How do you store Lego?

[CameraTime]

DS (5) has recently got interested in Lego, and we've quite a collection building up. Currently it's all in a big box (one of the Kallax boxes from Ikea), which is about 3/4 full, but there has to be a better way.

He likes to build random things rather than building the sets, so sorting it all by set wouldn't work. He also tends to decide he needs, eg, an eye or a couple of wheels or whatever and then tips the entire box out to find it.

In an ideal world, I'd have it micro-sorted by colour and size (like blue 2x4s in one compartment, blue 1x4s beside that, reds on the row below etc). In this ideal world DS would probably be scared to touch it in case he mixed it up, so that's probably not a good idea either (also there seem to be about a million colours of Lego these days, plus loads of special shaped bits, so it would need one heck of a storage rack).

So, anyone out there with Lego fans, how do you/they sort and store it, and does it work well?

[Icantfind]

We’ve just had a lot of Lego for Christmas and thinking of doing something like this with trofast storage from IKEA.

[Savannaha]

Not sure if this will help you - every fortnight we go over to SiL and order Chinese (for about 15 people). The small plastic tubs that the food comes in goes through the dishwasher and is used for my nephews lego. By now she has so many, they're small enough to all be packed into a larger box.

What I'm trying to say is, small plastic tubs!

[britnay]

Firstly, don't bother sorting by colour, sort by brick type. If all of the same brick type is in a box then its easy to choose which colour brick of that sort you want to get.
Big drawers for main brick types - basically flat studded pieces, 1x stud wide pieces and 2x stud wide pieces.
Small drawers for smaller groups - eg flat smooth pieces, mini fig accessories, plants etc
As you get more bricks these can be divided up further. Make labels for the front of the drawers in either pictures or words

[Lordfrontpaw]

We used to keep the sets in their original boxes and the ‘random’ bits in stacking giant Tupperware boxes.

[DelurkingAJ]

Really useful boxes in a Kallax (or three given the Lego collection here).

[Kezo]

Small stackable boxes/drawers that aren't transparent and sort by size/type NOT colour. That way you don't see it but still know that it's organised.

[Newyearnewme2020]

We have it all in one big box but have smaller boxes to keep small pieces like wheels and people separate.

[sobeyondthehills]

we use storage units, with small drawers and small plastic tubs, we are sorting through them now and its going to be a massive job, given the amount we have, but its going to be worth it, especially because DS wants to rebuild all the sets he has, so we are going to be ordering the bits we are missing as well

[CameraTime]

These are good ideas, thanks! The Really Useful Boxes would be handy, especially one with small compartments for all the little weird bits. Then the bigger blocks could either stay in the current box, or I could maybe sort them into a couple of bigger boxes.

Thanks!

[NannyR]

My preferred method is a drawstring playmat (like this sort of thing), it keeps it all together, it's easy to rummage around for the piece you need and tidying up afterwards is a doddle.

I agree with the other posters who have said sort by brick type not colour, when kids are making models they are not usually too fussy about the colour of brick, but they are more bothered about a particular size or shape.
But if you do decide to sort into separate boxes, accept that it will be you that will be keeping the correct pieces in the correct boxes, kids won't dismantle their models and meticulously put the pieces away. That's why I prefer the all in one box approach.

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

Ikea Trofast unit with big bins a bit like Icantfind's photo above. I tried the smaller bins and sorting by colour/type of brick but the kids just build stuff and shove it all back in the big bins rather than sorting it. So now it's all shoved in 5 big bins, all mixed up. TBH although they build the sets, they much prefer building their own things.

As long as I don't tread on it, I no longer care

[reluctantbrit]

We have the general bricks in a large wooden box which has smaller compartments, it was build by one of my uncles and handed down to DD now.

We sorted them by brick type and size, a lot easier to sort and also look for items.

DD then got into Lego Friends and we got stuck with teeny bits. We bought lots of these trays you have for sewing or nails/screws. That works well for anything the size of a fingernail.

[RavenT]

We have about 6 Really Useful storage boxes, but I will need to get some more as DS's collection is ever expanding. He has one which is full of 'free lego' (i.e. he can build anything with it) and then the others are full of lego sets - so he has 2 lego city boxes, a batman box, a spiderman box, and a ninjago box. Most of these are full of completed vehicle sets.

I am obsessed with getting it stored right.

[CameraTime]

I should have said, I'm not intending to allow make DS sort it all out. He'd only mess it up. I'll wait till he's out and do it myself.