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So I dont know how most people do it, but I keep everything related to modelling in one room in my apartments. Unfortunately my mother decided that room was to become her new dressing room, so Ive had to relocate everything I own into a new room. At the moment all my models, paint, scenery, books and everything is just scattered all over the place and the idea of organising it all is making my want to curl up into a ball and cry. So this is a kinda weird question, how do you guys organise your stuff? do you keep miniatures in figure cases or leave them on display? How do your organise all those bits that accumulate after years of modelling?

I'm moving imminently, and I'm lucky enough to have had a say in the construction of my new place.

It isn't large enough for a dedicated room, but I've certainly borne hobby related stuff in my decision making, and come to the following

Proper racking for paint and a decent sized desk, with drawers to keep stuff out of sight when not in use.

Shelves for larger, more interesting minis that I want to display, as well as books.

Storage for things like troops which are too small to really make a visually interesting display and will just be dust collectors.

Large, lidded, stackable boxes for all the stuff I have that remains in boxes. (Need plenty of these!)

 WE Drake Man wrote:
So I dont know how most people do it, but I keep everything related to modelling in one room in my apartments. Unfortunately my mother decided that room was to become her new dressing room, so Ive had to relocate everything I own into a new room. At the moment all my models, paint, scenery, books and everything is just scattered all over the place and the idea of organising it all is making my want to curl up into a ball and cry. So this is a kinda weird question, how do you guys organise your stuff? do you keep miniatures in figure cases or leave them on display? How do your organise all those bits that accumulate after years of modelling?

At the moment I put them away. When I get a bigger place (like a house with a basement and extra rooms), I plan totally dedicate a room to modeling stuff. To start off I put stuff together in groups of related items... sounds simple and obvious but its totally somewhere to start. Maybe start with 3 general groups: What you're working on now, what you're playing now, and what can be definitely stored away long term... then work your way down the hierarchy like maybe splitting up the groups into specific game systems... then into specific factions... then armies... or something like that.

Nice thing with US real estate laws, our properties are taxed on a Square Footage, rather than Per Room (like Germany, and, I'm sure, other European countries (excluding Ukraine, who seem to be going through so, me growing pains of their own)

The house I am moving into has an "extra" bedroom, which, if my plan goes down accordingly, will have the computer, and bookshelves. This means that it will have the desk (for the computer), which translates into the modeling/painting space, etc. As for actual "gaming" space, that remains to be seen, of course. The plan is for us to get a pool/billiards table in the downstairs "Great Room" alongside the kitchen/dining room.

then again, we Americans value our personal space almost as much as our gunz.

I have found that translucent storage is the best... if it's opaque, you can't find anything and it's just frustrating. I'm trying open shelving now, too.

I Just cleaned my hobby space last week. It won't stay this way likely, but maybe it can be a source of inspiration while it is in this state

I have glass display cases where only finished models go (about 10% of my current collection, and the cases are about half full, heh).

Anything not done stays locked up in cases. Supplies and modeling equipment are in boxes and so forth. I have some large boxes filled with sealed-in-box kits. For the most part, I'm pretty organized and tidy, but there's a lot of stuff that I need to work through.

I usually keep my finished figures in boxes, my WIP stuff also in boxes (I need to buy a case or two though, because that's not really working out for me), my gaming books in my bookshelf with my other books and unopened stuff and stuff I don't use at the moment in a banana box under the bed. As for my bits I've recently converted from ziplock bags to hard plastic assortment boxes which is way easier/more organized, and takes up much less space (definitely recommend this if you have lots of bits)

Paints and tools go in a 3 dollar tool box, that's usually under my computer desk (where I do my hobbying). It's easy to get stuff out of and into, and it's very space efficient.

I always try to clean off the desk whenever I don't use the stuff, but I'm only human

By the way RiTides, how are those Kickstarter bits tubes working out?

I live in an apartment with wife and 2 kids with not a lot of space.

My paint station is the GW portable one, it's sitting on top of a book case in the bedroom. I take it out to the living room for painting. The book case contains an assortment of stuff that I currently work on. Most of the rest is in boxes in the attic.

I plan to buy a storage unit at IKEA which contains a set of three doors, 2 normal and 1 glass one. Behind the glass one I can put my nicest models, while the rest of the clutter is behind closed doors. Think it will be fairly wife friendly and give me more accessible models.

If it isn't painted it's all sorted in a few boxes on the lower shelves of my hobby room. Everything in progress is either on the desk or the top shelv next to the desk. Everything finished is in figure cases. My desk is one of those ikea ones with a cubboard or whatever attached to it so all my paint and everything else gest simply shoved in there after I've stopped working on something for the day.

The biggest problem I have with keepign a clean workspace is that my painntdesk is also the genral desk of the house and my GF dumps all her paperwork on it every so often. She makes far more mess than I do.

I keep big or fragile models on a shelf. The rest are thrown (no, not actually thrown) into a box. This does cause the odd model to break every once in a while (and if you saw it, you would probably wind up staring at it in horror), but it's worked so far.

