Tutorial: How to sort Lego efficiently 

Removing BIG parts first works best for me:) They take lots of space and cover other pieces.

This vid is super relevant during a quarantine lockdown!

I did a sort over the last week of my grown kids’ LEGO, along with a big bag I purchased at a yard sale 4 years ago. Sorted by color, transparents, printed pieces, wheels, animals, vehicle chassis, minifigs, etc. Certainly brought back memories.

“It takes a long time to pick up a brick” -brick scavenger, 2017

I am the queen of lego sorting (in my family at least) First thing when confronted with a huge disorganized lego pile is to gather a bunch of containers, and also to make a sort of a 'dust pan' out of a sheet of pretty thick paper. Just fold something like a piece of cardstock up into a dust pan-like shape. And yes, I do 'slide' legos all over the table whenever possible, and as piles of 'same' pieces get too big to push around, I sweep them up into my 'dustpan' unless I must actually pick it up with my hand. From my dustpan the legos are dumped into the various containers I have at the ready. So, be prepared first! Be ready with good lighting. Have something on the television that won't be too distracting, but will provide some background noise A bunch of books or blocks or 'something' that you can use to make a barrier' all around the edges of your table to stop legos falling off. Only have a short space directly where you are going to work, barrier free, so you can slide pieces off the table and into a container. Have a drink, but not on the table with the legos. No chair because it's best to be on your feet so you can reach the whole area of the lego heap. You'll get done faster too. Once I'm ready then, I do like you did, and dump all the legos on a table. First thing I do is pick out (yes by hand) all the very large pieces, baseplates, large structure pieces like tree trunk parts, put them in a box, these are the really big things and they are in the way. Second, (and repeatedly through this entire process) I look for windows and get them out asap! They get scratched up when they are in the 'mass' that is moving around. Next I grab out the items that stand out, plants, animals, ladder pieces, wheels, mini-figures, (keep searching for windows), other parts to vehicles, or anything that just catches your eye, and you won't have tons of these items, but you reduce the heap quite substantially as these are removed. After those large or quickly spotted things are out of the way, I then use the sliding method of sorting as much as possible. I divide the remaining mass of legos into four piles with a plus sign sort of 'road area' dividing the four piles, as well as a kind of 'road area' all around all four piles. I start sorting by pulling or pushing similar pieces from the outter edges of each pile. And I move the piles of similar pieces around these little roads of mine. Often, I might have a dozen or so piles randomly moving around the four main piles, and I'd love it if I could do a stop motion recording on this, it might be fun to watch. Depending on what I'm sorting, I might just slide everything into piles according to color, which is fast, but it doesn't usually work very well in the end. So, I usually sort the pieces by their 'type' I have very distinct types of lego categories. A "brick" is anything that is the regular square or rectangle like a 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, or 2 studs by any length is a 'brick' and they all get slid out of the main mass, shoved out into the 'road' area, and eventually into a pile. Anything that is a slant or a slope is one category. narrow bricks that are 1x3, 1x4, 1x6 or longer, just keep pushing these toward one another as I see those. Then I have the 1x1, 1x2 pieces will start sliding into their own pile because there are TONS of these! I scoop these up many times, I don't understand how I have so many of those while sorting, and yet I never seem to have enough while building. Plates and tiles that are larger than 1x2 get slid off into a pile of their own, and these are freaking annoying because they don't like to form a pile, it's more like a parade of annoying uncooperative sticks. I can't really scoop these up with my 'dust pan' either because they are aggressive about non-cooperation. Also annoying as hell to try to pick them up, so I slide them off the table into a box. And teeny bits that are flat and less than a 1x2 size, they go sliding together into a pile that also gets swept into a box. These become a cooperative little pile, but every so often one will somehow fly off the table for reasons unknown, I think maybe they are related to jumping beans. By the time I'm working on these smaller pieces, and I've filled up multiple containers and gotten rid of a lot of cat hair, I find what's left is usually a lot of odd things that I call "weirdlies" (A leftover word from childhood) or you could say miscellaneous pile. Once you're left with the weirdlies, there's not much left to sort through.

