Please help me categorise our lego!

[anxietrist]

So far I've got:

Large flat pieces
Body parts
Regular bricks
Vehicle bricks
Tiny pieces
Random pieces

I want to decide on the categories before I buy the storage so I know how many drawers/boxes I need!

& I think house pieces like windows and doors

We colour coded ours, it lasted a day.

We use those plastic drawers from wilko. Separated by colour. 2 of those boxes with little compartments for finickity bits like people and accessories.

My advice....

Don't!!!

All in one box. Save yourself time sorting it. I tried this once.... took about 17 days to sort. Lasted about 20 minutes. Never again.

Wheels?

i was going to suggest colour coding them too How old are your dc, are they likely to stick to any type of categorisation?

I have 3 categories only: super tiny pieces, people and their accessories, and everything else.

I have tried other systems with more categories but this is the only one that is anywhere close to maintainable. If something is hard to find in the big box, it can be tipped out on to a sheet and then poured back into the box afterwards.

Part of the fun of lego is sifting through a big box of it to find the piece you need!

Colours (and then sub-categorising colours into dimensions) is the only thing that really seems to stick in this house.

we have about 20 identical flat cardboard boxes with lids, bought as a set on Amazon. categories are

• people
• accessories
• flat plates
• wheels & car stuff
• windows & doors
• connectors (hinges, things that twist etc) - very important category
• tiny bits
• building bricks (one box for each colour)
• technic
• big odd things

When the boxes are closed, they all sit neatly on the shelf. The kids decorated the outsides with the names of the type of lego instead.

And when they are open, they are flat enough to search for pieces WITHOUT tipping things out.

When the boxes are closed, they all sit neatly on the shelf. The kids decorated the outsides with the names of the type of lego instead.

And when they are open, they are flat enough to search for pieces WITHOUT tipping things out.

This!!!
We have
Red/yellow
Orange/brown
Blue
Green
People
Black
Grey
White
DS
DD
People/animals
Tiny bits
random unsorted Tidy up quick
2x train tracks.
These all stack.

Then we have 3 lego shaped boxes for partially built bits.

I tried sorting by shape but it failed miserably as the DC couldn't decide which box bits went in. They find it easier to sort by colour.

The only thing we categorise is having the figures in one pot. All the bricks go in randomly. No point organising!

@Ernieshere

We colour coded ours, it lasted a day.

Yes, exactly this!

It depends how much you have really. We've got those takeaway boxes for tiny bits, I noticed recently one had "Minifigs" sharpied on the lid. It's way too small for that, we have hundreds of minifigs so that tub now just has heads/hair/hats in it.

Other categories are: plates (all sizes), small bricks, tiny bits, animals, windows/doors (and wall elements) and the biggest box with Large Bricks in. All our boxes are clear ones so no need for labelling or taking lids off to see. I bought some shallow ones recently from Amazon as they're great for stacking, Really Useful Stacking Box with lid (Kaiser & Kraft)

I don't sort by colour as that's the easiest characteristic to spot, but I do by size as the smallest pieces always drop to the bottom of the box. It's a pain constantly shoving the big bricks back like King Canute to find some itsy bitsy 1x1 in dark stone grey.

Good god, we organised ours once, with 8yos' help and input. It lasted 3 days. Now it all lives in a giant Swoopmat. I haven't got time for that shit again.

Swoopmat of Lego.
Giant plastic tub of Playmobil.
Big box of cars/vehicles.
Draw full of pens/fancy scissors/pencils
Draw of craft stuff
Box of fancy dress kit
Shelves for "treasures" (shit from the street or off the beach)
Big pouffe for all the cuddly toys.

Organised Lego is for adults.

Colour would stress me out too much and I don't think would be particularly helpful! DS generally has a project in mind and wants me to help find a particular type of brick I think having them sorted by type but not being super strict about it would be helpful.

We have
People
Special bits (small)
Vehicle
Everything else

People who organise by colour - why? Does it actually make anything easier to find?

@parietal that's the sort of thing I had in mind!

Was thinking this for storage though

Both DC have these in their bedrooms to sort their Lego. Initially they were colour co-ordinated but that lasted about 7 minutes while I cried in a corner. No idea how they're organised now - it's just Lego everywhere.

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/really-useful-11-drawer-rainbow-storage-tower/572895-1000

Ds is really strict about keeping his Lego in catergories, so we haveA box of Lego city police, A box of Lego city ice station, ninjago, Harry Potter, minecraft Etc. We have talked about sorting it in other ways, but he likes to keep each section separate.

Dd has one big box and keeps it all together and will not hear of it being split. Lego friends, Harry Potter, fairies, NASA, scientists. It’s one big jumble all together!

We just have an underbed storage box that it goes in. I’d love it all sorted but the kids don’t play with it often enough to justify it having a fancy set of drawers of its own.

We have one of those drawers and in them We have:

Flat pieces
Building parts (ie windows doors etc)
Vehicle parts wheels etc
Connecting pieces
People and accessories
And a Big box of bricks
Miscellaneous

I love Lego!

I might just buy it and then figure it out once I start sorting it. I feel like the 'random' box will have a lot in! Can't wait for the body parts to all be in one place though, I love making people but DS loves taking them apart so always have missing arms etc 😐