How do you organise Lego?

[UpsyDaisyDo]

My ds loves lego. Mainly the Star Wars and Ninjago stuff but he has Lego City, Cars 2, Atlantis, Pharohs Quest etc etc. The stuff is so damn expensive I really don't want to chuck it all in one tub but all the boxes take up so much room. I need some kind of system. Anyone?

My son is exactly the same. We started off by sorting by colours and keeping each colour seperate in see through boxes that stacked on top of each other, so that he could quickly find thepieces as and when he needed. But eventually the whole lot ended in one big crate as wedid'nt keep on top of it. Its futile. Besides having to search through the big crate to get what he wants, takes him longer, thereby keeping him occupied for longer.

We've got a plastic craft box with dividers for the teeny tiny bits and have sorted the other blocks by colour in freezer bags...

DH built a big box for our Lego. It is like a cantilever sewing box only much, much bigger. Then each layer is subdivided into smaller sections. Then if I'm really good, DS lets me sort out the Lego. (I'm very sad and possibly slightly OCD.) It is great as it means it is easy to find pieces when we want to remake things - or customise already made stuff with new bits. All the instructions live in their own box.

We have 2 of these stacked on top of each other with a few of the small Really Useful Boxes in a couple of drawers for small pieces.

A friend has the multicoloured drawer in the second link but the drawers do not have retainers on them which the first link one does and stops DC pulling them too violently and being covered in a shower of lego!

Sorry we actually have the Wilko small storage boxes in the second link, not Really Useful Boxes.

We are insanely short of floor space in the boys bedroom as DS1&2 share, but had some spare wall space under the window. I got some of the wall bars from Ikea that are in their kitchen section and a selection of different coloured pots that hang off them. DS1 now has built models on his bedside table, windowsill or under the bed and all the crappy loose bits that get stood on go into the pots.

Every now and again he spends a happy afternoon engrossed in ordering the pots, so one row has minifigs and accessories, one pot has oners in, another has 1X2 blocks, another has 2X2s and so on.

Afraid ours is all jumbled in one big box (city, the mining machines, hogwarts bus, star wars etc) except the Police Station which goes in its own box.

I dream of organised lego.

My dcs are 5 and 3 so much organising is very difficult. We did have a box for normal bricks and a box for special bricks which at least made it a little bit easier to find specific bricks for models but they ahve inevitably become mixed up again. I'm hoping that ds will become more anal as he gets older . I dream of having it ordered by brick size and then separate compartments for roof tiles, the little bits that get used as headlights, figures, wheel arches and so on. One day! Tbh though even though it is all in one (well 2, we have a lot of lego) boxes ds still flicks though instructions and makes specific things, it just takes a while to find the right pieces.

PiousPrat I'm loving that idea!

smalltown that's a good idea for the lego tables too.

I'm on a bit of a mission to sort out and decorate his room at the moment so need to strike while the irons hot. All the ideas are great - thank you.

Just one more thing, do you keep the boxes or just the instructions? Actually, I could just put all the boxes in a big bag in the loft.

I just have instructions. I need to get them organised though into some sort of folder/book for flicking through. Ds loves those Brickmaster sets where you get the lego and a book of instructions as he can easily look through the book and decide on something to make. Sometimes models just feel like a waste when they get made once and never again.

We are getting some ikea trofast for the dcs room to attempt to get little toys out of the way before baby arrives (so not going to happen since I'm already 37 weeks but it was a nice plan). I'm hoping basic bricks in big drawers, smaller things in little ones and built models on top. Same with playmobile gubbins and stuff.

this

expensive but cool - put the lego in, shake, and it sorts it into 3 different sizes in separate drawers :)

There is a fab self sorting Lego storage box 'thing' - expensive but desirable!

We have a 1960s wooden Lego box (charity shop find half full for only £4!!!) and a big wilko food box (12" square 6" deep) for all the small bits

I try not to fuss about Lego storage too much! (tempting though it is)

DS has some of the really big star wars ships which he plays with loads. I'm actually forbidden from touching the millenium falcon in case I break it! Its the smaller stuff and the spare bits that are all over the place.

I am also slightly OCD about sorting things out so will have great fun organising the bits into colour coded pots!

We have three Dc's and tonnes of Lego and playmobil!! I did go a littke loopy loo before our last move and bought loads of plastic see through boxes in different sizes for the different sets or 'genre' as well as lots of smaller boxes for different sized blocks, flatties, slopies, people, wheels, special pieces etc. We also have a 'display area' (ikea shelves) for completed models. It is far from ideal and I dream of being able to complete all the models we have and buying the bits we may have lost along the way. That would probably take me weeks but I would be very happy!! Unfortunately, that is unlikely to ever happen as when things are made (instructions all in one box!) the children use their imaginations and turn the road vehicles into flying fighting machines that land on water and use bits of the police station to make extensions to the barn!! Why can't they just be constrained by the instructions and marvel in the beauty of perfection!!

3 large flat IKEA wooden boxes with metal around the handles ( I think it's in their garage / utility section)

At one time they were vaguely colour coded ( all black, grey and white in one, Harry Potter / Indiana Jones brown stuff in an other). But no longer.

But they can be stacked and then taken down and put on the floor for rummaging through. No lids means easy access for chucking the lego back into them. Top one can get dusty but we tend to have a tray on top of that with the current creation that still being made...

... there is no order. Give up!

Ours is in a big green plastic Huggies Toybox all jumbled up except the train set and a few other big things ds got for christmas that took days a while to build!

I keep all the sets in biscuit tins or really useful boxes. If he has several different sets, eg various police vehicles, bought separately, I'll put them in the same tin, but each on in its own plastic bag.

Ikea trofast and a big play table here.

Love that sorting head in redridingwolf's link! Shame it's so expensive.

We have huge tubs abd i big shhet, oncevthey have finished pick up the corners and pop it back into the tub. Was how my husband sorted his back in the day.

the thing from john lewis is rubbish. The bits get stuck in the grooves

We put my sons in a toolbox from B and Q. They do JCB ones for abot twenty pounds. My ds loves it as there are sections for different bits. We have tried a LOT of lego storage but this seems the best one so far, although it has been a very long journey!

This is serious Lego storage.

Would love to have the space.

I recently sorted all our Lego - system is working really well though not quite as baby-proof as I had hoped (he loves emptying drawers . We have 2 Really Useful storage towers with coloured drawers. One has all the bricks in, colour coded to match the drawer colour where possible (I kid you not - some colours are sharing). The other tower is categorised by type rather than colour. One drawer for minifigures, wheels, doors and windows, instructions, etc.

Anal and OCD yes, 3 nights up til 3 in the morning and very tired at work the next day yes, but it is much better and easier to find bits. Consequently old models are getting rebuilt a lot more and they can just go, lets build a house/rocket whatever and instantly find the right bits.

I do find they mainly play with the green drawer on the second tower though = minifigures.

Oh god I'm having a Lego mental breakdown! I'm trying to sort everything into categories (Tupperware containers for the time being) but I'm overwhelmed by the sheer amount of different bits! It's really not as easy as I thought it would be. PLEASE help me make it easier before I chuck the whoever lot in one bit box!

So far I had sorted all figure in one box. Easy. All instructions in one box,wheels in one box but to sort everything using this method I think I'm gonna need about 10000 boxes!!! There must be an easier way. Am I. Taking this all far too seriously?