Miniature Storage Solutions – A Complete Guide to Miniature Storage

by Jake | Last Updated: August 7, 2021
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It doesn’t matter whether you have a massive collection of d&d miniatures bulk or a modest number of amazing miniatures, we all need to keep them well stored, easy to find, and in no danger of any sort of long-term damage. That’s why we’re going to bring you the best miniature storage box solutions to keep your collection as impeccable as possible whilst also keeping your miniatures at hand.

Storing miniatures can be a daunting task – especially if your collection is huge. But it doesn’t have to be! We will guide you down the right path whether you have amassed a large collection of miniatures or a small collection as I know we all need a practical miniature storage solution.

As such, we’re going to present you with miniature storage solutions for various types of collection sizes, games, and different types of minis!

Learn the Best Way to Store D&D Miniatures

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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

First things first: what should you take into consideration when storing miniatures and DND figurines? In our opinion, what matters the most is that you have them all sorted, easy to find, and keep them looking good at the same time.

There are some things that we want you to consider before deciding the best way to store miniatures according to your own needs:

How Likely Is It For You To Move

Consider your possibilities of moving from your current place before deciding how to store your miniatures. Transporting miniatures can be really annoying if not stored accordingly, so you may want to consider the chances of transporting miniatures in the near future before opting for one type of storage or another.

In fact, you may want to keep a special box with foam trays for transporting miniatures even if you own other items for miniature storage or miniature display. That way, you can simply move the ones you need as efficiently as possible! This holds true especially for DM’s who might be transporting several miniatures for a session.

Determine How Many Miniatures You Own

Determine the size of your miniatures and collection If you only have D&D miniatures and you want to create a dedicated DND storage, it’ll be much easier than owning and trying to store multiple collections. Learning how to store your miniatures begins with creating a list of all of your figurines to know just how many miniature storage box containers you’ll need.

Consider the Size of Your Miniatures

Miniatures storage possibilities vary depending on the size of the miniatures that you own. Some larger miniatures are impossible to store in regular storage boxes, so you may want to opt for ways in which to display them (shelves are great for large miniatures storage).

Take into Account the Material of Your Miniatures

We know that not all of you are here looking for Dungeons and Dragons storage solutions, so we want you to pay close attention to the material of your figures before opting to store them in a container or display them on a shelf.

Some heavier figurines (particularly those made with metal and compounds) may require you to store them somewhere padded with foam trays if you want to avoid your painted miniatures from chipping. Unpainted miniatures you won’t have to worry so much about.

Storage for Miniatures of Regular Sizes

Miniature storage containers, or specialized miniature boxes, will always be the best ones that you can get if you intend to transport your small and medium miniatures. The Miniature Storage Hard Shell Figure Case is one of our favorites, but you can also learn how to store miniatures to perfection with one of the following:

A transparent container is always a smart choice for easy browsing. We recommend a stackable container to sort everything easily. 

A bigger miniature storage container with drawers for regular miniatures and mid-size miniatures or other items. A regular container with drawers could really help your sorting – especially if you’d like to stack some items or figurines in one of the drawers.

Bags with built-in storage slots are also a fantastic choice for storing miniatures if you own a small collection, or you could get one per set as well, which would make transport a much easier task.

Attach magnets to the base of your figurines and stick them to a metal surface. That’s a great way to save some space – but beware of any mischievous pet behavior if you own a little companion!

You can also resort to normal boxes, but we recommend getting specialized storage containers to prevent your miniatures getting damaged.

A fantastic out-of-the-box and very cheap solution is to use egg carton trays to transport your figurines. It’s practical and quite unorthodox, but it can be far more useful than you may think. These boxes are made to store very fragile eggs, so you won’t even have to worry about your miniatures breaking or taking any damage!

Storage of Miniatures of Large Sizes

Dungeons and Dragons miniatures

There are some fantastic minis that are larger than your small and medium minis, no matter which game you play. If you’re a Warhammer player or a D&D adventurer, you’re probably familiar with those large figurines that spice up any game but that are also difficult to store.

Here are some easy solutions for you to quickly store your large figurines:

  • The old-school shelf display is always a fantastic storage option that also provides your home with some cool vibes – especially if you’re looking for Dungeons and Dragons storage options. You don’t really want to keep that sweet Arveiaturace dragon boxed off in a dark room, do you?
  • Plastic boxes and plastic foam trays are great if you need to keep those large minis well protected. A plastic box is a great storage option on its own, but consider adding a foam inserts when moving the figure around to prevent damage
  • Keep them in the original packaging! Some boxes are worth keeping around and they serve well as storage options. This is especially true for Dungeons and Dragons miniature storage box. It’s a fantastic cheap storage solution for singles or a handful of miniatures. Same goes with an old shoe box. Although, not the best option.
  • This might not be the case if you 3D print your own. If you’re interested in 3D printing miniatures check out our article on the best 3D printer for miniatures.

