I have a few shoebox sized boxes where I keep parts for my current projects. If it is a new kit these parts will remain on the sprue and I’ll keep the original box and instructions (although you may have noticed I'm not very good at following them) until the project is finished.
Once the project is done any remaining parts are cut off and I recycle the sprue, original box and instructions. The parts are then put in my Bits Boxes which used to consist of a number of small plastic (cassette sized) boxes holding different items, heads, bodies, legs, swords, spears etc. right down to ones for books and lamps, but last Summer I also acquired a number of old Video cases which being larger hold a lot more bits. Since I’ve been doing some 40K stuff I also have an ice cream box full of vehicle parts.
When I start a new project I go through these various boxes taking out items that might be useful and keep them all in an empty Video case which goes in, with any new kit I may have bought, to a shoebox until the project’s built.
That is the theory but a problem I have is I am too impatient to start new projects (normally have three or more on the go at a time) that I never return the unused parts to their respective boxes and so every 6 months or so I have to spend a few hours sorting out this backlog of boxes of jumbled up bits.
The above is all plastic, I have a couple of biscuit tins full of metal figures which I only look at occasionally.
