How to sort LEGO: The easiest and most effective method

Sorting LEGO bricks is one of the biggest challenges LEGO builders face. Whether you’re a casual fan, an advanced MOC builder, or managing a growing collection, the way you organize LEGO pieces directly affects how fast—and how enjoyable—building becomes.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the most popular LEGO sorting methods and explain why sorting LEGO by part type is the easiest and most efficient system for long-term use, based not only on personal building experience but primarily on running my BrickLink store.

Why sorting LEGO properly matters

A good LEGO organization system helps you:

  • Find parts faster

  • Build more efficiently

  • Avoid buying duplicate pieces

  • Keep large collections manageable

When LEGO is poorly sorted, even a valuable collection becomes slow and frustrating to use.

Common LEGO sorting methods

Many LEGO builders start by sorting bricks by color, set, or theme, because these methods feel intuitive at first. Sorting by color looks neat but quickly becomes inefficient once bins fill up and parts are hard to find. Sorting by set works only if you mainly rebuild official models and does not scale well for creative building. Theme-based sorting (such as City or Technic) often leads to overlapping categories and still requires digging for specific parts. As collections grow, all of these methods tend to slow builders down rather than speed them up.

The easiest way to sort LEGO: by Part Type

After testing many systems, sorting LEGO by part type has proven for me to be the most effective and least frustrating method.

This is also the exact system I use in my own BrickLink store, where fast and accurate part retrieval is essential. When you need to pick orders efficiently, there’s no room for guessing or digging through oversized bins.

Instead of thinking in colors, you think in shapes—which is how LEGO building and part picking actually works.

BrickLink currently lists over 90,000 individual LEGO parts in its catalog, organized into approximately 240 categories, demonstrating both the enormous variety of LEGO elements and the necessity of a structured, part-type-based sorting system.

Here the part categories on BrickLink: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogTree.asp?itemType=P

When starting to sort LEGO, it makes sense to begin with only the most important and frequently used categories, such as “Plates”, instead of trying to create a complex system from the beginning. As your collection grows, you can then go one level deeper by separating plates into broad size groups like 1×X plates and 2×X plates. If a category becomes too full, it can be refined further into specific parts, such as 1×2 plates or 2×4 plates. Only at this point does sorting by color become useful, allowing quick access without overwhelming the system. This gradual, top-down approach keeps sorting manageable while ensuring the system scales naturally over time.

The most common LEGO Part Type Categories

Based on my own experience building and running a BrickLink store, I recommend starting with a focused list of 20 - 30 core LEGO part types that cover the majority of everyday building needs. These include:

  • Arch

  • Bar

  • Bracket

  • Brick

  • Brick, Modified

  • Brick, Round

  • Hinge

  • Minifigure Parts

  • Plant

  • Plate

  • Plate, Modified

  • Plate, round

  • Slope

  • Slope, Curved

  • Slope, Inverted

  • Technic (If you have a large Technic collection, you need to split apart into several Technic part types like Technic Pins, Technic Axle, Technic Brick, etc)

  • Tile

  • Tile, Modified

  • Tile, Round

  • Wedge

  • Wedge, Plate

When a category becomes too large, it’s easy to split it further by size or function—without reorganizing the entire system.

Final recommendation: simple, scalable, and proven

There is no single “perfect” way to sort LEGO—but there is an easiest and most reliable one. If your goal is to:

  • Build faster

  • Stay organized long-term

  • Manage a large collection or BrickLink store efficiently

Then sorting LEGO by part type first is the most practical solution. It’s flexible, scalable, and proven to work both for builders and professional sellers.

I hope these recommendations help you build a sorting system that works for you, and I wish you the best of luck on your LEGO sorting adventure.