I misread the title as snort efficiently

I’ve got like 10,000+ pieces to sort. Fun, this will be

While sorting does suck, I've found it far more useful to sort by brick type than color. If I need 4 headlight bricks, I can look in that drawer, if i dont have the color I need I can see if I have 4 of another color and immediately be thinking of altering the design to use those, instead of simple digging through a tub of white or red or what have you.

someone needs to just make a machine...

I have a useful technique. I cut rectangular holes(2cmx1cm) randomly in the lid of a tall more vertical looking bin put my parts w/ lid on, turn upside down and shake(I have a larger bin under to catch the small pieces).This sieves the smaller pieces through making it easier to separate to make the whole process more effective so you don’t miss any smaller parts when sorting . Maybe I’ll make a vid one day. But great vid this was very useful.

Excellent technique and very helpful. One idea is to overview the initial pile and order your sorting by the apparent amount of element. For example, if you see there are a lot of technic, do that first, so you can get the most pieces out of the pile per wave and each following wave is easier and faster.

A really good tip is to separate all the big clunky pieces out of the way first so you can see all them better… Also, When I organize them, I usually put 2 contrasting colors together of the same type of part to save space.

This likely won't be my exact methodology in the end, BUT it was a great eye opener on how to make this process efficient. Thank you, this helped and got me thinking!

This is exactly the video I was looking for! I kept finding videos about which organizers they use, etc. but not how they actually do the sorting. This is perfect!

Thank you for this!!! I'm about to get my storage bins today and I want to start sorting because when I'm searching for pieces it takes forever and this helps! 👍🏼👍🏼

I’ve sorted lego this way but backwards for a while, sorting several parts into separate bins off of the table and sliding the other parts off to the side, but this is probably a better way to do it so I will try it! It’s nice to see a Lego sorting video that’s actually sorting the parts for once :)

Thanks so much man! I picked up a ton of lego from a local thrift store and your video helped tremendously. When I was first just going through what I had before I really started sorting I started to feel quite emotional as I have dealt with mental health from a very young age. Lego was one of a few things that got me through my childhood years. So happy I’ve finally dove back in at 28. Peace!

I have never seen a more helpful video in my life… thank you this is genius

Thanks for this video, I scored 20 lbs for $25 this weekend, used your strategy and got it cleaned and sorted. Still have to sort by color and specific type, it worked great though!

This is actually a great idea thanks! you are right seconds add up after awhile.

I have sorted my lego collection once before, but as I’m about to do it again, this is really helpful! Thanks for making this video about the sorting PROCESS!

I do a ton of sorting. I will explain the first stage I do. Make up 7 categories, mine are always B, P, T, T, W and mfgs + printed. 2 bins to the left, 2 in front and 2 to the right of you + 1 small one + one large bin on your lap for everything else is good. 1st Stage is Bricks not modified, Plates not modified, Tiles not modified, Tires and rims, windows doors etc because I want to limit future scratches and mfgs to limit any possible damage or scratches. The 7th a real small bin for printed. I also never sort by color until the very, very end. If I am looking for a 1x2 sand green plate it will be with my 1x2 plates only.

THANK you! This is exactly what I was looking for. I agree that picking out pieces one by one is a mind and finger-numbing way to sort bulk bricks. I wound up using almost this exact method by process of elimination, and I also use the lifetime tables for building and sorting! I had hoped to find something faster, but after watching all the videos I can find, the way we are doing it suits me best.

What I do when I’m trying to find pieces for old Lego sets is tic them off as I go a long, by looking at the back of the instructions

Thank u for a sorting video ! You were on point with this video as I've been searching but haven't found what I needed till I saw this about sorting rather than end result of organized legos lol

I find the best method is preparing piles based on categories and when sorting a big pile, I sort EVERY BRICK DIRECTLY. It may seem to take more time, but this way yo do it once and you are done with that pile, rather than quickly scan for bricks, then have to dump out the pile again to scan for something else. Once sorted, you just keep them in categories. A tip I use is to store in the same container 2 to 3 different types of bricks that are vastly and obviously different from one another in color, shape and size. This way you use one container for all 3 types and can find them easy on a quick scan due to the difference.

