Storage box capacity when using one box per set

binary_storm · 2017-05-18T22:03:05.000Z

(Mods: Sorry in advance if this is posted in the wrong place, but I didn't see a dedicated storage forum. Please move if necessary.) I've been thinking how best to store my LEGO sets that aren't on display. At the moment I have three large plastic tubs (largest is probably 35L, with the other two around half that capacity) holding ALL of the pieces from the disassembled sets, plus the instruction manuals. There is no organisation whatsoever. This means if I want to rebuild any of the sets for display then I have to scrabble around amongst thousands of LEGO pieces to find the bits I need. Obviously this becomes very tedious very quickly! I don't build sets very often, and I don't build MOCs: I just have a few sets on display for a while, then dismantle them and build some of the others for display. Therefore, in my particular case a storage solution where all of the bricks for each set are kept together would be best, as opposed to sorting my entire collection by colour or shape or whatever in tiny drawers. Ideally, I would like to use a separate plastic storage box for each set. Obviously there is no one-size-fits-all box that would be suitable for every size of LEGO set, however I'm trying to determine what the sweet-spot would be in terms of box capacity and/or dimensions. I don't have many sets (around 30 at present), and those I do have tend to be the larger ones (mostly Star Wars UCS sets and larger SW spacecraft; some modular buildings; plus things like GBHQ and the Ferris Wheel, and a couple of large-ish Technic sets). Has anyone been crazy enough to organise LEGO in this way, and could offer some advice? ? The boxes I've been looking at are the Really Useful Box range ( http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/html/onlineshop/fullrange_rub.php ), as they are sold by many different retailers in the UK (where I live) and seem reasonably priced. So for example, would the 4L box , which holds a ream of A4 paper, be sufficient to contain all of the pieces of the GBHQ, plus instruction manual? I guess the obvious answer would be to just buy a box and test it out, but the thought of extracting the 4000-odd bricks of the GBHQ from the over 100,000 bricks I have is not something I would look forward to! I'm hoping someone in the community may have done something similar, or would have a better grasp of how much space LEGO sets take up than I do! TL;DR: If you had to store all of the pieces for each of your disassembled LEGO sets in a separate plastic box, what capacity/size of box would you use (assuming most of your sets were 1000+ pieces)?