Using Custom Trays – Is It Worth It?

Look, we know that getting custom trays for certain minis may seem like a very appealing option, but you’ll find that spending extra money (or taking more time to create them yourself) may not be worth it. In fact, you’ll find that it rarely is worth it if at all.

Why? Because standard plastic foam trays and standard boxes usually do the trick for storing minis and they’re hardly expensive unless you go for crazy customized storage for your games workshop. A tackle box tends to be cheap and it will save you the time and money of spending a lot, but it’ll still keep your games workshop looking tidy and well organized.

Custom trays with foam trays do allow for great storage ideas, but we don’t recommend overspending on them.

Storage for Miniatures & Terrain (Warhammer, D&D)

Regardless of the game that you play, all minis require to be properly sorted and well displayed if you want to keep them looking good for as long as you can. This is especially true for painted minis. If you play D&D, then you’ve probably thought of ways of improving your Dungeons and Dragons storage containers or maybe you’ve thought about new ways to properly sort your terrain pieces and miniatures.

The most important thing that you should gather about this guide is to keep every mini as organized as possible so it’s easy to find. Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer collections can grow to be rather massive, so you’ll need to have everything sorted from the start and keep it sorted as your collection grows.

Best Way to Store Miniatures of All Sizes

You can also follow a list of simple steps if you wish to get a good but general idea of what you’ll need to do when looking for the best way to store miniatures. Use our guide of 5 simple steps to make sure that all of your minis are suitable for your personal criteria:

  1. Determine the size of your collection
  2. Create a list of miniature storage containers with enough slots to fit your whole inventory
  3. Buy storage boxes for your terrain – don’t store them together with your minis under any circumstances
  4. Get a labeling tool or create custom labels to identify the contents of each box
  5. Make sure that you have enough room in your home to store everything. More boxes mean more space, so measure everything before buying miniature storage containers

What are the Best Miniature Storage Containers?

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Regardless of the size of your collection, you’ll want to find the best miniature storage options for you to keep your miniatures in tip-top shape.

In general, you’ll want the following items for the proper safekeeping of any Warhammer or D&D miniatures that you own:

  • Transparent storage containers so you can quickly overview the figures inside
  • Shelves to store your larger minis
  • Specialized miniature boxes for quick transportation

How to Label Your Miniature Storage Containers

Let’s take a look at the labels that you can put on your storage boxes and containers to make sure that everything is easily identifiable. You can label your boxes from the outside, and keep the foam trays and figurines inside, which will help you achieve the most ideal storage box for your figures.

Labeling minis is very important, though; and even more so if you have a large collection. Accustom yourself to labeling every single one of the miniature boxes that you plan to store and you’ll thank yourself for doing so after your collection grows a few more miniatures in size.

You can even label where you place your minis inside the boxes if you want to take your organizing a level deeper. This is VERY useful for people that own boxes that contain inner trays with covers, but it may not be as useful for those that own a basic foam tray or regular containers with foam inserts inside.

How to Transport Figurines

It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking to transport your miniatures in the near future or not – it’s always important to consider it.

In fact, if you’re the designated Dungeon Master amongst your friends, or even if you intend to be the Dungeon Master at some point in the future, you should always consider the best way to store D&D miniatures for easy transportation.

Naturally, if you want to move your DND miniatures around, you’ll want something a bit more durable than what you’d use for home storage to protect miniatures.

The best answer to how to transport your D&D miniatures is to use specialized boxes with specific slots to keep everything safe and in check. Casematix and Feldherr storage box offer some fantastic options, like the Miniature Storage Hard Shell Figure Case, in which you can fit up to 80 regular-sized figurines and take your D&D story wherever it needs to go.

You can also check out Feldherr’s Storage Box if you’re still wondering how to store D&D miniatures for easy, quick, and safe transport. It fits up to 200 minis!

Be sure to check out our article If you’re looking for the best D&D battle mat to complement your dnd storage solutions and dungeons and dragons miniatures!

DND Storage – Considering Transportation is a Must

You’ll never know when you’re going to need certain miniatures – especially if you play D&D on a weekly basis. As such, DND storage techniques tend to be a little trickier than they are for someone who is just looking to keep their minis collected and without them picking up any dust.

You’ll want to focus on DND storage that allows you to properly determine where your figurines are, so we suggest you focus on D&D storage by sets.

D&D storage box options are aplenty, so it makes sense to create your own custom sortings depending on how many sets you own!

It’s Time to Get Your Hands Dirty!

Roleplay game with dragons in dungeon. Yellow field dice.

You probably already have a good idea of how you’ll be storing your miniatures for future games, so it’s time to get down to business. Combine the methods that we’ve told you in the best way to suit your own needs and create a custom storage that everyone will be jealous about. Share it on Reddit once you’re proud of how it looks to flex on other collectors!