I can do you one better: with a jigsaw, cut 4-5 holes into 4' by 4', 1/4" sheet of plywood, the size of medium-sized bins. Put your bins down on your normal table top, then rest the plywood sheet over the top of the bins, matching the holes. Then, dump your legos out onto the plywood top, towards the front edge like you did in your video. When you sort, you can then push 4-5 categories in different directions all at once, rather than having to re-dump a large bin 4-5 times. When finished, store the plywood sheet somewhere. If you really want to get creative, cut the plywood sheet in half and put hinges on it so if folds up nicely.

Thank you for this video. I have 40 lbs of bulk lego coming this week so I am very happy to have come across it. Will check out your other videos!

You are the hero I needed but probably don't deserve! Thank you, brom the bottom of my brick haul.

Thanks for this. I tried sorting a couple days ago, and was quickly overwhelmed. 15 years ago I sorted my collection only by color, so now I’ve got six big under-bed bins each with maybe around 10000 pieces of the main colors (black, white, gray, blue, yellow, red), and smaller bins with other colors (green, orange, brown). I tried going through by specific piece type, starting with 1x1 bricks, then 1x2, etc., but has been taking way too long. Gonna try the technique in this video, maybe with an initial pass through a bin with holes to separate big pieces, as suggested by another commenter.

This is so useful! I’m making it my goal over summer to once and for all sort my entire Lego collection. It may be time consuming and boring, but it will save soooo much time on the long term when I’m building!

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try. I do a one pass sort where I take each brick, plate, slopes etc and put them into specific piles. So all 1x4 bricks into one pile, 2x4 bricks in another pile, 2x6 plates in one pile. Color doesn't matter. The piles are all grouped together by type so piles of plates are grouped together, piles of bricks together, etc. If I get into a good rhythm I can really put a dent into a mountain of lego in an hour or two. It can take up a lot of room so for far away piles I just toss the pieces near their respective pile. Then after a while go through and make sure any stray tosses get grouped back up. It's really easy to do that if you make somewhat accurate tosses.

Thanks for sharing this technique, I will definitely be using this when sorting my Lego collection as I'm using it again. :)

Great stuff! I've got the same issue not finding any videos on techniques of sorting. Thanks.

That makes so much sense! THANKYOU

I loved the video. It’s a way better technique than mine(pick them out one by one) . I will try this thank you for posting!

I recently wanted to started rebuilding all my sets I destroyed as I thought I would want to us them anymore. That changed! So far I’ve only sorted colour black, white, light grey, dark grey, etc. Definitely going to use this method to sort inside of the colours! 1 set down like 30 to go!

Imo its best to sort down as much as you can each time you go through a bin to limit the times you have to comb through the same material. Bricks 1x, 2x , slopes, technic bricks, axles ect, plates - 1x, 2x, smooth, + , wheels, minifigs and extras, circular pieces, tiny 1x1's, trans, printed and stickered. 1x1 trans and some other small pieces i like to stack on the inevitable non lego pieces i find. Flames, poles/flags, levers ect. Only times you should go by color is for looking for a set or to fill the odd need. Unless you want to go that far after sorting by type. If you start by color, its too hard to find anything later

This was super helpful! It’s making my sorting a lot faster. Thanks!

That's awesome!!!! This time is the chaos in my lego room! I have 2 great bin of lego! That technice gonna be verry handful for me!!! Thank you man!!!

Thanks for showing your method. I use a variation of your technique. I have a smaller table so I do smaller piles at a time. I dump a pile of bricks on my table. I pick out the really big pieces first and place them into their type bin. I place an empty bin in my lap. Then I separate all the bricks, plates, wedges/curves, and tiles to the side and pull everything else into the bin. This gets dumped into the Misc type bin. Then I separate out the bricks into the bin and dump that bin into the brick type bin. Repeat process on plates, wedges/curves, and tiles. Start again with next pile until done. Next step is to break down the brick type bin into brick mold type and place into storage. Repeat with other mold types. I don’t sort by color at all.

Gotta say, I'm digging this sliding idea. I sort in a very similar way, but pick the pieces up instead of sliding to the side. I need to incorporate this next time!

Awesome video! This will help make my life a lot easier as I am trying to sort my bins to rebuild all my old sets

800th subscriber! and this video really help me with my Lego sorting!

