Ideas for Organizing a Big Collection

[Leopard_Print_Unicorn]

The state of my pony collection is really depressing me. I have a huge, empty room (that was supposed to be a nursery, that is also depressing) and many of my ponies are still in cases from when I unsuccessfully tried to sell my house last year. I am going to try again to sell it in the future and hopefully move somewhere smaller, so I would like to have all of my ponies nicely organized so that before and after I move, they can be proudly displayed and also I can find who I'm looking for.

My collection is pretty large, 800+. Here is the breakdown:

-almost half are G1 with a lot of those being babies/newborns
-the next largest group are G3's
-about 100 G2's
-about 50 G4's

I also have 30 Fashion Star Fillies and 12 Jem dolls that I would like to include in the display. When I had my G1's up before, I displayed by pose so I could fit the most together, and I think I would do this again with the G1's and maybe the G3's. I could use two walls in the room to do it, so I'm thinking some sort of large shelf. I love the shelf risers that SailorEarth posted here, and I plan on making a lot of those to maximize my shelf space. Also, since I have such a large collection with some valuable ponies, I am willing to spend some money if it means displaying them right and getting it all done at once. I have a bad back, drive a Honda Civic, and live by myself, so hunting garage sales and Craigslist and carrying it back is out of the question.

I have seen several people use the Ikea "Billy" shelf and it looks pretty well suited for what I have in mind. Someone who has this shelf, what do you think of it? Would one or two, with some foam risers, do the job for me?

Other ideas??

Thanks in advance.

[achab1984]

I have all my ponies by pose also, they do seem to take up a lot less room. I also have them all in curio cabinets and by generations. I have my NIB ponies on two different bookcase things. I have them all in the basement were its not finished in one corner.

I got my curio cabinets from craigslist and face book rummage sale pages in my local area. One is very old and paid $125.00 for it and the other one I paid $60.00 for it. They are both lighted and closed in. I see that you are not able to haul big things with your little car. Do you have anyone that might be able to help you out if you do find something. Even if you buy something at wal mart of a chain store you still have to get it home. And if you buy it some were it will deliver then you have to pay more for that.


I wish you a lot of luck on your pony shelves hunting, its always so much fun to figure out what you want to do

This is my set up right now till the other room gets done.

This just to give you an idea of what I did, this is not all of it.

 
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[Leopard_Print_Unicorn]

I have all my ponies by pose also, they do seem to take up a lot less room. I also have them all in curio cabinets and by generations. I have my NIB ponies on two different bookcase things. I have them all in the basement were its not finished in one corner.

I got my curio cabinets from craigslist and face book rummage sale pages in my local area. One is very old and paid $125.00 for it and the other one I paid $60.00 for it. They are both lighted and closed in. I see that you are not able to haul big things with your little car. Do you have anyone that might be able to help you out if you do find something. Even if you buy something at wal mart of a chain store you still have to get it home. And if you buy it some were it will deliver then you have to pay more for that.


I wish you a lot of luck on your pony shelves hunting, its always so much fun to figure out what you want to do

This is my set up right now till the other room gets done.

This just to give you an idea of what I did, this is not all of it.

 
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Ooh nice! Any idea how many you've got right now? My mom does have a minivan and she might be able to help me. She doesn't live here but she visits often. Another reason I was thinking Ikea, though, is that it is mail order (no store around here) so it would be delivered. Then the trick is putting it together :p

[achab1984]

I just updated my list and I have 390 ponies (not even close to yours). The curio that is all the way to the right was two pieces that we just together.  If I had one of them stores need me I would be spending some money there to I love what they have! Do you have any guy friends that would help you out?

Do you by chance have any pictures of your collection if you had it all out at one time? I would love to see what 800 ponies looks like

[Leopard_Print_Unicorn]

I just updated my list and I have 390 ponies (not even close to yours). The curio that is all the way to the right was two pieces that we just together.  If I had one of them stores need me I would be spending some money there to I love what they have! Do you have any guy friends that would help you out?

Do you by chance have any pictures of your collection if you had it all out at one time? I would love to see what 800 ponies looks like

No, I don't have any pics of everything together. That's one of the first things I plan to do when I get them organized. Since you have a lot of MIB and I only have a few (G3 Fair and SDCC), I think I might not need much more room than what you have. Except for the Fashion Star Fillies, though those don't necessarily have to go with the ponies, and might require other arrangements simply because they are much more fragile.

