To mix up all the Lego into one big storage box?

[deathbylego]

The space sets, the police trucks, the three-in-one robot/dinosaur/sports car/propeller plane sets, the power mining underwater Atlantis space star wars stuff.

At the moment all sets live in their own clear boxes, in various stages of completeness (none really, actually complete). This means I cannot clear up the Lego, as only DS (8) knows where it should go and what piece belongs to what set, and this causes endless arguments. He has no organisational impulses whatsoever. The boxes are everywhere, and I feel my blood pressure rising as sets that should stay together become scattered. His room is a tip, boxes everywhere.

DH is horrified that I want to mix up the sets. But I am itching, ITCHING, to just dump it all in one big box and have done with it. I can feel my stress levels lowering just thinking about it. Then I could just say, 'Tidy up, DS', and he could toss it all into the Big Box. Done.

Please may I? I promise to keep all the instruction booklets.

When we were sorting the Lego (by shape) DS also insisted that the megablocks and odd Chinese brands go in separate boxes - it can't be mixed with the real stuff apparently.

amck, ds1 and I sorted out his Bionicles to sell and got ?200 for them. However, when I think of the time it took to put them all together (hours and hours), I can understand your sentiment.

I love Horopu's link. If I sorted DS's lego according to that website, his room would be immaculate and I'd feel a huge sense of satisfaction for sorting it out once and for all.
But I fear the children would starve and the house look fit only for Grimewatch.
I kept his lego seperate in original boxes for ages. But he didn't play with it at all after making the original set. So it's all in a box now with booklets shoved any which way. Apart from his karate temple thing which has stealthily become a fixture on the bookshelf.

Has anyone ever found Lego in charity shops? I get dds storybooks from there so tend to just go straight to the childrens books sections and ignore the rest of the ahop.

I am storing up ideas from this thread. I really like the idea of the blackboard paint table that linked off the page Gnocchi talked about.

We have a table which is currently a fixed Brio layout that we got off ebay. DH is thinking about taking off the tabletop, adding a new wooden top to the base (a foldable table) and making it so we can click the train table on if needed. But which will be a lego table in the meantime. Now I need to remember blackboard paint... could also do with giving it a ledge to stop bits falling off. As they do.

So has anyone else here had to take a knife to the vacuum cleaner bag to get out some lego that's gone shooting up the pipes, or are you all much harder than me?

If anyone had told me when I was a Marlboro light smoking, intense, Angela Carter reading student that I would spend hours reading information about Lego storage and TAKING NOTES, I would have sneered out of my dark lipsticked pretentious mouth. Thank you for this.

Today I gave up trying to keep all the kits separate and dumped them all in together. DH and I have heaved a huge sigh of relief, now when we find a brick it will be tossed into one the the lego boxes, we will not stress about whether it came fro the Ninjago ice dragon or the Alien Conquest mothership. I feel a much happier mommy with a much tidier house. If when they are older they feel the need to sort it, I will not be helping

Never found lego in a charity shop. I go very often.

Found a small lot of duplo once.

I think people just know its worth so much, it goes in a loft or to friend or ebay.

Mine adore duplo so my dh lego will be very welcome.

Did find a huge amount of meccano once ( now in my loft) :-)

Why isnt there 'just lego' anymore? Now its all tied into films and tv characters.

There is "just lego". Argos have a pretty good selection. Yes, lots are tv/film merchandising but even that is mostly standard lego bits. We have a wide range of different types of Lego. Put it together and you have the girls from Friends Lego piloting the space shuttle, or some strange mash up of Lego minifigs sitting in a cafe/castle mixture.

I got the brick sorter that someone recommended upthread. It was great. Having things presorted by size definitely helped me sort quicker. I don't know if the novelty will wear off or I'll keep using it but it does seem useful. Thanks for telling me about it.

DS2 (nearly 13) still has Lego (not used now though) but we put all his into one very large box and he used to make up new constructions with it all.

DH kept his Lego, it was in his mum's loft. He asked for it the other day, for our DS and discovered his mum gave it to his sister (primary school teacher) so its now at her school. . DH was ! Came home quite upset about it because she did the same with all his matchbox cars.

So I think our DS is going to benefit from lots of nice new shiny Lego sets come Xmas time.

Still loving this thread!

DS inherited £1,000s worth of Lego 4 years ago from an elderly disabled friend of DH. Making Lego models was his passion because he couldn't get out much. When he died he left it all to DS, who already had a huge amount of the stuff .

We also have the Lego that belonged to my brother and I back in the '60s!

Ds and dh got the Lego Tower Bridge between them. It sits on top of my g plan sideboard and fits in quite well. It's a bugger to dust though!

All of the kids lego is in big pull along storage chest all mixed up, the best tip I have ever had is to tip it out onto a big throw or blanket. Then when ds is finished I gather the corners up and tip the whole lot into the box (except for one set of legs which I eventually impale my heel on!)

Very helpful thread! Thanks for all the ideas. I'm glad I'm not alone in pondering what to do with Lego. Very interesting that no one has mentioned the Lego storage boxes, other than the "heads". My son just received several storage boxes as birthday gifts. I was delighted (and so was he) but now find they're surprisingly poorly designed, as little pieces can get stuck in the crevices in the bottom half. Simple plastic see-through boxes would be much better.

We have one box for mixed up generic lego, and then the specialist stuff gets kept in separate plastic bags / boxes.

I have my eye on the re-sale value of complete sets of expensive stuff.

Just think how much has been spent on Lego Star Wars sets!!!!