At what point does one abandon keeping Lego sets separated?

[ElphabaTheGreen]

My DSs are Lego-mad and we’ll get them a set each for every birthday and Christmas. I’m completely obsessive a little finicky about keeping them separated into sets, since the bloody things are so expensive and I’m a little anally retentive, but the DSs tend to build the designs once then deconstruct them and freestyle thereafter, meaning the sets get slowly intermingled with the massive random pieces box we have it’s killing me...the mixing is killing me...

At what point did you go ‘Fuckit’ and chuck them all in together? I may need therapy to do that

You.Take.Lego.Out.Of.The.Box????

Get the kids told.

@sherrystrull

I agree with the failing at life thing!

Does anyone store their Lego in anything other than a big box?

We store our lego in a huge bag with a drawstring. When you fully open it, it turns into a big circle that you can spread all the pieces out in a nice thin layer.

Then when you done, you pull the string and it turns back into a bag! I love it!

Ours were all mixed up for years, then DDs lost interest and I spend a very happy few days sorting on my own over a holiday whilst watching TV. They are now all boxed up in the attic ready for the next generation

I gave up quite early on, but if you can set aside an hour a week to keep them intact it will definitely be worth it in terms of £££. Don't ask the kids to help, just do it yourself. I regret not having the patience to do it.

Re-purposes almost immediately for freestyle building. Surely that’s extending its joy and value to the owner? What do your kids do with them if they stay built?

DS repurposes pieces to make Lego transformers that actually transform into robots from vehicles. No way we’d ever have know he had that kind of skill if we kept his sets together.

Our lego gets mixed after the initial build, but I highly recommend one of these bags! Saves hours of scooping up lego pieces in and out of the box.

Op, just keep all the instruction booklets intact and as pristine as you can. Lego has great resale value as long as you've kept the boxes and instructions. Even if it's all jumbled up and you sell it as a huge job lot.

@Respectmyauthoritah

Our lego gets mixed after the initial build, but I highly recommend one of these bags! Saves hours of scooping up lego pieces in and out of the box.

I second this, we have this too, its a great idea. I tried to keep the sets in separate plastic bags for building again, its a neverending and completely thankless task.

We keep some sets separate, but the majority is in a big box.
We do have (nearly!) all the instructions, but finding bits after they have been mixed in with everything is hideous if the child insists on the correct shade of grey, or that clear red and orange pieces cant be interchanged.

Pretty much the minute is was opened

We keep big sets separate, smaller sets get broken up. They get sorted by color and rough size.
Lego manuals get filed together.

Ours is sorted by colour instead. One box contains all instructions and there are an awful lot of sets built and played with regularly, including most of the Harry Potter sets. The one deal is, it has to be picked up off the floor at night. Any lego found on the floor is destroyed. Only tested it once!

I had one of those drawstring bags when I was a kid but I secretly hated it so the DCs have a very lovely massive wooden box from TK Maxx for their randoms which sits tastefully in the corner of the living room. It could easily accommodate all of their amalgamated sets. But I don’t know if I’m ready.

I am one of those tragics that dreams of taking several kid-free days off work to sort out All The Sets but I would probably drive them into years of therapy by a subsequent obsession with keeping the sorted sets pristine. Which they wouldn’t.

There are a lot of teeth marks, though, I’ve noticed which would surely dent re-sale value if ever I did carry out my dream of sorting sets?

Both series of Lego Masters is available on Channel Four if you’ve not watched it. If you can somehow get the Australian version it’s even better. My DSs’ creativity with Lego went stratospheric after watching those. ‘Lego men’ were only ‘mini figs’ thereafter, however, ‘playing Lego’ was exclusively ‘builds’ and they now rate each other on swooshability and NPU.

I love Lego, me. Great toy.

www.box4blox.com/

[quote butterfly990]www.box4blox.com/[/quote]

My lego, built and in display cabinet.

Valuable sets kept separate.

Cheap sets/friends etc built once then mixed up in a trofast.

Ineedaneasteregg

Your colour sorted bricks are a thing of beauty 😄

Both series of Lego Masters is available on Channel Four if you’ve not watched it

USA series is starting on E4 next Tuesday at 9pm

Straight away, but I do have separate boxes for Minecraft lego (different colours/parts) and the bits that make up little transformer type things - Bionicle and whatever they called the later sets. Because those ones have complicated parts that get hard to find in the normal box.

Then there's one massive box for everything else.

If we were going to sell a set later I'd find all the bits for that one set and sell it like that, but TBH I would probably just give it to the DC to do what they want with or sell it by weight.

Ours stay together. Hes (9 yo) currently building one of the Hogwarts ones he got for his birthday
They generally get built, stay on the shelf for a bit and then I dismantle and bag some of them to give him something to build. So for example we have the Hogwarts Express which is actually mine but after I finished it I dismantled and ranged it in DSSs room for when he was over. He had just finished it when he got another one for his birthday.

Thanks whatsnewpussyhat.
We used to just have large boxes but no one could find anything small for building with and dust got everywhere!
(Honestly we have far too much lego!)

I'm lucky if they even get made once. DS1 is famous for throwing the instructions away so he can see what potential lies in the new pieces. All our Lego is stored in a huge wooden sandpit so the kids can crawl around in it finding pieces and building.

I know this dilemma, but give up. Life’s too short!
If you want to be obsessional keep the instructions so you know what could be built with what you’ve got.
It was better for learning and imagination when I was young. There were just loads of bricks from which you made stuff in your head.

I cba keeping them that organised but I think perhaps some kind of colour organiser would be both useful and pretty to look at.

Gave it up years ago. Attempted sorting it all out into colours but gave up out of frustration five minutes later....eldest DC is almost 14. We have been a Lego household for years now.

@Whatsnewpussyhat

My lego, built and in display cabinet.

Valuable sets kept separate.

Cheap sets/friends etc built once then mixed up in a trofast.

Ineedaneasteregg

Your colour sorted bricks are a thing of beauty 😄

It’s Lego porn, quite frankly.

Hm. American Lego Masters. Do you think it will be OK or will they be all American and screamy? (Oh my GAAAAAHD! AAAAAAH THAT’S AAAAAAAAH-SOME!)

(Disclaimer: both of my parents are/were American so I grew up surrounded by loud Yank enthusiasm. Not sure if I could take it with my Lego.)