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.

All in together and hoover up the little bits my older eyes cannot see - if they can't pick it up, they lose it....

though....... we do have an open top box divided into 20 sections (came with 20 "Really useful box" in them - used those for MY craft stuff, the outer shell with the sections in is handy for keeping the nice tiny lego stuff they play with often out of the general mire at the bottom of the BIG box...

The elder 2 ds are very picky when they build something, they might tinker with it a bit but generally keep the assembled prices together & display them in their shelves. But most of it gets threw into one large tub. We have every type of Lego imaginable with the 4 ds getting it over the years. I did see someone have a good idea on a blog with the Lego sorted by colour into those plastic drawer things.
Can I ask does anyone's dc have Lego diagon alley, it seems the most difficult we've had yet. I refuse to help out with Lego now ever since I assisted on building a Millenium Falcon and they took it apart straight after. I actually stamped my foot and wailed about it.

Sorry meant to add we actually have an air hockey table that is only ever used to set Lego out on, ideal because the toddler can't reach it. Perhaps someone could invent a specialised Lego table

Oh and just thought I'd tell you this since you obviously all have Lego fans at home. My friends ds (7) had one of the little cone pieces (the ones with the hole) removed from his lung in February past. He'd inhaled it as he was trying to break bits off with his mouth. He hadn't mentioned it to her untill 2 weeks later after he'd been wheezing for a while & he then remembered. The doc said he was very lucky it was one of the bits with a hole, it let the air through. I know you all tell your dc not to put Lego in their mouths but just a wee reminder maybe.

DS will be 16 in less than a month. I decided he needed a "rite of passage" to mark the end of compulsory education (he's now on GCSE study leave) so I made him muck out his sty thoroughly de-clutter his bedroom.

We have just spent the afternoon filling up 8 (8!!! ) CRATES of lego to be stored in the attic. He has kept 2 crates of "special stuff" in his room.

We can now see his bedroom floor for the first time in 3 years. And the shelves which line all the walls. And the top of the chest of drawers, and the table.

You ar never too old for lego!

DO IT
We have a big box and 4 drawer tower.

Go ahead... My kids are also terrible with lego, and so were my 2 oldest sons. I have one HUGE tupperware bin, and they toss it in.... Once in a while, I'll help them go through it, and find the lego men's HEAD, arm/body, etc.etc. If they just AREN'T the kind of child that cares...why stress about it?

If they LOOSE something, OH WELL.....

I even bought my daughter her own pink/purple lego...yep...eventually that ended up in the box too!!

Ours is all stored under the kids beds in large clear plastic boxes with all the instruction books kept neatly in a box in their wardrobes. It's all a mixture of tons of sets accumulated over many years; star wars, dino, bionicles blah-de-blah.... All the kids are asked at the end of the day to tidy up and push the boxes back under their beds then I don't even have to see it. Go on, mix it up in a box, shove it under the bed then relax. Simples!

lego designers.

I am sure a lot of the design is done on computer, but I am also sure they mess around with lego too. Here is a picture of lego sorted for use at lego HQ.

All in one big box here and a few pieces in the hoover

This thread belongs in Classics.

All in one box here too. Mostly basic lego with bits of other things. Good for creativity
That's the whole point of lego, right?

Not quite Lego (but still small annoying little pieces my DS has Halo.
He's got a box of mixed and two of the large original boxes from Christmas.
I suggested we "put them all in the big box"
It was like suggesting I stamped on some kittens...

Has anyone tried this?

LEGO organisation

My DS1 love Lego but as soon as he gets a new kit that he really really really wants and can't live without and pleeeeease can he have it and he'll save up for it himself he just throws away the instructions and makes whatever he likes from the pieces. We use the single box solution and he just makes everything from his imagination out of mixed up sets.

I bought four official Lego storage boxes each with four divided trays so that you can separate your pieces into different colours etc. They cost £100 and they're all empty!

