You know that excitement you get when you’re getting ready to decorate for Christmas? It’s the same excitement we feel when pulling out our LEGO Winter Village build… and definitely NOT what we feel when packing up an expanding MOC.
That’s what we spent the weekend before last doing. Well, that, and cleaning our laundry room to put our washer and dryer on pedestals. That was more of a project than we anticipated…and for an entirely different blog. Hah.
This past year, we kept the village out past the 2019 Christmas holiday. Our intent was to work on it some in early 2020, then put it away in March. That’s when COVID jumped the pond for us and it soon became the last thing on our priority list.
Throughout the summer, while in self-imposed isolation, we worked on the main thing we wanted to do for our build – lift the baseplates to allow us space to run wires underneath.
We’ve talked for years about adding lights to the winter village, but weren’t fans of seeing any of the wires sticking out. This was the first step towards that goal.
There was also the issue of the massive amounts of battery use. Spending $20 on a package of lights for a weekend show did not make us feel like we were being good stewards of our money. So we had to think of a way to power our village using electricity versus batteries. (I’ll make sure to share our solution for both those issues in another post.)
With the world on hold, we had tons of time to work on a few additions this year, which as you can see, turned out great! But it also expanded our winter village setup from what it was several years ago.
Ok. So What’s Up With the Observations?
Well, the expansion also blew up our previous storage system. We have six 50 Qt. Sterile boxes that used to fit all of our winter village. But by the time we added our new MOCs, new official builds and the modified baseplates, there was no way everything was fitting into those boxes again.
Fortunately, we ran across a solution during the after-Christmas storage push at Walmart on one of our grocery trips.
These Sterilite 160 Qt. Wheeled Storage Boxes in Infra Red were sitting there staring at us in the storage aisle. We almost walked by them, but I noticed Mr. Family Brick stopped and stared… I was already sold before he pointed them out. I like they have wheels on one end and a sturdy handle, making transport easier.
And they’re Christmas-y… so there’s that.
We quickly purchased the last 4 in the store…along with a huge roll of Duck Brand 12 in. x 100 ft. Clear Large Bubble Wrap. We figured we had a lot of items to secure this time around.
Back home, it was time to start packing…
Phew. That felt like a lot of sharing. Still with us? Then here are our observations on packing an expanding MOC….
1. You’ll always need 1 more storage box than you think.
Even with thinking we had enough space using just 4 of those bins, we could have easily benefited from a 5th one. That was also the same with our older bins. We had actually overflowed in the past few years, but were using cardboard boxes to store the extra items.
Just buy the extra bin. You’ll be happy about it when it’s time to pack up.
2. Make sure you have packing material.
And we cannot stress this enough! We’ve always collected bits and pieces of bubble wrap to cushion some of our more delicate build sections. However, when you’re working with a new set of boxes, it’s always best to make sure you have enough extra packing material. That’s why we decide to buy a new roll of bubble wrap this year. It really helped us out.
Bubble wrap isn’t your thing? Use something else, but we’d stay away from packing peanuts. Those cause a whole ‘nother problem entirely.
3. Don’t be afraid to leave some space empty.
While the idea is always to pack the items so securely that they can’t really shift or move, that’s just not always feasible. We all know many of our builds are just one bump away from smacking into something and breaking apart. Sometimes it’s just best to leave space and add some padding.
Which leads me to the next observation…
4. Expect to put some stuff back together… at least partially.
This we learned in earlier years. Once we officially decided we weren’t going to break up the sets to rebuild the following year, we knew we had to pack well. The first time we packed, we were naive about it all. We thought, “for sure everything will stay exactly as we packed it”. But just like with any other storing of items, things shift, bricks get bumped and then you find yourself piecing together the chimney of the winter village bakery.
5. Don’t expect it to fit in the same way you took it out.
Finally, it’s stressful to try and remember where everything went exactly. There are certain pieces that will fit in certain bins due to size limitations. You should make it a point to remember where those go and how they fit in. Those are the only ones you need to make sure fit correctly. Everything else can be adjusted to fit into a different bin, if needed.
Cut yourself some slack. ;)