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

DC's sets are all built and on display to be played with when they want.

Random small models, for example from advent calendars or Lego magazines have been broken up and are in the boxes of bricks (along with the spares that come with sets).

I like to keep Lego bricks separated by shape (and not colour) and we have several IKEA Glis boxes to store them in:

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/glis-box-with-lid-transparent-00283103/

I can't imagine building a set, breaking it up, and having all the bricks mixed up

The adults' Lego is on display and gradually getting display cases from Wicked Bricks.

We love Lego here!

Have you seen the Lego Movie,OP? You’re like the mean dad in the real life bit😃

@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

I think you're my Lego spirit animal. They MUST be kept separate at all costs

What age are your children? i remember when mine did that and they had loads of fun using pieces from different sets to do custom builds. i would encourage it! uf ut truely does annoy you then put some grenades in the big box and let it explode. that will teach them!!

All these weirdos that actually open the box. It's not a toy for god's sake!

The children know not to touch the display Lego...

(Currently moving house. Movie the display Lego is our biggest headache.

I build and display so wouldn't mix any up.

If they free build then mix it together, if you sell them you'd have to decide whether it was worth looking for all the pieces or just sell it by the KG.

My dream house would have a Lego room with drawers of sorted Lego, a building space and display spaces!

@Mamabear654

What age are your children? i remember when mine did that and they had loads of fun using pieces from different sets to do custom builds. i would encourage it! uf ut truely does annoy you then put some grenades in the big box and let it explode. that will teach them!!

They’re 6 and 8. I definitely DON’T want to flatten creative builds. DS1 wants to be an engineer and the stuff with moving parts that he’s come up with without even using Technic are so clever.

But they’ve not done all three variations on the skatepark yet...or the ski chalet...and only two of the three Minions builds...yet the pieces are mixing... 😭

Hm. American Lego Masters. Do you think it will be OK or will they be all American and screamy

From the clips I've seen it looks like they smash the losing team's build to bits using a variety of supposedly funny methods and the male presenter seems loud. But I can always mute it and put subtitles on

Currently moving house. Movie the display Lego is our biggest headache

I bought some large plastic lidded boxes and extra large clear food bags. Put each set in a food bag then put them in the boxes. That way even if they break up in transit, each set is still separate in its own bag so easy to put back together again.

if they build it first im sure its fine if after they take them apart

Very apt thread. Sorting out my boys' room. Discovered that their many many boxes of Lego, carefully separated by me originally, into clear IKEA boxes, are now mostly mixed up. 😱

Total horror.

Slowly & painfully they are rebuilding each set. But doing it for me, mostly, and in my heart of hearts I know it's mad.

I'm reading these suggestions with interest.

God it seems freeing to get one of those drawstring bags & throw it all in. Could I do it? (I'm my mother's daughter. She still goes apeshit if a visiting grandchild misplaces a single solitary piece of ... anything. A train driver from the zoo train. A jigsaw piece. The dreaded chain from the digger. I know these are our old childhood toys but she's like this with anything. We all dread getting The Phonecall to ask about whatever's missing, after we leave. One small Covid blessing ... thing is, I'm just like her 🥺)

Little sets like cars etc end up getting changed etc and put into a big box. Big sets like Harry Potter and Marvel stuff stays as it is and the kids play with sets with various characters, making up stories etc. They have a massive box of random Lego pieces they can use for their own creations.

Ours is sorted by type. It makes it really easy to find the bits you need to rebuild a broken up set.

The instructions are in ring binders and the boxes flat packed in the attic. I'll divide up into sets and sell it to fund university

Oh Jesus, life’s too short for pointless worrying!
Ours get made up and then smashed up whenever to be chucked into the big box for rainy days of freestyle building. The massive hogwarts castle that took the dds a week to build one Christmas is mingled with the spongebob pineapple also mingling with the various sets of mario Lego.
Makes it interesting when they’re digging around for pieces making other things when they come across distinctive pieces!
We don’t even keep the booklets

Oldest son made a few of his and kept them on a shelf, the rest were all added to the boxes, no seperating colours or sizes.
We put a flat sheet on the livingroom floor and tipped out the big box. Made it easy to get back in the box, each kid grabs a corner and you slide it all back in the big box.

Some people will create the instruments of their own oppression.

Build once to get he plan, then let the pieces (and their imaginations) run free!

“Build once to the plan...”

Ya know all the instructions are on the app? Obviously no good if you plan to sell the sets, but no need to worry if not.
You can also log which sets you have etc. Easy to keep track!

@Anotherdayanotherdollar

Ya know all the instructions are on the app? Obviously no good if you plan to sell the sets, but no need to worry if not. You can also log which sets you have etc. Easy to keep track!

This is brand new information

Wow! Never knew there was an app, not to mind I could get instructions.

Wow! 😀 thank you!

@Anotherdayanotherdollar

Ya know all the instructions are on the app? Obviously no good if you plan to sell the sets, but no need to worry if not. You can also log which sets you have etc. Easy to keep track!

Yes, but I can’t send DS off with my phone to pick something to build and find the pieces. Too young for unsupervised Internet but old enough to do Lego alone

Surely they need to be mixed up? My Dss used to have big battles with start wars guys against Harry Potter etc and the things they made with it mixed up were amazing. Eldest had a book that he used to make up elastic band guns and he'd order in individual pieces if he didn't have them all.

Dc are adults now and we still have all the lego, all mixed up in dozens of boxes stashed all over - really should do something with it all.

Surely you superglue them together the first time they are built so they can't get broken up?

I LOVED the Lego movie.

(Our Lego is sorted into drawers by colour)

@poshme

Surely you superglue them together the first time they are built so they can't get broken up?

I LOVED the Lego movie.

(Our Lego is sorted into drawers by colour)

Kragle!!

I've tried to sort by type and use a combination of trofast and boxes with smaller compartments in. In practice about half is sorted this way and the rest is in a big box. Sorting by type does make things easier when you're looking for a specific brick, but then again I know that often the best ideas come about when DS has been hunting for one brick and comes across something else. The one exception is his arctic lego - that's kept separately and he plays with that in a slightly different way.
I wish I could bring myself to throw it all into one big pot but I'm not quite ready to take that step just yet..

We don't have a Lego box, we have a Lego System. It involves LOTS of mini drawer units filled with tiles, flats, roof pieces etc and many tidy tubs with carefully organised accessories, hair bits etc. It's a complicated,long winded waste of life!! Dp loves it and will spend hours 'sorting' the lego.