however, when I got a visit from some neighbors across the street. Their college age son, who is an avid builder of LEGO Star Wars and Technic sports/race cars decided he no longer wanted to keep a store of parts belonging to other dismantled sets.

So they asked if I would like to have them.

Of course, I said "Sure!"

After all, I can always use a few more additions for the ol' parts stash...

What I brought home was far more than a 'few additions'!!

This lot consists of seven 3x14x14 plastic boxes, and four larger plastic storage bins, all loaded to the gills with LEGO parts!

Holey Moley!  

If I were to guess, there are well over 10,000 parts in these boxes, ranging from 1x1 round tiles all the way up to large base plates, and everything in between.

A random paw-through of the boxes revealed not only standard classic elements, but a good number of more unusual parts, an abundance of minifigs, and a respectable showing of Technic pieces.

So, I suspect a goodly amount of time will be spent over the next few weeks in cleaning, counting, sorting, and re-doing my parts storage system to accommodate this massive collection.

Cheers!