Cleaning sets

[Khanivor]

I've been collecting Lego for about 30 years now and have only recently found out a great way to keep them clean. No more abrasive tooth brushes, paper towel which shreds, cloths which only clean the surface of studs or compressed air which is noisy and a pain. Far and away the best cleaning tool I've found is a

Blush brush.

Make sure it's been cleaned in soap and water if you're 'borrowing' it from a lady in the house. These fellas not only get all the dust out of the Lego they even seem to give it a wee polish. I use a really fat brush for general cleaning and having found out how well it works need to remember to get a much smaller one for those hard to reach nooks.

Does anyone have any similar revelations in the Lego cleaning department?

[hatcher]

A really good quality paint brush (unused for painting of course) works similarly.

[dr_spock]

I use both a blush brush and paint brush. It was kind of weird buying a blush brush at the makeup section.

[Draug]

I'm a father of 4 in my mid 30's, and got back into Lego in the past year wih my kids after being oblivious to it for about 20 years. As such, I've purchased insane amounts of used Lego lately collecting sets that aren't sold in stores anymore. Most assembled sets are midly dusty, and a bit of compressed air cleans them perfectly. But, I will add the blush brush to my repertoire for dusting our own sets that aren't nearly as dirty.

What do you do when the set is extremely dirty? I bought the Winter Village Toy Shop, Bakery and Post Office for $75, but they are filthy. The house they came from was gross. The dust on them is almost greasy; compressed air at 100psi still leaves a bit of residue. I expect washing is the only option, but how? Completely by hand, one piece at a time? Yuck! How about a mesh bag in a dishwasher? A way to bulk wash thousands of pieces would be great for buying huge tote containers before giving my young kids acesss, but it has to be done in such a way that Lego is damaged - no scratches, etc.

What do you Pros do?

Speaking of the large Totes, what's the best way to deal with them? I bought four completely full 20 gallon containers. They are a couple obviously expensive sets in there that I noticed (Eiffel Tower, an old SW MTT). But, without a complete inventory of instructions, what's the best way to identify and pull out the collector sets from huge bulk lots? Only sometimes will I notice the "special piece" that shows a given set is in there. There must be a 1000 minifigs in there - what's the best way to identify those?

I think I have 100's of hours of sorting ahead of me ...

Thanks for any suggestions!!!

[hatcher]

You can find building instructions at the lego webpage. Here's the link : service.lego.com.

You can also go to bricklink.com, its a lego reselling website, but it lists the sets, their parts, and their minifigures.

For cleaning lego, I've never done this myself, but a lot of people say they put it in the dishwasher. They put the pieces in one of those laundry bags for baby clothes, and put it in the top rack of the dishwasher.

Good luck with the sorting and welcome!

[swart2]

I've been using a very fine mesh bag in the clothes washing machine with some good old fashioned bleach. Seems to work pretty well for even the most stubbornly dirty lego brick. Beware of anything stickered being washed... stickers will peal off very quickly in washing machine. So far so good with this approach. I've occasionally added a small towel or dish rag to help with the noise and to keep the bricks from getting too banged up!

[Nepenthe7]

I've been using a very fine mesh bag in the clothes washing machine with some good old fashioned bleach. Seems to work pretty well for even the most stubbornly dirty lego brick. Beware of anything stickered being washed... stickers will peal off very quickly in washing machine. So far so good with this approach. I've occasionally added a small towel or dish rag to help with the noise and to keep the bricks from getting too banged up!

I second this - while the washing machine works great, you have to get the stickered LEGO sorted out before washing. Most of them will come off or stickers will curl up on the edges.

You can also put the LEGO in nylon stockings/socks and old pillowcases and then wash them in the washing machine. I like the nylon socks for the tiny LEGO parts.

[wyldjedi]

There is a process to de-yellow old Lego parts which I have done quite a few times. But if a simple cleaning is needed I use soapy, hot water and a soft rectangular dish sponge. For hard to reach areas I use a soft bristle toothbrush. Anything more stiff could scratch the part but soft bristle toothbrushes are meant for sensitive teeth and I find it works well