 WE Drake Man wrote:
So I dont know how most people do it, but I keep everything related to modelling in one room in my apartments. Unfortunately my mother decided that room was to become her new dressing room, so Ive had to relocate everything I own into a new room. At the moment all my models, paint, scenery, books and everything is just scattered all over the place and the idea of organising it all is making my want to curl up into a ball and cry. So this is a kinda weird question, how do you guys organise your stuff? do you keep miniatures in figure cases or leave them on display? How do your organise all those bits that accumulate after years of modelling?

My model room is a mess too. About 50% of all model rooms are probably as big of a mess, so first of all don't sweat it.

Second, it just depends on how much space you have versus how much stuff you have, but here are some tips:

1: Figure out what you aren't using and pack it away deeper and more compactly than everything else. If I don't touch a miniature in a year, it generally goes into foam and lives in the closet. The exception are pieces I want to display, but I have a dedicated set of display shelving for that.

2: Get rid of the boxes. Sprues take up less space than the boxes they came in.

3: Get rid of sprues. If you are really hurting for space, clip all bits off of sprues, pack them in individual plastic baggies, and put all baggies from a given model kit into a bigger plastic bag. See how much space that take up .

4: Clear storage. Clear drawers, clear boxes, clear totes. Clear, clear clear. It is much easier to find what you are looking for if you can see into everything without opening it up.

5: If you use it regularly, keep it handy. You don't want to have to dig through all of your stuff every time you need ballast, glue, paint, or whatever else you are using at the moment. You can shift models that you are working on to a shelf or drawer near your work space, for example.

6: Make an organization scheme or develop an encyclopedic memory. I am lucky in that when it comes to my hobby room I generally remember where I put things. Again, things I regularly use have a place, but I can usually remember where that baggie of Catachan heads is buried should I need them. If that's not you, you need to make a formal organizational scheme.

7: Clean house every so often. I do it about once every 3-6 months depending on how big of a mess I am making. Everything gets cleaned, organized, put away, etc. This is also when I put things into deeper storage if I haven't been using them.

Solid tips from weeble1000 (and others). While most of my storage drawers are clear, I'm not particularly insistent on transparent storage (the cheapest drawers just happened to be clear plastic) - thing is, they usually get packed with so much stuff, often in it's own, smaller container, that I can't see all of the contents, anyway. Memory and organizing drawers by vague themes is usually good enough to tell me where to look for an item and for the rest, I simply label it. Five seconds, a piece of masking tape, and a Sharpie are all it takes. For parts containers, though, that hold the really tiny bits, clear is the only way to go, IMO.

Single biggest organizational tip I have is to stay on top of it. My hobby space is currently at the point where, in order to free up more space, I would have to strip the entire room bare and reorganize from scratch. There simply isn't enough room to shift things around, bit by bit, as the accumulation of stuff first filled all open areas, then started adding layers.

To be honest, I almost consider your position enviable, as you have real incentive to plan an organizational scheme and the opportunity to stick to it. I think I'll be happy for the paring down and reorganization of my stuff when we eventually move again.

My spare room is a mess too, but I'm working on it.

I've got a desk in the corner which houses most of the paint stuff, with a paint rack and notice board above it, and the rest of the wall is half glass cabinets, so I can put models on display in the top half (glass) and have everything else hidden behind the wooden panels. I've also got wall mounted cabinets scattered about the house.

After being merciless with selling off what I wasn't going to use, my plan is that all of my hobby stuff will fit in the cabinets (about 2m x 2m x 30cm) .

I do most of my painting on a lap tray with a small box of paints, and I'm just trying to remain disciplined in terms of putting it away at the end of a session. It avoids anything being "tidied up" and disappearing, which is my own fault really.

So far, it's going alright

But as said, hobby spaces are always chaotic so don't sweat it too much.

I have just had to re-organise my work room, under orders from 'She who must be obeyed'.

Seriously though, yes I have just reorganised, 56 Platoons of Finnish and Soviet troops have started to arrive, plus all the add-ons from a kickstarter, so needed to make the work area and storage 'suitable'.

I am lucky in that I now have a designated desk and abundant shelving and cupboards for everything, and now the 'Boss'isn't moaning at me because she cannot get to her crafting desk because of my stuff in boxes all over the floor!

So, for once I can say everything has a place and is in its place - which means of course I haven't got the foggiest where anything is.

Oh, and another tip:

If you are concerned about space, don't make terrain!

I only started having serious storage issues when I started taking on a large share of terrain responsibilities for my typical group of gamers. Terrain takes up a lot of space. I love my terrain, and I'd love to have more, but storage is a killer, especially if you don't take storage into account when you make a piece.

If you are building a terrain collection, it helps a TON in the long run to consider how you are going to store any piece of terrain you build or acquire.

weeble1000 wrote:
If you are concerned about space, don't make terrain!

I only started having serious storage issues when I started taking on a large share of terrain responsibilities for my typical group of gamers. Terrain takes up a lot of space. I love my terrain, and I'd love to have more, but storage is a killer, especially if you don't take storage into account when you make a piece.

