Mini Organization Nightmares!

[MPJ]

I have a crap-load of minis (as I\'m sure a lot of us here do) and I have been desperately trying the past few weeks (OK, years) to figure out a way to put some structure and organization into my collection. Was hoping for some hints, tips, or suggestions as to what others do to keep their minis organized (or are you all slobs like me with piles of minis everywhere?).

To sorta set the stage I was thinking of first dividing my minis up into \'piles\' by manufacturer, most of mine are from : Ral Partha, Grenadier, Reaper, RAFM, and Citadel (pre-slotta), and GW/Citadel (though organizing my slotta GW minis are lower on my priority as they sort themselves a bit by army). Then further breaking down by line or type and putting in parts cabinets.

The other, non-physical, part of storage that perplexes me is how to (or even should I) make a record of my collection and is a database, spreadsheet, other the best way to go. I\'ve tried a database before with pics of the minis but found that got cumbersome very fast.

Anyway, tips, comments, suggestions, whatever is most appreciated. :drunk:

 

[BarstoolProphet]

You are a brave, brave person. Organising miniatures on any level is a great challenge. Having only recently discovered just how many I have, I promptly shoved them all back into boxes and hid the boxes from my own sight to avoid even trying.

If it must be done, then I would suggest sticking with manufacturers as the primary method. It makes a lot more sense than my one-time effort of sorting them into \'painting priority\' order. That lasted until my next purchase, then crumbled.

 

[lizcam]

I was stupid. See I had this idea that I\'d organize by race/class/weapon type. I also hate blister packs as they take up WAY too much room. So I took everything out of the blisters, kept all the cards in a nice card file and sorted out all the minis. All the girls are in one place by race/class weapon and the boys in another organized the same (in a vain attempt to keep them from breeding. As any church school can tell you, hormones find a way). It\'s beautiful.

One major problem...........What mini goes with what card? Did I think to take pictures or anything? Hell no! That would have made sense.

So now every time I go to paint somsething I have to research it first so I know how to post it o Cmon or in a comp. Being blonde isn\'t as much fun as it looks like.

 

[Ritual]

I store my minis in boxes labelled with manufacturer. Except for boxed sets, that I keep stacked in a book shelf like books

I usually have a pretty good idea of which minis I have by each manufacturer, so I don\'t have any problems finding what I look for.

 

[matty1001]

No problems for me, I only have a carrier bag full.

 

[veggiemanuk]

I cataloged my whole collection a few years ago but that was less than 1,000 minis so no problem, storage was in Transport cases or in bits compart racks or in boxes. Any loose stuff was put in a resealable bag and labeled.

As for the database it consisted of fields such as Name, Catalogue number, Price, Description and Quantity. Seeing how all my minis are from GW there realy isnt much paont in a Manufacturer field. I used Access for this.

If you dont have Access of Excel or anything similar you can always put it in a CSV file and seperate all the fields by \",\"

 

[jahminis]

\"i was gonna organize my minis,
but i got high...\"

sing along with me...

seriously, i could never organize my minis...it\'s nice to be surrounded by minis...there are piles of \'em all over my apartment, as well as boxes in l.a., and holland...i can tally every mini i\'ve ever bought in my head, so that\'s about as far as i\'ll take it...

i look at all the minis around me, and fantasize about actually paintin\' something i purchased for myself while i\'m busy paintin\' other people\'s minis...one day...

@matty: i\'m disappointed mate...only a carrier bag of minis!!! i\'ll start to consider ya a serious collector when ya have at least twice your bodyweight in metal...

cheers
jah

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by MPJ
I have a crap-load of minis (as I\'m sure a lot of us here do) and I have been desperately trying the past few weeks (OK, years) to figure out a way to put some structure and organization into my collection.

You silly boy.
Why try to organise? When you start looking for minis that way you get a pleasant surprise and think \"WoW I\'d forgotten that I had that\".

Remember= \"Chaos rules because it\'s got better organisation\".

 

[johnboyjjb]

Hire me to come up and do it for you. Never having been to Nova Scotia it could be fun. Here it is really nice over there.

I would break them down by genre, then by brand, then gender, and finally some other method. Army components would be sorted out separately from just cool minis.

On the other hand, being the nerd I am, I have mine in tackle boxes and roll dice to see which mini I will paint next. And, I don\'t like blister packs in my boxes.

 

[Amazon warrior]

I started making a spreadsheet of my minis, divided into manufacturer then race or army, with columns for quantity, AP (if known/applicable), reference number (if known) and painted. Then at the bottom is a really depressing calculation which shows how many minis I own and the percentage I\'ve managed to paint. The painted percentage is pretty low, and the list need to be updated with new purchases. Eeeek!

As for physical organisation, most of them are sitting on my shelves, roughly grouped into manufacturer and army. The lines have blurred considerably, as I\'ve moved stuff around and put things back wherever there was room. A few live on my desk- they\'re nearer the top of the to-paint list. I have a lot sitting in my desk drawer too. So basically, almost no organisation whatsoever!