My nine year old adores Lego. If he ever has money burning a hole in his pocket Lego is usually what he’ll buy with it.
The problem has always been how to store it all. In the past we have used the plastic drawers on wheels type of storage.
This worked great for many years but as his collection grew we moved to a couple of big storage containers that fit right under his bed instead.
My son actually prefers this method because he can pull the whole thing out when he needs to and just slide it back under the bed when he is done. And because the bins are long and shallow it’s pretty easy for him to find what he needs.
There are so many different ways to store Lego so what I’d like to do today is add a Mr. Linky to this post. If you’ve ever posted about how you organize Lego in your house please feel free to add your link below or just share in the comments. Updated: Mr. Linky is being totally temperamental today (and causing my site to load slowly) so we’ll just have to discuss in the comments.
To get us started I wanted to link up to a post I did last year about a fantastic Lego storage solution ~ a homemade Lego table. Very clever!
PS: Labels used in the 1st picture above are those by the Organize It Mom!
Candace says
Thank you for doing this! My son loves Legos and I do too- I just need a better storage solution.
Kami says
We use the Rubbermaid storage containers that fit under our bed for our Christmas decorations. I love them because they have casters on them and you can lift one half of the lid at a time, eliminating the need to remove the entire thing if you just need to get something quickly.
I never thought to get some of these for my boys. They constantly have a mess under their beds, so this would create more storage and prevent a huge mess under there! Thanks!!
A Mom Anonymous says
I am anxiously awaiting the list of ideas! I thought about the stacking drawers but wanted to see what you came up with first! I came *this* close to buying them earlier this week. Now I’ll wait. The bins don’t fit under my son’s bed well otherwise that is a great solution!
Tanna says
Here are my ideas!
http://completeorganizingsolutions.com/2009/05/kid-friendly-ideas-for-organizing-legos.html
Jeanne B says
OK. I have an ADULT friend who is obsessed with building complex trains and structures out of Legos. His is no random assortment–his is very highly organized. He uses craft containers with dividers to organize his extensive Lego collection by size, color, configuration, and so on.
It’s actually scary.
Valerie says
This isn’t mine, but I’ve recently heard about http://www.box4blox.com/
Different sized grids actually sort the lego for you!
If DH ever inherits his old lego from his parents house I might look into getting one of these.
Becky says
We had a 9 year old who loved Legos, and he made me promise when he went away to college that I wouldn’t get rid of them! Currently his creations are stored on the top shelf of the closet in cardboard file boxes. He has three – one for Star Wars, one for “city”, and one misc. Each kit is in its own ziploc bag. He also has a few that are put together and gathering dust. (Anyone have a good idea for cleaning those?) All of the misc. pieces are under the bed in a long rubbermaid container. He spent one summer sorting them by color into gallon ziploc bags. There’s also an open shallow container so I can just open the big lid and toss spare pieces in. It’s a fun thing to bring out when kids visit – and maybe even someday those kids will be grandchildren. (Sorry no post to link, but that’s a great idea so I’ll work on it.)
Katie @ 3Blondes&... says
My son is just starting to get into Legos and I LOVE the under the bed drawer idea! Of course, now I’m kicking myself for giving away 3 of them last year because I didn’t have any more under-bed space at the time…
Shannon says
We do small rubbermaid (or whatever company makes the see-thru ones) containers and “try” to sort by set. Star Wars in one, Indiana Jones in another . . . they still tend to get all mixed up but it’s my goal to someday keep them in their own separate spaces 🙂
I like the under the bed idea, right now our daughter often gets to the smaller bins and empties them all over the floor!!
Jena OrganizingMommy says
Great minds think alike. We started with the above solution and then moved to a rolling under the bed box. We have about a million legos, so this works out better.
Lynette says
I have the under the bed storasge…but all the colors and sizes are mixed together. My sone lOVES Legos and I’m ALWAYS trying to think of something new, Even thougH I can think of them, I can’t get hime to follow through with it….
He’s eight.
Jill says
@Becky. Have you tried buying the can of air that they sell in the electronics section? I use those things to not only clean my laptop, but numerous other things.
Becky says
Jill – Thanks for the idea; I’ll have to give it a try!