What are these "guy friends" you speak of? I think I used to have some of those a long, long time ago.

[achab1984]

Oh darn, I cant wait to see them when you do get it all set up!! I know the ponies in there boxes do take up a lot more room. I have thought about taking some of them out. But I cant get myself to do it. I did it before and kissed myself for it later on.  Hold onto the Fillies, they seem to be bring a lot of money if I am thinking about the right ones.

LOL guy friends, I have some good neighbors that have helped me in the past with things.  LOL I love that wink smile face

 

[Sebby6]

I can definitely recommend the Billy book cases. They are buy far the cheapest option, they're perfectly proportioned for 2 rows of ponies and you can get doors for them, so if you ever decide to put the house back on the market, it'll be a lot easier than to put them all away.

Here are a couple of pics for you

Old display
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Current dispaly
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I can assemble these in my sleep by now, so if you want to chip in for the plane ticket lol

Another thing I'd recommend is to do some proper planning before you start setting them up. I'm not above making diagrams lol and it just makes it so much easier.

[ravengusty]

I'm much the same at the moment  before i went to Ponycon I boxed up my ponies so we could move the room around and I could re-arrange them but since I got back (with a load more ponies) I haven't taken any from out the box or displayed hardly any of the ones i got from Ponycon. I need to get a bookcase and I just can't see the point in getting my babies out and choosing who does and doesn't get displayed then taking them all back down again. I'll be alright once i've got the bookcase in the next few weeks but at the moment its making me a little down

I hope you find some good shelving units for yours soon

[achab1984]

I do like them Billy book cases

[BerryMouse]

I have Billy book cases as well and my ponies are sorted by Generation & color (except the G4) =)
My (around 1000 ponies) fit in 5 billy book cases

[hathorcat]

Billy bookcases FTW! Seriously its like IKEA designed them in white and size just to perfectly suit pony collections. My pony room is all Billy bookcases and Billy CD racks for the smaller spaces. If you are going to display and dedicate a room to them I would recommend spending the money on them - thankfully they are not super expensive and they do look nice when set up.

I display by year, by set and with accessories; while there is a little less space on the shelves than I would perhaps like sometimes it is possible to squeeze a complete US/Euro collection into one room and on to 7 Billy Bookcases, 2 CD racks and 5 very very large wall shelves. And I even get a bed and TV in there as well in case guests wish to sleep surrounded by ponies [so far no one has taken this option up].

*spies MOC Alternate Birthflower in Sebbys pony room and faints*

[Jemofirongate]

Ive got about 1400 items (ponies and playsets) and they all fit in a small bedroom. The trick is to get creative with every inch of space!

My main displays are on wooden archive sheves - they have about the same height, dimensions and shelf distribution as Billy but they are open wooden frames. Billy's definitely look prettier so they are worth investing in if you can. Make the most of the space by using cardboard or acrylic risers to get 2-3 rows of ponies on each shelfThe tops are good for stuff that is still boxed

Sandwiched in the corners are Ikea Benno DVD towers, you can buy extra shelves for them and they are great for displaying babies with all their accessories. They are compatible with the Billy bookcases and come in the same colours .

I also have an Ikea drawer sideboard with the pink coloured plastic drawers (from the kiddie bedroom section) that I chuck my trades, mlp crafts, merch and other general MLP junk in.

I have some official G3 MLP toychests that I keen the backcards in but any blanket box will do if it has a flat top as this is another display surface you can use in addition to the storage. You could put the Jem display on there for example
You can see in Sebby's photo that she has the matching side table and mini shelving unit that goes with the toychests

On other walls I use Ikea Lack shelves and Ribba picture ledges for blind bags. The picture ledges are creat for small items and merch

As you can see, I live in Ikea! lol

If you have plushies, or mummy charms these can be tied to ribbons and hung from the ceiling or attached to curtain poles etc

The possibilities are endless!

Jem

[Darian]

Billy bookcases are great, I'm looking into getting one with glass doors... 

Because... how do you guys deal with dust?

[hathorcat]

Billy bookcases are great, I'm looking into getting one with glass doors... 

Because... how do you guys deal with dust?

By dedicating entire weekends to cleaning...seriously...I love my ponies but the dust factor makes me reconsider display sometimes.

[Darian]

By dedicating entire weekends to cleaning...seriously...I love my ponies but the dust factor makes me reconsider display sometimes.

  I'm thinking closed display cases are a go then...   Thumbs up to you though, that's dedication for you!