Collection #1 (Table 12-1) presents an interesting challenge. For whatever reason, you have a particular piece that is present in very large numbers; you’ve got about 500 2x4 red bricks. If you decided to store all the pieces from this collection in a single pile, it might be tricky to find a 1x4 plate when you needed one. However, if you create two piles, one for the 2x4 bricks and one for everything else, it’s more likely that you can find a part that isn’t a 2x4. When you need a 2x4, of course, you know that they are in their own pile.

Collection #2 (Table 12-1) is a bit different. Here you have a limited supply of red bricks but a slightly larger and more varied list of red plates. If you mix all the bricks and plates together, it might make it harder to find some of the small plates. In this case, your plates are not really dominated by a huge number of any one particular piece. In other words, your collection falls into two camps: bricks and plates. Why not create two piles to represent that fact?

These examples are a little simple. Let’s look at some larger lists of bricks to see others way to sort them.

In Collection #3 (Table 12-2), you have about the same number of red bricks as you had in Collection #2 (Table 12-1) but a few more red plates. In addition, you now have two additional colors to deal with as well; there are both blue and white plates in this collection. The quantity of red plates still dictates that they have their own pile. The bricks, since they are different types of pieces, belong in their own pile as well. This leaves you with just the blue and white plates.

There really aren’t enough of either color to warrant a separate pile just yet. Because the two colors are far apart in tone, you can safely mix them together, confident that such a small pile will be easy enough to search for a piece of either hue.

Let’s look at one more example.

In Collection #4 (Table 12-3), you’ll look at a wider variety of parts and try to see what the best way is to break them down into separate piles.

Now this is a more realistic collection. Your own collection will almost certainly have a wide variety of pieces. It will probably include more colors and types of pieces than are showing here, but for this exercise, this pretend collection will suffice.

Start with an easy decision. If you look at the top of the list, it’s clear that there are a lot of 1x1 bricks, in three different colors. To make them easy to keep track of, give them their own pile. 1x1’s can, in fact, be mixed in with other larger bricks, but when you do this, they have the tendency to filter down to the bottom of the container and, as a result, become more difficult to find.

Next, you have a little more complicated decision to make. Take a look at just the 1xN and 2xN bricks near the top of the list. How you split these up can go a couple of different ways. You can separate all the 2x4 bricks into one pile since, collectively, they contain more pieces than the rest of the bricks put together. Doing so would leave the 1xN bricks (of all three colors) to make a pile of their own. On the other hand, you can sort them exclusively by color. Doing so would give you one pile each of red, yellow, and white bricks. It is likely, that no matter which of these choices you prefer, you’ll still want to have your 1x1’s set aside so they don’t get lost.

A subtle twist on the last separation is to take all of the smallest bricks (the 1x1’s and the 1x2’s) and set them apart as one pile. Then, no matter whether you go with the 2x4/1xN split or you decide to separate by each of the three colors, you still have your less visible bricks separated from the rest, thus making them easier to find.

Now it’s time to sort the plates. This collection has fewer red plates than did the others. As a result, it might be reasonable to make a single pile that gathers all of the plates together. Once again, you are looking at the current quantities you have on hand so that you can decide how best to find a certain piece in a particular color when you are building your next great model later on.

Collection #4 has a few things you didn’t see in the other lists. First are the slopes. The black slopes are larger than the white ones, but there is not a significantly larger number of the black ones for them to require a pile of their own. In fact, because the two colors are exact opposites, storing them together is not a problem. A single pile will do for all the slopes.

Finally, look at the very bottom of the list; you’ll see some bricks that you have yet to categorize. Based on what you learned in Chapter 1, you know that each of the last four items in this collection are specialized elements. In some ways the specialized elements category is the miscellaneous category for classifying bricks that don’t meet other criteria. As the name suggests, almost all of these bricks provide a special function unmatched by typical bricks, plates, or slopes. Based on the small number of specialized elements in this collection, they can simply share one pile.

In a larger actual collection, however, a particular service element may require a pile unto itself. An example might be the offset plates. These relatively common parts are available in a wide variety of colors. Once you have a few dozen or maybe even several hundred, you may want to keep them separate from other pieces. You’ll find that this becomes doubly effective when your many offset plates are in 6, 8, or 10 different colors. Keeping them in their own pile allows you to more easily find a handful in just a single color.

The specialized parts in Collection #4 are probably just as noticeable when you keep them together. This remains true until you find that the quantity of one of them has grown to such a level that it requires its own area as well. This process, of redeciding how to sort some elements pops up again and again. Each time you add a large set (or a number of small sets) to your collection or you buy a number of assorted buckets or tubs, or you find yourself buying parts in lots from an online auction or sales site, you may find that you need to extract one or more parts and give them a pile, or piles, of their own.