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Anyone have any advice on how to sort minifigure parts? I've got yellow heads sorted by facial hair color, torsos by theme/era/style, and legs by color. Does anyone know a better way?
I don't know. It varies on peoples wants and needs. For heads I sort out- yellow and flesh and eye shine or none (helps because it can be weird to mix these in a film). For torsos I sort out ones that could be easily damaged (like those with that metallic print stuff).
I find it depends on overall amount of parts I have.
For heads: Generally I have a sorted box for yellow heads and inside that they are sorted by basic style (female, male hairless, beard, mustache, non-dot eyes, monster, classic smile) and another for non-yellow which covers flesh, monster, robot, special shape, etc. I have had to refine the system as I get more heads though and make the categories tighter. I've also started matching up heads that are nearly identical but have different expressions for ease of animation/comic use.
For Legs: I have two containers with printed legs, separated by leg base color. All nonprinted legs are also separated by leg base color with large amounts also further separated by hip color.
For Torsos: Basically the same as legs with some items grouped based off commonality to keep the amount per bin small enough to handle (for example, all wolfpack torsos are together separate from other brown torsos).
I use these types of containers for minifig parts and accessories. They are easy to move wherever and to rearange as needed.
This was my original sorting of heads, but like I said it takes up more bins now and I've narrowed down the categories to cut back on searching time.
I find it depends on overall amount of parts I have.
For heads: Generally I have a sorted box for yellow heads and inside that they are sorted by basic style (female, male hairless, beard, mustache, non-dot eyes, monster, classic smile) and another for non-yellow which covers flesh, monster, robot, special shape, etc. I have had to refine the system as I get more heads though and make the categories tighter. I've also started matching up heads that are nearly identical but have different expressions for ease of animation/comic use.
For Legs: I have two containers with printed legs, separated by leg base color. All nonprinted legs are also separated by leg base color with large amounts also further separated by hip color.
For Torsos: Basically the same as legs with some items grouped based off commonality to keep the amount per bin small enough to handle (for example, all wolfpack torsos are together separate from other brown torsos).
I use these types of containers for minifig parts and accessories. They are easy to move wherever and to rearange as needed.
This was my original sorting of heads, but like I said it takes up more bins now and I've narrowed down the categories to cut back on searching time.
Wow, that's quite an impressive collection! I don't have enough to separate them quite so far, but some of these tips do help. Thanks! By the way... any idea how many pieces are in your entire collection? How long have you been collecting? I don't think I've ever seen such a large personal collection of minifigure heads!
I don't know. It varies on peoples wants and needs. For heads I sort out- yellow and flesh and eye shine or none (helps because it can be weird to mix these in a film). For torsos I sort out ones that could be easily damaged (like those with that metallic print stuff).
Thanks! I never thought about separating the damageable ones. I'll have to consider that...
Wow, that's quite an impressive collection! I don't have enough to separate them quite so far, but some of these tips do help. Thanks! By the way... any idea how many pieces are in your entire collection? How long have you been collecting? I don't think I've ever seen such a large personal collection of minifigure heads!
I have no idea honestly. I only started buying parts around Nov 2010, and that photo is from 05/2012. My fig parts collection quite a bit different now but still sorted in those style bins, just more refined categories to keep the parts-per-bin small enough to sort through quickly.
I do try to sell off duplicate heads if I overfill the large container (for example I had to sell around 100 classic smiles which still left me with somewhere around 300 at the time). I don't really pay attention to quantity other than that sort of thing. With torsos I try and keep no more than 5 of the same thing except in special cases, but that's just because of the way I build and I don't do large army invasion scenes or anything like that.
Glad I could help a little bit at least. 
Generally, I sort my heads by the following:
Facial hair
Girl faces
Non-yellow heads
Trans heads
Basic Faces (like Bob and simple town faces)
Robots
etc...
Unfortunately, I often don't sort them when I'm done using them, so I tend to have a bunch of loose heads in my organizer. I don't sort torsos or legs, but if you were to do that, I'd say put the most used ones together, and group them by general theme (not LEGO theme). For example, put universal town/any use torsos together, space together, female torsos, and so forth. Legs could be done by color if you have enough.
So, I need to take my own advice and sort my collection. 
Generally, I sort my heads by the following:
Facial hair
Girl faces
Non-yellow heads
Trans heads
Basic Faces (like Bob and simple town faces)
Robots
etc...Unfortunately, I often don't sort them when I'm done using them, so I tend to have a bunch of loose heads in my organizer. I don't sort torsos or legs, but if you were to do that, I'd say put the most used ones together, and group them by general theme (not LEGO theme). For example, put universal town/any use torsos together, space together, female torsos, and so forth. Legs could be done by color if you have enough.
So, I need to take my own advice and sort my collection.
I do sort my torsos by general theme. I haven't thought about putting the most used ones together... well, come to think of it, I keep all of my most used ones on my favorite minifigures, which I keep on display. 
Thanks for the help!
I have most of my minifigure parts in just one bin. It's not very good, but I need some smaller drawers for more detailed sorting. Though I have made a special thing for heads:
I call these head wheels. They make it really easy to see all of my heads at once without having to dig through a drawer. I also don't have to worry about the stack facing the wrong way because they all go outward. I've also put a stick in the middle so I can hold it by that and rotate easily.
The only other thing special I do is with capes.
Capes are very delicate and one would want to keep them in good condition so I keep all of mine in a little container in a stack so they don't get messed up.
I have most of my minifigure parts in just one bin. It's not very good, but I need some smaller drawers for more detailed sorting. Though I have made a special thing for heads:
I call these head wheels. They make it really easy to see all of my heads at once without having to dig through a drawer. I also don't have to worry about the stack facing the wrong way because they all go outward. I've also put a stick in the middle so I can hold it by that and rotate easily.
The only other thing special I do is with capes.
Capes are very delicate and one would want to keep them in good condition so I keep all of mine in a little container in a stack so they don't get messed up.
Thanks, Squid! That's a very unique idea, as yours usually are. I may do that! It does look a lot more convenient. I do keep my capes in a stack in a small compartment. I once had a softer, less stiff cloth cape that came on a LEGO Darth Vader pen... it got twisted around so many times that by the time the pen was out of ink, it was useless. I wish I had taken it off and protected it, because it was different from the normal capes.
This is a long outdated way that I sort my minifigures. I now use this container just for legs and torsos, and a larger container similar to this for my heads, and any minifigure items. I still need to sort out my minifigure items into better categories in my current container. If there's one thing I can recommend, is have a large enough container for legs and torsos. They take up a lot more room than heads.
Update pictures to come soon.
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