Playing with LEGO in 2026
January 16 2026
Technology has made LEGO better than ever
In the process of a so-called “dopamine detox”, I decided to clean and organize my childhood LEGO collection to start off 2026.
And in another process of trying to keep my projects quicker and easier, so that I actually finish them, this post is some weird halfway between a journal entry and a reference.
Anyway, it turns out that technology can really make working with LEGO a lot easier, and more fun.
Organizing (a Lot of) Pieces
Cleaning
We’re finally at a point where it’s possible to buy an ultrasonic cleaner for home use, without spending an exorbitant amount. If you’re at all into DIY-type projects, these can be a useful addition to your tool collection. I picked mine up used for cheap not too long ago, and it ended up making this project so much easier.
I cleaned the vast majority of my LEGO in my ultrasonic cleaner, which allowed me to work on other tasks (like sorting) while waiting for the pieces to clean. To dry the pieces afterwards, I just laid them out on a clean surface in front of a fan.
The only issue I hit was when overloading the cleaner’s tub: plastic absorbs some of the vibrations, so packing it full of LEGO tends to stop the agitation.
The cleaning solution was just hot water with a small amount of dish soap. This generally worked very well, leaving only the most soiled of pieces for hand scrubbing.
I removed every sticker by hand and then cleaned up the residue with isopropyl alcohol.
Sorting
I won’t deny that sorting all of my LEGO was exhausting. This was way more work than I really anticipated, even given that I did a lot of online searching for other’s suggestions about the process. Now that this is all wrapped up, I’ll recommend the following tips I’ve stolen from others online:
- Invest in small-parts cabinets. These keep the vast number of unique LEGO pieces manageable.
- Sort by function and shape, not color. You can’t quickly pick out a specific shape from a bag of like-colored pieces, but the reverse is easy.
bricklink (Set & Part Database)
bricklink is an online database of LEGO sets and pieces.
bricklink is an invaluable resource if you’re trying to part together old sets. You can both get lists of parts for a set, as well as look up what sets used a part in a specific color. This tool made it manageable to collect a bunch of old sets to give away to a family member.
Brickognize (Piece Recognizer)
Brickognize is a miracle tool: this website can identify any LEGO piece from a single photo. It links straight to the bricklink page, too, so you can figure out which of your sets it must have come from (if any).
Brickognize proved very reliable. It only needed an image retaken maybe twice out of hundreds of uses. Without this, I never would have been able to filter out all the non-LEGO garbage that had been mixed in from used lots given to us or found at the thrift store. Often I was surprised to find out that a piece actually was LEGO, but it was older than I am.
Playing with LEGO, Virtually
Somehow any project I ever undertake always ends with me back at my desktop computer. This time was no different, with me getting distracted by the ability to play LEGO designer (my childhood dream job) via bricklink Studio.
bricklink Studio is a CAD program for designing custom LEGO sets. Almost every part in LEGO’s catalog is in here, with pricing and filtering by part and color availability. Once you’ve put something together, you can render it out or generate instructions. It works pretty well on Linux via Wine, too.
Pick a Brick (Parts Catalog)
In case you want to build your custom creation, LEGO has their own McMaster-Carr catalog, Pick a Brick.
Here you can order almost any in-production part and color combination you’d want. Need a bunch of Vibrant Coral FROG elements for some reason? Well, here you go I guess.