How do you store your miniatures?

With a growing collection of Pathfinder Battles cases, the occasional D&D minis purchase, tons of Reaper Kickstarters, and a handful of things I've painted myself, I'm wondering where all of you put these things. I'm currently putting most of the Wizkids stuff in a set of shallow drawers alphabetically, but it's getting crowded. I'd love to see any creative solutions you might have come up with.

I have a lot of miniatures, and also needed a storage option. Want I found may not work for you as it's a bit of an investment (I did it in small increments over time, but now have 8 cubes all filled with boxes).

I like these cubes because they are stackable, and store a combination of different sized boxes.
ArtBin Super Satchel Cube

I use these slim boxes for my small/medium figures.
ArtBin Super Satchel Slim Compartment Box

I uses these boxes for my large figures.
ArtBin Super Satchel 9007AB Box

And these I use to store my huge+ figures. These don't work with the cubes so I just store them beside them so all my figures are together.
Snapware Snap 'N Stack 3-Layer Container

I hope this helps.

I use something similar.

Stackable Sterilite drawer bins.

If I don't need to use an entire drawer, I then use foam board to cut and create custom divisions within the drawer to sort as needed.

Thanks! I do have one of the Sterilite bins. I also have one of these IKEA things, but it's not going to scale very well as my collection grows. It's already hard to get to things in the back of the drawers.

I also use Sterilite containers, but different models in two sizes. I have two of each one shown (for a total of ten individual bins), and these easily hold almost 500 minis as well as some scatter terrain. One bin is for all of my undead, another for just goblins, yet another for just giants, etc. These are especially good when I need to drive with all my GM gear to a game as they stack with each other and have carrying handles.

I've got three Ikea "detolf" glass shelf units. That's for groups of monsters, as in "dragons", "giants", "fiends", "more fiends", "even more fiends", "more dragons", and "dungeon dressing". Highly visible, highly accessible. On top is where the Gargantuans lurk.

Plus the mantle above the fireplace. That's for "people", as in humans/elves/half-orcs. They're just standing in groups like "two-handed weapons", "ranged weapon", "casters", "sword-and-board". Highly visible, highly accessible.

Plus another random Ikea shelf thing that holds plastic screw/nail plastic buckets like these. The bins are labelled things like "animals are food too", "lifeless corpses", "forest and fey", "goblins", "snake and lizardfolk", "aberration nation", and so on. I've got some bigger versions of the same bins that have general batches of Large minis.

Plus... the top of the bookshelves. That's for things that are bulky. Typically winged Large fiends and stuff.

I don't know how many I actually have, but it's got to be a couple thousand.

I used to have some of the stack-able containers some have mentioned above, I had 3 connected to one another (the lids clipped together to make it easier to carry), but the problem was that is was cheap and when my collection got larger the clips that held the lids on and kept them stacked together would 'open', spilling out all of my mini's.

I have since moved to this: Washi Tape Storage Box
Which is perfect for medium/small mini's and I keep them organized by type in each section.

I also have this: large Latch Mate that I use for my Large and larger minis, as well as maps, notebooks and terrain. (I've put in my own foam dividers so I can have them separated)

I was initially worried about the Latch's lid since of my previous experience with the latches holding on lids that had handles, but I filled it pretty full and haven't had any problems.

Also Michael's usually has sales going on so the prices very per store and if you have any coupons.

For cheap, I use tackleboxes (preferably found used and often even free at yard sales and the like, but if not they are usually cheaper at sporting goods stores than similar boxes found art and tool shops).

For fancy, I use Army Transport cases which include semi customizable foam trays to fit and protect different sized minis. These are especially useful if you are taking bunches of them with you to gaming events.

I currently have a fairly decent stack of wide, shallow drawers for most of the minis with some deeper drawers for the huge sized ones. Then there are open shelves above for display storage. Link. For transportation I have a couple tackleboxes that don't see much use now that I grabbed the Pathfinder branded Battle Foam case.

Not sure this applies to your situation, but I keep mine in a game-store-like glass display case. Unfortunately the company (one man shop) went out of business, but I’m sure someone makes them. Instead of a counter-top style case that is low and long, I got one that is narrow and high. Six feet tall by two feet wide. If your minis are worth putting on display, it is a good solution and doesn’t take up much floor space.

It all dependant on how many minis we're talking about - I currently have about 20,000 minis that I'm organizing and preparing doubles for sale. I have 3 Ikea Billy bookcases, that I bought inexpensive drawer-pulls and Home depot shelves, and gave the shelves the ability to pull like a drawer without a lip. I've found I can fit about 3 wizkids sets per shelf. I don't expect this to be enough to store them all, but it sill allow me to organize most of them.

