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.

Ahhhh, CardyMow, that is what DH thinks, too. He is shocked and vehemently opposed to the Single Box Solution (hereafter SBS). However, DH is not the sarnie-bag sorting sort, either.

There may be a way forward with the 'unsorted Lego box' idea, though. Because if I only ever put the floor-spares into the unsorted box, it will eventually become the Single Box. It is inevitable. It is the the SBS by stealth.

do they never mix the sets up then cardy as mine have always done so, they build the origional model to begin with and then it gradually transforms, and is made into something else, my kids play LOADS with their lego and build some amazing stuff and sometimes they rebuild things from the kits as they keep the instructions but they do have the most fun just building stuff and so they mix star wars and under the sea lego and bionicle and the fire station stuff etc, it all gets used in various models, thats the fun of lego! yes you can build the 'sets' but in our house they dont always stay built that long, they may get re built but often they morph into various different things :)

good plan deathbylego seriously as long as all the bits are there they can still build the origional models, my boys do but it just takes them a bit longer to find the pieces, but tbh thats why the underbed boxes are good as they are not too deep so its easier to root through and find the bits they need :)

We like Lego in this house. Except if a piece embeds itself in my foot but that would be my own clumsiness.

We sit there and have contests on who can build the oddest Lego animal. Last time DS2 won that one with a 3-eyed green rabbit. We DO have a lot of green bricks though.

But molovitt - did your DS sort them, or did you? I would have not problem with sorted Lego if the Lego was sorted by others. Everyone wants sorted Lego, but everyone wants Someone Else to do the sorting.

They do mix the sets - the best one was an Indiana Jones spaceship that was being attacked by Ninja's. They just take the time to sort them back into their bags when they are done.

i like lego i do think its great for the imagination :) and i say that kneeling on lego is worse than standing on it! and somtimes its hard to avoid standing on the dam stuff when the whole floor is covered! my boys have spent most of today playing with lego tbf as its pissed it down all day, they ahve had a great time and built 'bases' and all sorts of wierd vehicles etc.

the elder 2 do keep their slightly more sorted ie their favourite bits but with younger ones as well its much harder to keep it sorted.

It's no different to packing away a board game and making sure you have all the pieces, is it?

ah you see mine dont take things apart as such, they just tend to morph into different things the next day, they keep somet hings built for AGES and they gradually transform into something else!

"They just take the time to sort them back into their bags when they are done."

Where did you happen upon these children of yours, CardyMow?? I want some like that. That would never, ever, not in a million of your light years, happen in this house.

DS builds stuff, siblings add and subtract from it, friends come over and bung some other sets in the pile, and in the process pieces of all sets involved become shed and drip onto the floor, under the curtains, into the cat, etc.

mine dont take their models apart, they do eventually get broken but just remade into different things and yes games get sorted but there arent many games that have THAT many pieces!

i think if you have older children and you start from the word go doing this, it may work but i dont have the time or the inclination to even bother! kudos is you do, but at the end of the day i want my 5 in bed and that means a quick tidy of their bedrooms, ie chuck everything into boxes, they have lego boxes, numerous ones! then boxes for other toys so animals in one, cars in another etc, but actually sorting all the teeny tiny pieces of lego, i could cry thinking about it! esp with a 17mth old 'helping'!

yes thats the way it is here deathbylego it all just ends up mixed and also its spread between the elder boys bedrooms and often i end up with an arrangement of various 'models' sat on top of the piano! drives mental! :)

I have a very soon to be 16 year old ( soon as in days not months) who probably has the largest lego collection in the western world.

He has 6 stack and store boxes which are colour coded for bricks for self builds. He has boxes under his bed with fully built models (these are waiting for his loft extesion to be built then they will go up on special shelves made to fit each creation). The spare base plates live in a large ottoman along with instruction booklets and boxes. His vast king ring collection has its own tool box type storage box and his mini firgure collection lives in a collection of vintage lego trays. Every surface in his roo and some sort of lego on it, hence why we are having a loft conversion to house him and his lego

The sets are so bloody expensive that you simply can't mix them up. He'll be heartbroken, and may well hate you forever. They will get mixed up eventually. Why not encourage him to make the sets up, then he'll take them all down in his own time?

Worra, sorry didn't see your question about the name change. Simples: I name change constantly after being outed once, long long ago. So it was just a routine name-change, happens every few weeks.

cantspel Wow, a loft extension for the Lego. That's flippin' serious.

collaborate This is largely DH's argument, too. All these expensive sets... I agree it's a shame, but what else can be done? DS won't keep them sorted, and for all his talk, neither will DH. And I'm tired of living in the Legoland rubbish tip.

I know it does seem a bit extreme but when we moved to this house at christmas it ment he had to have a smaller room than our old house. By doing the extension he will end up with 2 rooms that will interconect. He will then have a bedroom and what he has taken to calling his lego room. He even wants a special bulding and design area.

His self builds are really something and could rival any designs that lego produces.

mix them up, mix them up mix them up! DS won't keep his Lego sorted - he only wants Lego for the mini figures, gets a new kit, insists DP & I help him make it, he ignores the bloody bastard thing we've spent hours on, then spends several hours arranging his Lego figures along the landing and shrieks at anyone who goes near them.

Mix the bastard lego bricks up. Or burn them. Burn them BURN THEM!

That's brilliant, cantspel. Hopefully he can turn that into a career!

They don't burn easily, ice. I can tell you that much.

If something is important to you deathbylego you will achieve it. I have faith in you.

Thinking of it, why isn't there a 'smiley' of a blowtorch trained on a Lego brick? MNHQ, get on it.