Emily says
One day my son and I were watching Rachel Ray and a professional lego designer (he made a life-sized model of Rachel!) was on the show. In his studio his legos are color-coded, so my son and I went to work color-coding his legos. I recycle glass pasta jars so we used lots of jars (good because they are see-through) to organize his legos by color and type (lego characters were separate, as were studs because they are so small). It took a long time but now when he works on a project it’s easy to find the right brick!
mamafitz says
we use the plastic drawer units (3 of them), and sort by color. 2 drawers of blue, red, black, grey, 1 each of yellow and white (and they really need 2 each), 1 each of minifigs, green, purple/orange, brown/tan, train tracks, and bionicle. um, yeah, we have a lot of legos (they take up a closet). anyway, the best thing i have found is http://peeron.com . you can inventory your sets, and so when the kids want to build the train to put under the christmas tree, we print off the set list and gather up the pieces over a few days or week. then once all the pieces are together, you can build the set very easily.
lego ‘maps’ (instructions) are in sheet protectors in binders, divided by theme.
Anna says
We have one under the bed box that we use for legos. (We don’t have quite as many as your son.) I found that it really helps my kids see what is there more than a deeper box or drawer. They are less likely to dump a bunch of things on the floor in the search for a certain piece.
Jenny says
We have similar bins for our kids, each their own, that can slide under a bed and is easy to sort through.
Nice to see someone else having the same lego issues that I have. 🙂
se7en says
Aah! Lego!!! We keep ours in a huge bin in the bottom of a closet… at the end of the day everything gets tossed into the bottom of the closet and shut the doors – I can breathe!
I don’t have a specific post on Lego just toys in general, you can head over if you like – but basically we only have se7en types of toy and they all stay in one room – no global spreading thank-you very much!!!…
http://www.se7en.org.za/2008/07/31/se7en-of-the-best-toys
Which led to another post on toys with bits and pieces:
http://www.se7en.org.za/2008/09/14/saturday-spot-the-bread-bin
Valerie Shoates says
What a great idea! I loved both of our ideas. Thanks for sharing.
A.Marie says
Oh wow..I found your blog when I was visiting Little of This Little of That, and I am hooked. You have such a fantastic blog chock FULL of great ideas, and I will definitely be back. I am in the middle of an organizing and cleaning out frenzy, and I am going to use a lot of the ideas that I have read on your blog. 🙂
Susanne says
It’s funny you’re talking about this today. Just yesterday I was thinking I need to come up with something different for the dayhome’s storage of lego. The shallow boxes is wonderful. Now they won’t dump it all to find what they are looking for. I’m off to Wally Mart to find one of those boxes right now!
BTW, did you get the letter from Mr. Linky on removing the header code from you html. That is what’s giving Mr. Linky grief.
Courtney says
Just stopping by to let you know I have opened my blog. Feel free to stop by!
chupieandjsmama says
Oh I saw the title and thought “Please help me”!! We are over run with Legos. I have so many different bins, but they still seem to just end up on the floor. I have a 3 draw that I use for Duplos (Thomas and Spiderman) but they pull the drawers out, cram the Duplos back in and and then can’t put the drawers back in. Maybe I should just transition it for Legos. I like the under the bed idea and the Box4Blox that someone posted looks cool (but pricey for someone on a budget). Thanks for the tips and for getting the wheels turning. Legos are my enemy.
Elaine says
We use similar methods at my house to deal with Legos. They are a great toy that any kid, over the correct age of course since we don’t want any choking, will enjoy.
My 16 year old still has all of his and occasionally buys new sets and spends time playing with them.
Roan says
I did blog on this last year…http://joyfuljohnsons.blogspot.com/2009/01/lego-organization.html
I sort my son’s legos by set. That is the way he likes it. I made a label for each box (beach house, star wars, recycle truck, etc.) My mother organized all of the legos that my brothers played with when they were younger by color. She has a plastic storage box for each color. She also has one for wheels.
It is time for us to sort out those miscellaneous legos again….some of them just seem to jump out of their assigned box!
Susan says
I, too, use a big wrapping paper storage rubbermaid. Its worked great for years. I have 7 boys, so the biggest 6 (baby is just 2 years old) can actually crowd around the bin to play lego together. Yes, my 15 year old boy still loves lego!
jennifer says
I’ve tried many different methods. First, I tried to keep all the sets separate in tubs with the directions in it. Then we went to the under the bed tubs. Last year my jaw dropped when my mom brought 5 large storage tubs full of legos to my house. She got them all at a yard sale for $20. Amazing huh. I told her there was no way we could keep them all so my kids and I started going through them and there were so many cool pieces they just couldn’t bare to lose any of them. My house was covered in legos for a week until I decided to put them all in an old trunk I was using for an end table at the time. Miraculously, almost all of them fit. We moved the trunk into the play room and we now call it the lego room. It is now a very cool treasure chest for my kids.