I LOVED Lego as a child - it was my absolute favourite toy. I had spells of keeping it all in one big container as well as keeping it in the boxes/sets it was bought in. Ultimately I preferred to keep the sets in their own boxes with instructions and still have all my 70s & 80s Lego stored in our loft. My 3 DCs do not take care of their toys, and have ruined some of my childhood toys I kept for them as well as their own stuff SO THERE IS NO WAY THEY ARE HAVING MY LEGO, NO WAY.

Does anyone else remember the set that Weetabix did if you sent in a number of the cereal box tops? It was a village set with a windmill and horse and cart, row of shops and a house. It came in 3 boxes and I cant remember how many tops you needed for each box, but I got all 3 and they were fantastic. Also a Wild West Set and a Zoo set which were the 'big' sets one christmas and cost about £30 - which in the 70s was a very expensive toy, but worth every penny. I still think it is one of the best toys ever for kids as the advertising tagline 'its a new toy every day' was so true for me.

Ah yes.The hoover.I have lost count of he number of times I have had to go through the bag to find...an arm,a head a lightsabre!

Put it all together and get the Lego Ideas book. Who has the space for all those bits and boxes? Tip though, use a shallow box otherwise impossible to find anything. We have a large underbed laundry storage box for it.

I am going to make this and stick the lego in it in boxes. My rule (based on a lifetime of experience) is you make the sets up, play for a few days, then it all gets subsumed into the SBS. I love the scrape, scrape sound of sorting through lego, I was weaned on it (3 brothers.) My mum kept a box of lego so at xmas they get it out "for the kids" and for hours there's nothing but the sound of searching and the occasional "dude, look at this!" They're all in their 30s. The kids just look on in awe, hoping that one day they may be allowed to play.

Oh, I also put the tiny bits into snack containers in the big box.

emimmead - my parents can be tossers sometimes (they sold our Amstrad and every single game to my mum's boss's son for £10 because "we didn't use it very often and he needed a computer", even though it was mine and i loved it, and her boss was well-off enough to get his son a proper computer. (and did so about 6 months later, and chucked our amstrad away.)), but they knew my lego was sacred. :( for you.

I still have mine, and if DD wantsd lego, she can have her own and will not be allowed to play with mine (she's welcome to play alongside me, but not with mine)

This brings back memories of when DSS was maybe 5 or 6. He was really fussy about his Lego, all the pieces from each set were kept together, instruction booklets lined up on bookshelf, models proudly displayed on shelves.

He then had a 'new' friend from school round for tea. They are upstairs playing when said friend tipped all the boxes out onto the floor to make new stuff out of. DSS is a very polite little thing, so he happily went along with it, even breaking bits off his existing models to make new spaceships or whatever.

As soon as his friend went home, DSS rushed upstairs and spent the whole weekend following trying to re-sort all the bits into the correct box. He had loads of boxes, so a near on impossible task. He eventually decided to give in, and was left with shoebox full of 'odd bits'. It ended up being his most played with set so I often buy him random bags full from car boots.

He's now 9 and his friend still regularly comes round for tea and a play- DSS loves building new things from his ideas book but hides his most treasured models in the bathroom cabinet before he comes!

why dont you have a spare parts box, where all the loose ones go, so that you can tidy up, but that the majority of the stuff is in the right box.

that way DH/DC only have to look in one place if there is a peice missing.

This is such a useful thread, thanks! I'm at the start of the lego journey with DS1 (4) but already I'm wondering how to proceed. At the moment, his basic bricks (he got a starter kit) are in their tub and his little sets (Toy Story mostly, also some dinosaur ones and small Creator) are on a tray. He mostly loves to mix it up and make endless vehicles, spaceships and animals. The instruction bookets are getting tattier and tattier (I could laminate but not sure I've got enough pouches!) and given DS's age, pieces are inevitably going missing. I did sort all the sets into ziplock bags a while back, but that didn't last long.

There is also a massive stash of vintage 'Adventurers' Ancient Egyptian lego under the spare bed, but that is MINE ALL MINE and he can't have it yet.

Do you know you can download the instruction booklets from the LEGO site and store them on your PC? I do this so we have a backup / can bin them when they get tatty or ripped.