I've been buying and assembling a few reasonably big (1000+ piece) sets over the past couple years, but over Xmas break I decided to give a modular a try so I broke out the Parisian restaurant and got to work. Holy hell, those things are a different animal from any other set I've built. I probably have a solid 10-12 hours spent building already and I'm only through bags 1 and 2. Also probably the most fun I've had building a set though, so I'll have to pick up another set or two.
Congrats!
What would yall recommend for parts storage? I was thinking of getting a couple of these
Theyre 20 inches by 16 inches, and the drawers themselves are 4 by 5. So it should fit almost all types lego pieces. I was looking at others but so many of these are super small, im talking less than a foot wide. This seems like the best size. Any thoughts? Something better out there?
Those type of drawers are really good for small pieces. As others have mentioned, storage depends on your needs and how much you can spend.
I use a combination of drawers like that, ziplock baggies of various sizes, cheap food storage containers, larger sterilite drawers, and inexpensive steriliite shoe box containers. It also depends on the size of your collection. I am constantly adapting, but stick with the storage I listed above.
My storage solution 2 years ago. I didn't have the small drawers yet and I've added a lot of a certain sizeds food container. I've moved away from the latch boxes as they are expensive. The drawers are worth it IMO, but bulk pieces in one color I put in ziplock bags and in cheaper sterilite containers.
How do you people go about storing sets? I saw the storing methods in the OP but what I mean is, do you store the pieces mixed with pieces from other sets and save the booklets so that you can rebuild it in the future if you want?
A lot depends on your needs, how much money you want to spend, and the type of collector you are.
Boxes:
Only reason to save boxes is for resale value or if you are an OCD collector. Highly recommend collapsing the boxes. I don't think it will hurt resale value that much as long as you keep them in good condition.
I have so much I resorted to collapsing boxes on sets that I think will have good resale value. I recycle the rest.
Instructions:
I recycle most of my instructions because they can become bulky and heavy.
Keep instructions of high priced sets that may have good resell value.
Most instructions, I rip the cover and backcover (they are one sheet) off and toss the rest after I build. Cover lets me know what sets I have so I can look up the instructions online if I need them.
Ziplock bags are the way to go if you build by instructions mostly. I sort heavily with intention to make MOCs. Sadly, I spend most of my time sorting since I have a HUGE backlog of sets I buy for parts. Much of my free time I build sets based on instructions before I integrate them into my collective. More sorting...