Interesting post, thanks for the video. It made me think of a solution - mixing your and 'my' sorting style. Do the first sort on this table as you do, and sort by size primarily ('large' (2x2s or bigger), 'small' (greebles and up to 1x2s), with some sliding to the sides for technic, 'people stuff', and maybe 'round things' (wheels, tires, etc.). This quickly gives 5-6 bins. Then, at the grocery get a package of Hefty compartmented luncheon trays (the old school cafeteria-style trays). Arrange those roughly circularly around the table. Take an individual bin, dump it, and sort elements into the compartments on the tray (I use a topology sorting '1-by-plates', '2-by-plates', 'right angles', arches, rectangular plates, irregular plates, etc.). Sounds complicated, but your brain remembers 'where things go' pretty quickly. When the tray compartments get full, offload them to ziploc bags. When the ziploc gets full, sort that to colors (or whatever sub-species you choose)...

I came over this video and now I need to sort a lot so if anyone in the future reads this a good way to sort a big pile is to first sort it by color then you can divide that handful of one color into the correct spaces. Then continue with every color

You, sir, are one smart person. Thank you for the help. Im sorting a tub about three times that size... on a shag carpet, so ill be sure to go but a smooth table or a glass table that is smooth. Thank you

Very helpful. I have sorted by color first because I am very color oriented. I sort everything by color (you should see my closet). I think I will try your method as it makes a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing.

Great great video and amasing advice. So far the best sorting tech. I have tried so far

Bean cleaning technique! This is greatness and exactly how my grandmother and family would clean big bags of beans 💯

I like the sliding method. I do it similarly, but with a smaller starting pile and setting apart in groups as I go. Much like what you do only all at once. A pile for plates, bricks, figure pueces/accessories, slopes, tiles, big specialty, and small specialty. I take out the big things first so I can see things better and work to smaller, sorting things I missed easily as I go. It still takes so long.

This was extremely helpful!! Thank you so much!

sort everything by catgory from the start. Like bricks, modifed brick, tiles, technic pieces, minifigs, plates, parts with stickers/prints, tires, glass and slopes. The leftover is sorted by type one piece at a time

Just came across this, and I think it's an interesting approach. I picked up a 5 lb bag of LEGO recently and got into a somewhat similar flow. In my case, though, I had designated large bins for different types of things-bricks, slopes, plates, tiles, Technic, stickered pieces, etc-all spread around me. I would grab a handful of pieces from the bag, spread them out onto a small tray on my lap, and then comb through them for specific things, dropping pieces into their respective "macro" bins as I did so. Once that was done I started micro-sorting: 1x1, 1x2, 2x2, etc. That way I only touched each piece once or twice on its way to its appropriate macro bin, without needing to dump and reshuffle as much as you did in this demo. I made pretty steady progress with this method, though the problem I have now is that I don't have enough storage to micro-sort all of the macro collections.

It can depend on the collection being sorted through but generally I would do this myself. 1: Sort largest misc items & plates. 2: Wheels & Minifigs 3: Low colour quantity pieces (pinks, light blues rarer/more valuable) 4: Red/Yellow , White/Blue , Black/Greys (Sort from most amount of pieces to least.) Now it should be down to the smaller parts. 5: Sort these by colour like step 3 & 4. 6: Other misc items & trans pieces to (Minifigure arms, metallic grills, etc)

Nowadays I get all my LEGO used on Craigslist, I definitely find this method helpful!

loving this validation of some techniques I've developed over time. I too use bins for trash, trans, and stickered pieces. I also have a bin for Lego-compatible bricks like Megabloks. I used to pitch them, but I found that if I can accumulate enough of them, I can sell them for a decent price.

Great video, I was looking for something similar for a time now. Do you happen to sort by size? It makes "scrolling through" the pile smoother as large pieces and panels do not hide the rest. It is also easier to sort similar size pieces for less effort needed to shift focus.

I do something similar but slightly different. I have all my bins in front of me, I also go with one "type" but I go with what I see the most of. So if I see lots of plate, I will grab plate until my hand is full, then throw it in the plate bin. I also have a special bin for any trans pieces. I combined some things. Slopes, arches, and wedges all go in one bin. All the green and brown regardless of type goes in one bin. All the small modified brick and plate goes in one bin for greebling.

