How do you organize your collection?

[Shaz]

Mine started out organised by pose; also, all the boys were displayed together, and my small collection of G2s, G3s and G4s were all displayed together. But then more ponies turned up, and now it is a bit of a mishmash. The display looks good (in my opinion, anyway) but there's no real overarching order, they just get put wherever they look nice. And of course I do have a tendency to put new ponies near other ponies that I think would make good friends for them, or I display ponies who came from the same seller together on the grounds that it would be mean to split them up, but that's just me being sentimental/mad.

[Juliepants]

Well, my previous display I had them by set in release year order, but of course mummies and babies together. Currently I have them by colour (mummies and babies still together!!) although there were too many pink ones to fit on one shelf so there are some randomly on other shelves. I am going to reorganise them soon though, I've decided all my childhood ponies should be together, as they were always in families when we played with them growing up, so I'm going to put the families back together. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with the others, of which there are many and more coming all the time It'll probably be a combination of things, like colour and pose, but I also like them in sets so... Who knows!!

Jules x

[banditpony]

By size. I don't have many so large in the back small in the front

[Tzan19]

I have mine organised by year and set.  Then I have my Greeks, Italians and UK exclusives separately.  I have to say though I am running out of room fast and I don't think that this is the best way to maximise space.

[CustomsRfun]

By year and set, too.

[goddessofpeep]

I have a *massive* collection and not much space, so the ponies are first divided into display ponies and stored ponies.  The way I organize each group is similar, but not identical.

For my stored ponies, they're first broken up into generations.  I store them in bins, so each bin has only one generation in it.  Within the bins, I group the ponies by sets.  The sets are put into the bins according to space more than anything.  So larger sets tend to get coupled with smaller ones, so that I don't have to break up sets over multiple bins.  I do group similar sets together when I can, so I'll have all babies in one bin, all sea ponies in another, that sort of thing.  I label each bin with a complete list of the sets inside, and I keep a book of my collection.  I have a pile of checklists printed out, and on each entry I have the number of that pony I have, the condition of each pony, and the bin number where the pony can be found.  The bins are stashed around the house wherever they fit, so there's no real order to that other than when I have stacked bins, I try to put the bins I'm most likely to want to get into on the top.

For my display ponies, I have a somewhat similar system, but it's more flexible.  I have a couple of large display cases and a wall cabinet.  Each shelf is almost always only one generation, and within that shelf I break things up by sets when possible, or at the very least I try to group similar things together. So most Nirvana ponies are on one shelf, All winged G2 unicorns are on one shelf, etc.  Since I have SO MANY ponies, and so little space, I only display my favorites.  Any pony that I'm lukewarm on doesn't get displayed, even if the rest of its set is on display(for the most part).  The order of the shelves is mostly chosen by what I think looks good, and what kind of space is needed(the bottom and the top shelves are tallest, so big items go there).  The ponies are arranged on the shelf by what I think looks good, to maximize visibility and space(babies in the front, adults in the back, that sort of thing), and occasionally due to what's safest for the pony(pink haired ponies are always placed where they'll get the least amount of light, if they're displayed at all).  Sometimes I'll put a random pony somewhere.  This happens most with G4s - since they're small, I can put one or two on a G1 or G3 shelf in the front.  I also have a G4 castle on top of one shelf that's devoted only to G4s, but a few G4s are just too cute:p

An example of my shelves:
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[Tak]

I have limited enclosed space so the customs, nirvanas, so softs, and favorites go in there with all the e.g. standing in back. Shs and babies get organized by type in pride of place on the mirror shelf. Princesses, brides, rainbow curls, and sweetberrys are behind them. The top has more e.g. players, and plushies. Most of my g4 collection is up there. I have a a bookshelf for my main g1 six and bfn two shelves for more g1's. The top has mib, families flutters, and wingers. One shelf of g2. The ground floor shelf has Postville and blind bags since the dog isn't interested. An entertainment center center with five shelves and a bookshelf for my g3's. Babies and breezies on top. Then we get into mh and eah territory.

[shadowlark]

I'm not sure if this thread is helping me or just giving me more options to confuse me... 

[mlp4me]

I have them by set. I'm trying to complete the US store releases and having them in set order makes things much easier for inventory purposes.

[PrincessTiffy]

Mine are a little of sets and just random. If I have three or more of a set they are together, like I have all the sunshine G1's and princess ponies so they are together. All my G3 unicorns and Pegasus are together. And then if their not in sets they are just randomly placed as it pleases me. Like I won't have two blue ponies next to each other, all the colors are spead out so they pop and don't blend together to much.

[josiekat]

I would love to display them by set, but I just don't have the room. To get maximum use of my space, I display them by pose. Though I do have one curio cabinet, that I rotate out my favorite completed sets.

[Jorgito93]

I display the g1s by country, and for countries that have sets(mostly US, UK and Europe) they are displayed by year and by sets. g3 are displayed how i feel them, and g4 by type or figures, and the brushables by character.

[Tak]

I tried to organize by year or type. The fact is that the ones I love best ended up where they are safest and I see them most. It's up to you whether you stick to an organization theme or just go with what makes you happy.

[appleponygal]

I have very few of my ponies on display. I guess I just put some out in a cabinet & on shelfs. I try to do by generation but it gets bit random sometimes. LOL.

[SilverHorsey]

I would love to organise them by year, but because I don't have many ponies yet, I organise them by pose. For example, ponies who look to the right go together and so do ponies who look to the left etc...