If you are building a terrain collection, it helps a TON in the long run to consider how you are going to store any piece of terrain you build or acquire.

Yes, I'm about to have this dilemma, too...

Mine has a giant bed resting vertically on the wall that with the slightly touch will come crashing down on my painting chair. It inspires me to keep steady while painting.

 WE Drake Man wrote:
So I dont know how most people do it, but I keep everything related to modelling in one room in my apartments. Unfortunately my mother decided that room was to become her new dressing room, so Ive had to relocate everything I own into a new room. At the moment all my models, paint, scenery, books and everything is just scattered all over the place and the idea of organising it all is making my want to curl up into a ball and cry. So this is a kinda weird question, how do you guys organise your stuff? do you keep miniatures in figure cases or leave them on display? How do your organise all those bits that accumulate after years of modelling?

I am lucky in the sense that I have a fairly large room for this stuff. It includes 2 game tables with plenty of room around them and shelves for storing terrain. Some models I keep in IKEA shelving units and some are packed away in KR Cases. It depends on whats going on currently.

However, I am running out of room - which sounds horrible because I have TONS of stuff. I have started to see some of this stuff encroaching into other partsof my house (mainly my home office). However, I plan on doing some massive cleaning of my garage in the near future and then organizing some tables to be stored out there and brought into the game room as necessary.

No doubt about it - this hobby takes up time, money and room!

Here's examples of my game room in various stages of messiness and playing with a couple people. This should give you an idea of the space and the mess generally associated with it.

I share an apt with two housemates: one of them owns the apartment. As such, all my stuff is in my bedroom. Thankfully, I have two closets: one houses my games (most, anyway), and the other is for clothing. Neither is perfect yet. My busy work schedule laughs at my desire to fully move in, even after 4 months of living there.

I'll not show any pictures of my "work station" for your sanity. Some highlights include a split car tire sitting in the middle of my kitchen floor with pots of paint around the rim, a chimi changa wrapper that I use for a palette, and various empty boxes and plastic bags strewn haphazardly on the floor. I'll not even go into detail about the beer bottles full of tobacco spit, lol.

Luckily I'm happily unmarried so living like a Nurgle cultist really isn't much of a problem. I do plan to clean my apartment one of these days though...

Oh, to live outside the UK. Rooms the size of cvtuttle's are the living room, and the few others are half the size or less.

But, the spare bedroom we have is just big enough for 2 small-ish tables, a bookcase, and an Ikea wardrobe we put shelves and drawers in.
Shelves went up on the walls to put unbuilt GW kits on, which freed up space in the wardrobe. The paints are in a rack on the table, and my airbrush is underneath. Spare paints are in a box and tucked away, with any little-used pots. Brushes and tools are in jam-jars on the table or shelves.
Bitz go in chinese-takeaway tubs, on the shelves.

Wow some of you guys have it much worse of then me! Haha I sent most of yesterday sorting it all out and I think I've got it all organised. I keep most stuff packed away in figure cases except a few models I like on display, as well as the current army I'm working on.

Edit: I'm having trouble posting the photos don't know if you guys can see them or not

 WE Drake Man wrote:
Wow some of you guys have it much worse of then me! Haha I sent most of yesterday sorting it all out and I think I've got it all organised. I keep most stuff packed away in figure cases except a few models I like on display, as well as the current army I'm working on.

Edit: I'm having trouble posting the photos don't know if you guys can see them or not

I would have troble painting upside down!

CBRFigs wrote:

 WE Drake Man wrote:
Wow some of you guys have it much worse of then me! Haha I sent most of yesterday sorting it all out and I think I've got it all organised. I keep most stuff packed away in figure cases except a few models I like on display, as well as the current army I'm working on.

Edit: I'm having trouble posting the photos don't know if you guys can see them or not

I would have troble painting upside down!

Well, he is in Asia so if Looney Tunes is a reliable source, the images would appear upside down to us.

Yeah one of my weird boyz got a bit too carried a way and long story short my hobby room is upside down

My second bedroom was the room I kept all my gaming stuff in and... well... you couldn't really see the floor. Walking in there was nigh on impossible. It's been that way for over a year.

So, at 9am this morning I started sorting it out. By 4pm the room is a room again, and everything is organised and ordered. Feels great.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
My second bedroom was the room I kept all my gaming stuff in and... well... you couldn't really see the floor. Walking in there was nigh on impossible. It's been that way for over a year.

So, at 9am this morning I started sorting it out. By 4pm the room is a room again, and everything is organised and ordered. Feels great.

Untill that next big project, and then it resorts back to a hell pit again lol

 Harriticus wrote:
Mine has a giant bed resting vertically on the wall that with the slightly touch will come crashing down on my painting chair. It inspires me to keep steady while painting.

That's... worringly familiar. We're in the process of moving all our furniture about in the flat and are turning our second bedroom into a painting/hobby storage room - we're propping the bed up against the wall opposite the painting desk so fingers crossed a lorry doesn't go past outside!