I have a massive (no joke) Industtrial bins of lego. I have been looking for awy to sort. Im going to do this but do into colour first! Thank You!!

In my sorting I put the slopes together and the bricks separately when I sort I go through a pile like that and I get a piece and put it in a place and repeat then I put ship parts together then I have plates larger than and including 2x3 in

Great tips! Thanks for your help!

Nice Video. I also sort Lego by the pound and I like to start by getting all of the large pieces out and then proceeding with the sort you are using. I find that the really large pieces being gone makes it easier to maneuver through the rest of the pile. My dream is to make some kind of sorting table that has chutes that feed down into containers. You could use the same sliding motion, but get more pieces sorted at the same time. One of these days I'll try to build one.

Excellent video! I have the same tubs and table so this is particularly useful ^__^. Thanks!

This is a game changer. Thanks a lot!

Long-term advise - if you bought a set some time ago and don't like it at the moment - just break it and put all the pieces inside zip-lock bag. That way you can build it again if you want to or use its parts in other builds. And you won't have those unsorted parts in the big bin.

This is fantastic, and I'm definitely going to try using it when putting away parts after a large build or three.I already do something heading toward this technique; whether building or storing, I work in a wide flat cardboard box with 3" high sides on my lap and push parts out to the edges in rough categories like you describe, so I end up with an approximately sorting ring. Dumping the rest off the table would not have occurred to me, even though I keep my big brick tub between me and the table to drop bricks into it as I find them! One thing I wonder as a variation (which I'll probably try with the table method) is doing "bricks to the left of me, slopes to the right" (here I am, stuck in the middle with LEGO...) to halve the number of passes. In programming terms, any search like this has an efficiency rating called Big O notation, which is summarized as "how many times did you have to touch each thing to make it work." So in your version, you're touching each part several times (categories followed by subcategories, etc.), but you're not touching every brick in the bin *for each piece* (the digging in the bin method), which is much higher efficiency. If you were assessing each part and immediately putting it in the *exact* bin, you'd be touching each brick once, but searching the *storage drawers* every time, and so on. Those ratings assume that every actions takes about as much time as every other action (not "putting a brick in a drawer means walking across the room"), so the physical efficiency of a flat table matters a lot more. It's neat to think about.

Wowie thank you so much dude I had so much trouble finding pieces for my Lego custom dragon!

Thanks a lot for sharing this. Already watched this a few times. It appears to be rather slow to just search for one category. I like to do a thing where I dump about that amount of lego on a clean bed and kneeling in front of it sort my bricks into around 10-15 piles, always kinda focussing on a type of brick, that appears dominant (and big). With that focus and technique sorting by type, especially if you store losely (i.e. all modified Bricks in one box) some piles are even final, while other piles (the plate pile) will be separated further, later. If a pile gets too big, I either store it in my system, of if it has to be further separated, I just put it into a container of some height. That really works well for me, I don't know if it helps. Much Love, Alex

Lol this is exactly what I do!😂 i just started sorting not too long ago, and what I have been doing is sorting the essential bricks, plates, tiles and slopes into one bin. I dump a pile of random pieces onto the table, and I begin sorting all the essential pieces into a bin. I then quickly dump the nonessential pieces into a bin below the table. Later, once the bin of essential bricks is near full, I sort those pieces into other bins. It is really efficient but still takes lots of time, and concentration

when breaking down sets, I have found that mentally I apportion the space in front of me for various types. Then when putting the various pieces in their bins, over time it goes faster.

Really good info and covered a lot of the mistakes I tend to make ie picking a particular part…. I have about 60 gallons of LEGO to sort and I do find that using the brick sorting box with holes in the bottom does at least help remove the large elements from the smaller ones. It is always frustrating to me to sort stuff with large plates and castle walls in the way.

Perfect! Now all I need is a table and a thousand bins and space to put all that. Unfortunately my current state is that all my bins are filled to bursting, and I don't have any more, so I can't subdivide my categories.

loved this! I also keep printed/stickered pieces and trans pieces separately the same way :)

Ow!, i so relate to you. Your sorting method are similar to mine. I break into 3 categories: anything that’s smaller than 1x2. Anything that’s brick/plate/square shapes. Anything else. Then I will take each of those 3 cats. Lines up my components drawer on table and will drop each to the correct boxes. All that doesn’t have anywhere to put, will go to “later” bin. It will get sorted relatedly fast :) I also teach my sons to keep it organized as best as 5&6 yr old can do. All thing they didn’t put into correct place, will go to “blue box”. This will be the box i sorted every 2-3 weeks time.

