To ask for the simplest way to organize a fuckton of lego?

[WickedWytch]

Personally I’m in favour of building a house from lego at the bottom of the garden where all the stuffed toys can live but the dc aren’t appreciating the genius of this solution.

In the meantime is there some kind of logical and simple way to organize it all that 3 unmotivated dc and an adult who can’t distinguish ninjago from chima can all manage to follow?

We’ve tried the Oh FuckIt (trademark) system of leaving it all over the floor. But despite the obvious advantages of free burglar proofing, it feels time to try something a bit more sophisticated.

So what works? Sorting by colour? By stud combinations? Filling a skip?

Oh my god, it all just goes into big storage boxes.
No sorting by colour, I can’t imagine the totally unnecessary ball ache that would come after playing with it to have to spend 20 minutes painstakingly pulling every piece apart to then have to put it into the ‘correct’ place.
Don’t see the point personally but we are more than happy with it all being in giant boxes. They can root through it all and find what they want that way. It’s part of the fun!
Don’t care if it’s all tipped out (although it rarely is unless my nephew comes to stay, he loves tipping boxes out), it takes 5 (3?) minutes to shovel it all back in before bed.

We're still on Duplo, but we have one box. Kid plays with all of it. It's easy to find whatever he needs without too much rummaging. We don't really bother with sets, he just makes random stuff.
I can just use this system when we upgrade to Lego, can't I? ... Can't I? ... Guys?

There’s a gap in the market for a specialist service. Anyone at a loose end, looking for a business opportunity? I’d be happy to take a nominal 3% share of profits for coming up with the idea

You can buy these boys of fabric they can build on and then you pull it together with a tie cord and it's all neatly inside.

I was considering buying a Lego hoover just so I could hoover up the Lego intermittently and then empty the bag and sort it every few weeks.
Instead, we have a set of Really Useful Drawers which each have a different colour in and then a set of tubs with one for bases, one for figures, one for vehicle accessories (wheels, steering wheels, windscreens, propellers), another for house/garden accessories (windows, doors, trees) & I think that that is it. Then we have a crate. In the crate goes bits that we scoop up just before the cleaner arrives so she can actually get to the floor (but not the rug which is the sacred Lego zone). Every few weeks, we sort out the crate and also take apart any imaginative models that have been made and are no longer being played with. This can be quite calming and surprisingly quick. Bribery helps!

Oh, whilst thinking about my hoover idea, it did occur to me that surely there must be some Lego geek at dyson who could come up with some attachment that sorts it whilst it sucks it up. I'm happy to change my colour system for a brick size system if that made it easier to invent.

I find the drawstring mats are the best way to store and play with Lego, but if you must sort it, sorting by shape or brick type is much better than colour. In my experience, when kids are building their own creations, finding the right/size shape brick is more important to them than the colour.

Watching with interest...

We had an 8 drawer Trofast stack, sorted by colour, plus a separate tub for characters and one for teeny tiny pieces.

I say “had” because, with the DC permission, I sold the whole fucking lot in a one-er: upwards of 40 different sets plus random bits, and they split the money. They still get sets as presents but have vowed to build and display them - neither are into free building.

I ordered loads of second hand lego for grandson from E Bay. Doors, windows,roof tiles, bases, bricks, wheels, figures. Sat down one rainy day with a bottle of wine, half a dozen cereal bowls, netflix and started sorting. Put bowls on coffee table and lobbed in. Started with bricks 4,6,8 and stacked them in colours. All the tiny bits went into zip lock bags. Six hours it took. It was very therapeutic. I was a bit oed.

One of the compounding issues we have is that in the dc’s eyes they have sorted it to some extent, albeit on the floor. A drawstring mat wouldn’t work because all the teeny interesting pieces they’ve found would get swallowed up again. And the weird and wonderful creations break if you even touch them.

I think any system has to include space for precious creations and bits for possible future use.

I’ve just done this - will be back after dinner!

Shoe organizer thing that hangs over door, multiple pockets. Sort by size or colour?

I feel your pain having just picked up 8 million pieces of lego off the floor with some help from ds, not seen lounge floor for at least 4 weeks it needed a hoover. We just have too much, having been the err lucky recipient of all our childhood lego. Am expecting great careers in future where I can be well taken care of in my old age from all this lego building.

Alphabetical order

BertieBotts have you got one of those Box4blox? They look amazing if they work!

We have the Clear Plastic Crate System, various sizes. Big pieces in the biggest crate; medium sized bricks and plates in the next size down; little itty bitty bits like pizza slices, 1x1 tiles, animals, laptops, other loose accessories go in the smallest. It's easier to search through a small box of similar sized teeny weeny pieces for a particular item.

I like the idea of colour separation, but to be fair, I can't see it working. It's just more hassle and most of the time it's a parent clearing it away rather than the child who hauled it all out in the first place. I just can't be arsed. And most of the time a model stays out on display getting dusty for a while before being dismantled and remodelled, and at that point it's as much as I can do to get the bases in their box and the people in theirs and ne'er the twain shall meet...

We have tonnes and tonnes and tonnes. It is colour sorted into large stackable plastic boxes. There is also a box for wheels, train track and boxes for technic parts.
We have all the small parts in tool boxes and small stackable boxes.
There is also a drawstring bag that turns into a playmat of random unsorted stuff.
I LOVE sorting Lego it would be my dream job.

Ds is Lego obsessed. He keeps it all in its original boxes as much as possible with mixed Lego in one of the yellow rectangular boxes and one of the red square ones.

In the living room we have an 8 box kallax full of Lego boxes and a 12 box kallax half full of boxes and some used for display purposes. The 8 box is horizontal and the top of it is covered in built sets/models. There also an 8 box kallax in his bedroom with more Lego in 😣😣

Really big (like as big as a single bed) but shallow trays so it can be shifted through and shoved under the bed.

Ooo, I need this thread. Currently we have a big drawer full of the stuff, but it’s about to get outgrown.

I like the idea of sorting by colour- those of you that do that, does it work? Do they play with a reasonable amount of the Lego?

You could make a LEGO table or desk so that the LEGO is always easily accessible.

I didn’t realize when we started that lego is never actually outgrown. It should come with a govt warning.
Over the years we’ve moved on the jigsaws, trains, paw patrol sets, Thomas obsession but the lego pile keeps growing. And it’s everyone’s go-to present for boys.

I have a ton of the clear plastic boxes for my personal collection. It was originally by theme but in a hurried emergency move what we could rescue was thrown in to all the boxes. If it’s still played with just mix it up!

This has been revolutionary in DS’s room - 8 square Hallam with 2 clear boxes in each square - top for playing/display. Boxes sorted by colour.