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.

i have put it in all one box with the instructions

apart from a large very cool plane and the fire station that took me ages to build and when i have some spare time i shall enjoy rebuilding without ds ruining my enjoyment

i love lego and so does ds

We have 2 of these zip sided boxes that fold out into a play mat. (I got them in an argos sale). I throw everything in and keep model booklets in a folder. DS has tonnes of lego and has rigid desire to keep them all in immaculate models never to be touched or played with is what made me do the opposite. He now will also use his imagination to make stuff, and I am not standing on random pieces of lego in my bare feet.

www.firestartoys.com/Shop/LEGO-Sets/LEGO-Accessories/9139-LEGO-City-Zip-Bin-and-Playmat-~-Fire-Station.html

I have had the mickey taken out of me so much over the years for my colour coded lego boxes and now I see that I'm not the worst by far (CardyMow)!

My dss, but especially ds1, loved lego (they are now 23 and 21 and the attic is still full of it). As they loved to make other sets from the masses they had (I agree with others that this is half the fun), I settled for the colour coded boxes rather than the "keep all the sets together" system. Three boxes (small, medium and large) for black and grey though as there were so many of them. It saved them loads of time when looking for a certain brick. I guess the all in one box system is fine if you don't mind the continual scraping of lego bricks and frustrated children!

This thread has inspired me to sort our lego out!!

This morning ds1 and I had a happy morning sorting lego by theme- ninja lego, star wars, harry potter and a 'bits' lego box with all the other basic blocks. - then another box of 'weapons' and lego people.

He has found loads of new bits and is happily playing with them all.

I am very sad that i can spot which lego piece goes with which set just by sight, I need to get out more!!

The nice sets (lego city police etc) all go in small boxes and are kept locked away until DS1 needs them. All his lego creator, plus various handed down boxes and car boot sale finds are jumbled together in an enormous box, though.

We have a LOT of lego!

if its in his bedroom then i would just leave him to it!

We play with our Lego in one of these trays

www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Spot-Tray-made/dp/B002HIY9JQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2TXERJDP611N4&colid=5BHE6BEM13S5

Brilliant for keeping the mess contained as we are a one-box-tip-it-all-out family

The SBS is so beautiful. I keep going into his room and admiring the fact that I can't see it under his bed. I want to weep with happiness. (And I haven't hurt my feet on the stuff in over 24 hours.)

Only about 1/4 of the Lego is in there thus far. I need to move slowly as DH might have a heart attack or something if I just dump it all in at once.

DH has forbidden the dumping of several key sets. He claims he and DS will build them together, and place the completed models on the bookcase that is currently covered in half-full boxes of mixed 'sets'. If it happens, good for him. If not, I know where it's all headed...

The nice thing is it can alway be sorted by colour/shape/size when he gets older, if he suddenly develops a desire for organisation. It's amazing the sheer amount of Lego he owns.. that's a lot of bricks when you see it all coming together in one place!

Mix it up mix it up mix it up!!!!!!!!

Lego is about adapting, changing, building, using imagination.

Haf of the fun is searching through the pieces.

Throw it on a sheet play and then lift it up and pack it away.

The sets are great for lego sales, really a good mix of lego will let you build anything in your head!!!,

I am ancient and remember when Lego was simpler. It got more and more complex as DC grew. and I grew to hate it more and more

However, I do fancy having a Lego pheonix, now I know they exist...

Yes, mix it all up. As long as you have the instructions he can just rumage around to find the piece he wants.

My boys have their own lego mixed up; a box in each room. They seem to know which particular brick belongs to them.

the problem with sorting it, and I speak from experience here, is that you may want to sort it by colour (which seemed logical to me) but actually it's more useful to sort it by brick type.

So even if you did sort it all, spending at least 4 hours of your life sitting on the floor with sandwich bags (like I did) your dc will just tip it into one box in the end and built a spaceship with it.

We have two MASSIVE boxes and it's all in together now. The only model that's stayed in one piece is the Lego technics, which took weeks to build, and we are all very proud of it!!

Sorted by type here. So much easier to find bits than if you sort by colour.

Sorting by colour does have the advantage of encouraging DC to think about the aesthetics of their own inventions.

glad you have your under bed lego storage, its much better that way

and yes lynette is right the madboys know exactly which bit belongs to whom! tho lots of it was bought as 'joint' present, they have had various sets of their own for bdays and xmas and there is always much discussion squabbling over whose bits are whose, esp since my mil has taken to buying them those lego minifigures in the little packets, and they seem to remember exactly who got which one despite having hundreds of the dam things!

we have 4 big boxes in each boys bedroom and i rotate them round the bedrooms and mix the boxes up a bit so they all get a go with the various different bits, moreo ften than not htey take it all into one room to play wiht tho :)

DON'T DO IT!

All of DS's Lego is kept in boxes depending on what 'sort' it is (Lego Ninjago, Lego Star Wars, Everything else - mostly Lego City). I, stupidly it turns out, promised him I would help him rebuild all the models this holiday. Well, 2 models down, and about 25 to go, and I have pretty much lost the will to live.

Oh, and I have now sorted it all by colour so I have some hope of building the other models without going completely mad!

PP, that phoenix keeps me awake at night.

I think that when I gave the Bionicle lego away, I thought the phoenix was part of it and gave it away too. But I don't know, it may turn up. Which is what I am currently saying rather than paying fifteen pounds to replace it.

DS 10 is a lego freak and its all in one big box. He plays with it endlessly and has incredible imagination.

All in one box here. Long ago I used to spend aaages keeping everything in the right order and trying to replace missing things but it was becoming akin to a self defeating task from Hades.

Add to the Lego headache the horrors of Polly Pocket and I could feel my resolve crumbling. I had to step back for my own sanity. Also I do believe that some instructions are online and sometimes even on YouTube so don't despair if instructions get lost.

Ours is bunged up into one big Lego storage box. It's up to them to sort it out (DH and DS1!).

I have my old Lego from my and my sisters childhood. We have a huge wooden box with separate compartments where all the various size pieces go.

Easy to find, easy to build things and easy to clear up and store.

I would try to find something like this and then let them sort it out.

Nothing is worse than having a huge box of Lego all dumped together and you can't find what you're looking for.

After spending £100 on the Republic Attack Cruiser which has now disintegrated into a mess of Lego mixed up with myriad other bits of Lego, I now make him build the damn thing then it gets hung up on fishing line from his bedroom ceiling. I tell him that one day he can sell them for proper money and buy something else, or keep them forever. He has the Slave 1, Darth Vader's ship, and the Millenium Falcon hanging from the ceiling. He still has a big box of random pieces to invent things with and loads of little bits all over his bedroom floor that I'm not allowed to pick up or he'll 'never find them again'. I just close the door on it.

I keep ours colour-coded in Heroes plastic tubs. They stack well. They can survive being stepped on. If DS wants to remake the space shuttle or the tractor then we pick up the instructions, and find all the bits from the tubs.

There is one tub labelled BITS though - the small ones or special bits that only really go with one set or another.

Seems to work. DS is 4. He builds everything he's just seen. This last weekend the room has gained several rowing boats, a royal barge and Tower Bridge! (with raising bits too). I am at how imaginative he is at making things. Just wish it stretched to putting them away again! (Though the old cot sheet on the floor trick works if you need to tip them into a large tin rapidly)