We just scored what i would estimate to be two 20 gallon totes FULL of misc. Lego parts. I'm considering using or trying to create a sifting device... and this is after nearly a full day of picking through the piles to sort. No matter how its done, it is a very tedious undertaking. Thank you for sharing your approach.

Dang! Nice technique! I usually watch tv while sorting since it usually takes so long for my to sort

Someone give this man a medal!

Awesome way of sorting!!

I sort my brick the second it is not being used so it doesn't get into big piles like that but when i do sort big piles i cut them usually into 3 sections and sort.

Im currently visualize a washing station, that sort lego on size trough some kind of mesh in different sizes; so when your done lego is washed and seperated roughly in 4 to 6 sizes

this was exactly the video i was looking for, i only found videos for the result just as you said👍

I love this method

Interesting way. I also do the slide stuff, but not in this way yet. For me, a combination of methods works best, also depending on use and whether bricks end up straight in a build or for parts for later use.

I have between 15 and 20 bins on my table, based on one or more categories from Rebrickable - varying a bit on the lot I have. Strictly following these categories makes cataloging much faster later on. Then I take very big parts first, as those hide others and are difficult to miss, but overall I just grab a few for each category - I will never get all, so I don't even try. In a second step I sort by mold (usually only on a tray) and then catalog everything. Only there colors matter, while afterwards usually every color goes into the same drawer (except those overflow).

I always sort by color first, then I sort by type...brick, plate, tile etc. Then I throw some of the colors together, red+blue+yellow, black+white, light gray+dark gray and so on

Very helpful. Thanks!

I built a gravity-fed lego-sorter out of lego. You dump them in the hopper and and they feed through and sort by size and weight and shape. Haven't figured out how to make it sort by color yet.

Its certainly good to sort in groups, and to separate sorted from not sorted (to avoid looking over the same bricks when looking) I personally started with colour (or set of simulator colours), as it's easy to do. I also try to do multiple different groups and have a pile for each. (Just don't do too many as you will end up wasting time looking for the right pile.)

I've been doing it by color first, then I was thinking I'd micro sort the colors afterwards, maybe by size small, med, large, trying to put together old sets.

Also , if I'm picking one type like bricks i don't just pick one up then put in tub ,I keep picking them up till my hand can't hold anymore then put in tub, do with both hands

I use a couple of plastic cutlery drawer moulds from IKEA. it has several side bays and a flat area in the middle that lets me simply push blocks into about 9 categories. Do the sort in waves. Working down to finer details. DO NOT SORT ON COLOUR. Colour is so obvious it can be quickly picked out at the time of a build. I also put all transparent parts in their own category, except windows and panels which go either in an architecture or vehicle category. My super categories go into extra large Cliploc freezer bags which contain smaller bags of sub categories all labelled.

hi i do this as well it save ton of time if you can use to hands at the same time it's high number of bins you will need bob

i basically do the same thing, but i always start by color first and then work my way down by shape afterward.

Thanks this helped a lot because I am getting into making LEGO mocs

This is so awesome! Thanks for the tip. I have been tweaking the way I have been sorting pieces for a while now with no real progress and almost a whole Rubbermaid tote to sort through. Any tips once you get them into your basic categories? Do the same thing over again?

I sorted mine by color, then sorted those by type of piece. I also took out all the wheels and other weird pieces. Translucent pieces were also sorted and separated.

i have a 5 foot by 3 foot pool table with like a 3 inch barrier around it and its all just lego and im sorting by color i know its stupid to do that but its not terrible cause when im done sorting by color i have a divider for the table and i dump every color in its own divider so i can find the pieces easier

The closer your sorting can be compared to the computer sorting algorithms the better although computers don’t have to pick up the numbers and move them. Your sort is closest to a bubble sort. The sliding is a good idea.

I notice Plates are the VAST majority of parts found in most kits today. My Plates bin is full and there are Ziploc bags of them. No other bin is even half full.