Tricia says
900 years ago, when I was a kid, we had a top of a record player that our leggos were in. We now, just got our first leggos and they are huge, so I am not ready for storage yet, but am so glad to see all these great ideas!
Shell says
What a great blog you have! I love all the info below on lego storage (my son loves them) and all those neat chore charts. I have one for my teen daughter, but need one for my 6 yr old son. Thanks for all that research!
Have a great day.
Sarah says
We have approx 3.5 tons of Lego Duplos for our kids, ages 6, 4, 3, and 6 mo (well, she hasn’t *quite* grown into them yet). They play with them on our Nilo Table, which has room underneath for 2 large Nilo toy boxes on casters, each divided into quadrants. They use one Nilo toy box for Lego Duplos and Brio wooden train components, and the other toy box for Everything Else.
http://www.nilotoys.com/
They’re very well-made & designed to allow kids to sit on the table to play (holds their weight safely).
We have more Legos & Brio than they can access easily at this point, so I look forward to browsing the comments for ideas. I’m thinking that the organizing drawers on wheels might work for their Lego & Brio people & special pieces, leaving the big bins for other components.
Whatever I do has to be easy enough for all of them to use. I refuse to implement organizing systems too complex for a 3 y.o. to use.
Oh and Nilo tables hold up to 4 large, removable Lego boards that will completely fill the table’s surface. One side is for Duplo and the other side is for traditional Legos. We LOVE our Nilo table. I wouldn’t know what to do without it. It keeps all their building projects off the floor. Its design is so superior to others I’ve seen, I just can’t say enough about it.
Sue says
Oh yeah!!! You all have saved me (and my feet) from legos!! Now to find the storage supplies at a yard sale – cheap!!
WendyGK says
I totally cheated and gave my son a small room in the basement to store his 15 years worth of Lego bricks and structures. He uses rolling carts with drawers and stackable bins on wheels, the small drawers for screws and hardware for the tiny bits, and clear shoebox bins on shelves. A few folding banquet tables are in there to build on, too.
Joetta Tucker says
Legos – Picking Up Toys Tip –
If they prefer dumping the Legos out to either play on the floor or to search for a specific piece, I recommend putting a blanket or sheet out on the floor. It makes clean up so fast and easy! Just pick up the four corners of the blanket and dump the Legos back into the container.
Dan says
We have a 15yr old son who still plays with Lego!
We think he should get outside more and have a life.
I mean playing with Lego at 15 is downright babyish!!!
ty says
We had the same problems too, and decided to do something about it that ended up taking over at our house. We needed to keep the lego off the floor and in a place older kids could lock it away when they weren’t playing. It has become http://www.brikcrate.com, and we are hoping that the boys can eventually move on from lego to the business of storing lego!
Katie says
My 9 year old refuses to take them apart once they’re put together so we are running out of room to store these assembled lego sets. His bedroom is tiny. He refuses to move upstairs to a bigger bedroom and won’t go to the basement to play at all. I think we may just have to stop buying them which I really hate to do because I’d much rather see him playing with legos than playing video games all the time. Something has to be done – his room is driving me nuts!!!!
Elizabeth says
This is exactly what I do for my son’s legos! He has about 4 under-bed storage boxes full of legos. It has been the best solution for us by far!
issac & meryn says
We sorted by colors and stored our kids lego’s in baby formula cans it works great and if they have more of some colors we would use the bigger cans. some had to be stored in oatmeal containers. those were just for the extra blocks of lego’s a couple of neigher’s have given to them. but what we do with their sets is we either have plastic bags with the instrutions inside or if their build and don’t want them taken apart we will put them in a plastic container with a lid (example like our sons indana jones car sets. on the bags they will write what set and the lego set number so they know which bag goes to what set and instrutions, cause some sets are bigger than others. and for the really small pieces that are extra with other legos we used those really small cute gerber baby food containers they work so well since their small the containers really work wonders. and with some of their small sets too if they have more than one we can fit a few in a baby wipe container they like to use those.