Do you sort Lego by colour?

[BabyInTheJungle]

Sorry for the boring question

Months ago we decided to sort DS's Lego to make it easier to play with. I read online that although sorting by colour looks good, the 'proper' way to sort is by brick type as you will need a particular type of brick and once you identify the type you can find the colour you need more readily.

Literally HOURS AND HOURS of sorting later and we are nowhere near done, sorting by brick type is incredibly slow and boring as hell.

I'm just wondering if others have sorted by colour and if it made it easier to play with?

I meant keep specific sets separately but just random mixed sets (or sets that no longer have pieces/second hand random bits etc) all thrown in together

Just sort by colour - much easier - there are so many brick types

It's mostly to rebuild some sets. My plan is to try to rebuild the sets he has and keep them separate and then have a free play mixed box. It's too overwhelming if the sets and the mixed stuff is all in together.

We're very much a 'mix the playdoh' type of family as we're generally pretty chaotic but with the Lego it detracts from the fun if there's too much.

sort by type.. but I like sorting. otherwise two boxes, big bits and little bits.

No

Full sets are kept seperate in a glass cabinet after building, unless being played with. The rest is all in one box, helps DS practice his awful technique for looking for things . (He loses everything as he doesn't seem to register what he's looking at, or move things. He'll do it for lego though.)

We sort by lego type - one big box of ninjago, one big box of Star Wars, one big box of technic, one big box of nexo knights etc. So if you are trying to rebuild the set, there’s a pretty good chance your piece will be in the right box. And if you are building random fun things, you’ve got lots of pieces together that “go”. It’s a great practical compromise.

Sometimes they steal a piece from the “wrong” box if they can’t find the right bit in the right box. But they put an IOU note in there to save hassle when searching for it another time.

Yes, for rebuilding sets. I'm not convinced it's made that any easier. Rebuilding sets when you own eleventy billion pieces of Lego, even if colour coded, is exceptionally tricky. The other thing is that it's a task you will never finish, so you need to factor in an assorted box. We also have a box of accessories (Swords/ice creams etc) and a box for mini figure parts.

Reading that back I sound a little unhinged I'm sure, but Lego is life!

Tbh, if you're not going to sort by type you might as well not sort at all.

We sorted everything... like a pp we bought a lot of tool and screws boxes. It got quite ridiculous in the end but I had long since ceased to have any idea where things lived.

At the very least you should keep Delicate Fiddly Bits away from Basic Bricks.

It all gets slung into a big trunk.
Occasionally I'll sort a portion of it by shape/ function. Life's too short to do it all, and it wouldn't all fit in the Really Useful Drawers, but it does help inspire the DCs and assist them with looking for specific pieces.

The other issue with the trunk is that small pieces filter down where they're hard to target, so sorting helps with those.

No it’s too hard to keep sorted. Depending on age of child small amount are better IMO as it just gets too confusing . Why is it hard to play with? Probably because there is too much and it’s too overwhelming. Some kids care about cookies other don’t but certainly you need the right shapes. How about sorting our small amounts into shapes in separate boxes for small projects and then a ‘rummage box ‘ for the excess - best of both worlds

Colours not cookies !

@emmathedilemma

I think sorting by brick type (or groups of type) makes more sense than colour. It'll look pretty but I can't see how it makes it easier to play with.

This. Sorting by colour makes so sense at all when you need a particular shaped piece and you don’t know what colour it is

We tried to sort by colour but the boxes never stayed one colour. DS wants to sort by type now, he's 15 so can do that himself 😂

DD has a Lego table with holders along 2 sides and a drawer underneath. Standard bricks are sorted by colour and 'special' pieces in the drawer. She mixes them when lashing and I end up sitting sorting it all out when she's in bed (or redressing barbies and sorting accessories).

The Lego table is genius though! We got the £6 ikea coffee table and modded it.

We do four boxes
Interesting bits
People
Wheels and car bits
Normal bricks

We also tip onto a towel/blanket to use.

I’m just wondering who ‘we’ is in deciding to sort the Lego. It’s your son’s Lego (I’m assuming) and if it’s not his idea then he’ll be far les motivated to keep up with the organisation system. And if he’s old enough to play with Lego (rather than Dulpo) then surely he’s old enough to sort his own Lego out rather than you doing it. Sorting by brick type makes far more sense than colour though (as it’s much harder to see different brick shapes in a sea of a single colour).

Unless it's your own Lego, it's a bit micro managing, leave the DC to it.

I sort it by volume, using a small 'Eureka Can' that I pinched from the Physics Lab when I was at school.

Admittedly it's a bit tedious, but when there's nothing much on telly what else can you do? It's beats ironing.

Fuck me. I barely manage to sort the washing. Gosh I'm crap.

I think it's a bit sad to sort lego, you will make the child scared to play with it and it's def micro managing as above.

why would it need to be colour sorted? it doesn't matter to a child what colour their house/car/dinosaur is, only to us. :(

Fuck me. I barely manage to sort the washing. Gosh I'm crap

No, absolutely not at all. I can hardly keep on top of house stuff, it's absolute chaos round here. I'm MNing instead of sorting the 50 millionth load of washing this week, while DS plays on his iPad.

DS has about 8 sets, plus a load of random second hand/mixed pieces. They are currently totally mixed up. He wants to rebuild the sets but can't find the pieces in the big jumble so he gives up really quickly.

I promise I'm not ruining his childhood by helping him sort Lego He's off with covid just now so we spent a few pleasant hours this morning picking through the bits and building stuff.

Also he's 5 so leaving him to sort it himself will get precisely nowhere!

We have plastic chest of drawers for Lego and it is sorted by brick type. The builders in this house are now over 18 though, so a bit more organised than when they were little!
My DH says his Mum used to sort his Lego out by colour when he was a kid. He'd sort it into types but then woukd come down in the morning and discover that she had "tidied it up" into colours which drove him crazy, so I've never done that.