My big issue with the screw buckes and sterilte containers is that it places undo pressue on them, and I have about 50 minis that have had weapons snap, or have fallen off of bases because they were at the bottom of a pile.

It all dependant on how many minis we're talking about - I currently have about 20,000 minis that I'm organizing and preparing doubles for sale. I have 3 Ikea Billy bookcases, that I bought inexpensive drawer-pulls and Home depot shelves, and gave the shelves the ability to pull like a drawer without a lip. I've found I can fit about 3 wizkids sets per shelf. I don't expect this to be enough to store them all, but it sill allow me to organize most of them.

My big issue with the screw buckes and sterilte containers is that it places undo pressue on them, and I have about 50 minis that have had weapons snap, or have fallen off of bases because they were at the bottom of a pile.

Wow - 20,000 minis! I have ... considerably less :/

Wow - 20,000 minis! I have ... considerably less :/
Really interesting thead!

yeah, right at the end of the wotc minis, one of the distributors clearanced their entire stock buy 2 cases, get 3 cases free.... I think my boss ordered 10 cases and got 25... The deal was I paid him back the wholesale price, and 'gave' the store 5 of the free ones, I got to keep the other 20 cases. I basically got 2-4 cases of each of the last 6 sets, and a smattering of older cases the distributor had in stock.

That's amazing.

I can imagine the fun you must had opening all of this!

It all dependant on how many minis we're talking about - I currently have about 20,000 minis that I'm organizing and preparing doubles for sale. I have 3 Ikea Billy bookcases, that I bought inexpensive drawer-pulls and Home depot shelves, and gave the shelves the ability to pull like a drawer without a lip. I've found I can fit about 3 wizkids sets per shelf.

That sounds like a great setup. I probably have an order of magnitude fewer—probably 1,500 to 2,500.

That sounds like a great setup. I probably have an order of magnitude fewer—probably 1,500 to 2,500.

I'm in the process of downsizing to about that amount. over the next few months EBAY is going to love me

I'm not sure how helpful my own methods will be, because I use LEGO for most of my minis. But here is a link to a blog post I did a couple years ago about how I sort, store, and transport my bricks and minis. (I have since moved most of the LEGO to a closet in our new addition, but the overall organization hasn't changed much.)

Relevant to the discussion here, the minis part of my collection lives in a variety of tackle boxes, ranging from about 5" x 8" x 1" to around 16" x 16" x 4". I've found a couple of sizes that are good matches for what I need for the PCs for a campaign (or most of my PFS PCs), or for a typical game session's worth of foes. For the latter, I have a choice between two depths, depending on whether a given scenario uses Large or bigger creatures. These middling-sized boxes are also a good size to fit a couple of them into the shoulder bag I take to game with me. (See the magenta-latched Creative Options boxes in the last couple photos in that blog post. I don't use the carrier in the last shot much anymore, because opening it up can be a bit awkward if flat surfaces are at a premium.)

Ikea PAX Wardrobe:

https://www.minisgallery.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=4961#p4961

Also, if you look all the way through the message thread I linked you will see other ways people store their miniatures.

That is sweet. Is that outfitted with the Komplement pull-out tray? Or something custom?

That is sweet. Is that outfitted with the Komplement pull-out tray? Or something custom?

Yes, it is the Komplement pull out tray.

I placed a shelf liner on the bottom to keep the minis from sliding. I then cut some strips of wood from panel board, and also cut some 1", 2" and 3" spacers. Perhaps a little too OCD, but it does help me to maximize the storage space while not getting all the minis tangled up with each other.

I placed a shelf liner on the bottom to keep the minis from sliding. I then cut some strips of wood from panel board, and also cut some 1", 2" and 3" spacers.

How much time do you spend organizing? Do you have them alphabetically, and make room as new stuff comes in, or do you organize them by case or something so you don’t have to adjust too much?

How much time do you spend organizing? Do you have them alphabetically, and make room as new stuff comes in, or do you organize them by case or something so you don’t have to adjust too much?

I have each tray organized by themes, so when I get new minis its very quick to put them away. Some themes are dedicated to an entire tray, where-as some trays have 2 or more themes. The trays for humanoids have such themes as:

All the monster types are in their themes of course: Undead, Demons & Devils, Elementals, Aberrations, etc.

The key is, to leave room in each drawer for expansion. Although, with the rate the sets have been coming, most of my expansion areas are now full. I will soon have to do a re-organization -- but the current sections have held up for over 5 years now. If I only have to do 1 major re-organization every 5 years I am fine with that.

Impressive. I have always just organized them alphabetically. But I really like this setup.

Is your set a pair of 29.5 frames at full depth? How many miniatures does your setup hold? I probably only have room for the shallow depth frames, one 29.5 and one 19.5. I'm wondering if that's enough space for what I have.