How do you store Legos?

[123LuckyMom]

I am a huge Lego fan, but I've been resisting them for DS, because DD still puts everything in her mouth, and the two are always together! In the face of DS's longing and significant peer pressure, though, this birthday many Lego sets are coming DS's way, and I'm unsure how to store them.

My childhood Legos are stored in several huge bins. I have a TON of them! All the figures and their accessories are in another bin. DS plays with them happily at Gran's house, jumbled as they are. Nowadays, though, all the Legos seem to come in sets that make specific vehicles, buildings, landscapes, etc. Do you store these in their original boxes? Do you empty them into bins? I worry that storing them as sets will discourage inventive and imaginative play, but maybe I should raid my childhood Legos for that. I don't know! Help!

My only criteria is that the Legos be easy to put away. DS will have to play with them in his room and put them away somehow before bedtime so DD can't get at them. He does have a large cupboard in his room that I can clean out for Lego storage. If he wanted to keep a building or vehicle together, he could slide it into that cupboard. How do kids play with Legos nowadays?

[Mikey0709]

I'm hoping you get a great answer.... because they are coving the floors of EVERY POSSIBLE ROOM in my house. i'm not kidding. and we have about 6 LARGE TOTES full + from 1975 to the present. You can probably go in our bathroom and come out with a handful.

Our newer sets get set up and played with for usually a few weeks - then somehow end up in general population. I give credit to those organized families who can keep sets together.

[SnuggleBuggles]

At one point we had them sorted into many shoe sized plastic storage bins by color. Now they are partially like that and the rest in big bins. Only special sets are still assembled and up on shelves. Everything else gets played with, rearranged and eventually winds up in the misc. bin. SOmetimes he puts specific small sets in ziplocs before tossing them in the miscellaneous bin. We save all the directions (just in a big bag...way down on my list of things to organize and it has never come up) in case someone wants to rebuild a set. I have a Lego addict here. We've developed our system over 6 years and it seems to work.

[123LuckyMom]

This is actually reassuring! I was starting to think I was going to have to find 40 million small bins to store each individual set. I'm sooooo happy to just dump them in all together and save directions if they're ever needed again.

[ExcitedMamma]

http://www.amazon.com/Lay-n-Go-Original-Activity-Mat-Blue/dp/B007BO5OAY/ref=pd_sim_t_4

I'm thinking of getting this for DS. We are in the same position with keeping Legos only in DS' room so DD can't get to them. All his lego sets are jumbled together now in bins. He loves spreading them out to play and I hate stepping on them and some pieces are so tiny I've missed them when cleaning up before I vaccum. Hopefully the playmat will help. We don't let DD in DS' room though because she could rip his books but I would worry about missing a lego if she's still putting things in her mouth. They are tiny!

[Seitvonzu]

i spend a STUPID amount of time keeping the sets together. my daughter is OBSESSED with lego friends- she'll build, play a while, and then rebuild. she is much more likely to do this if the sets are together though. we've misplaced a few pieces, but in general things are together. because i can't stand to do this very often, sometimes the legos go have a break ;) i use ziplocs to keep sets together :)

she will "bulid her own thing" even when using a set...we also have the more generic sets and some random bricks we picked up at the lego store for "open-ended" play.

[abh5e8]

i'm wondering this too....we have lots of legos coming for christmas and b-day in Jan.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

we use this toy organizer for the kids Duplos. i got it for $20 from a FB garage sale site. i love it because

-kids can see what's in all of them without having to take the bins out (love this!)
-kids don't have to open anything with lids, or ask for help in opening the boxes (this was issue with other lego containers)
-there are lots of smaller bins as well for organzing different sets/types of legos (e.g. Dora legos, train legos, cupcake)
-kids can easily put the legos away/organize it themselves (This is huge!!!).

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2816/10451463434_4a3caa8b76_c.jpg

[azzeps]

All our Legos are in one large box. I would like to get a bigger box so that DD can store her creation of the day without taking it apart because she often wants to do that when it's time to clean up and it doesn't fit. We typically build a set once, then it all goes in the big bin. I can't imagine the nightmare it would be to try to keep it all separate!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

http://www.amazon.com/Lay-n-Go-Original-Activity-Mat-Blue/dp/B007BO5OAY/ref=pd_sim_t_4

I'm thinking of getting this for DS. We are in the same position with keeping Legos only in DS' room so DD can't get to them. All his lego sets are jumbled together now in bins. He loves spreading them out to play and I hate stepping on them and some pieces are so tiny I've missed them when cleaning up before I vaccum. Hopefully the playmat will help. We don't let DD in DS' room though because she could rip his books but I would worry about missing a lego if she's still putting things in her mouth. They are tiny!

wow that Lay N Go thing looks so cool!! thanks for sharing! will have to remember that for in a few years. right now we just have the Duplos but we are planning to get them "real" Legos for christmas this year (DS will be essentially 4 and DD will be 2.75). this looks like it will be great for that!

[Katigre]

I'm sooooo happy to just dump them in all together and save directions if they're ever needed again.

This is what we do. It works great for ds!

Sent from my Android phone using Swype

[MacMacMoo]

When we get a new set, it gets it's own gallon or 2.5 gallon ziplock. We try to keep the set all together.

But at some point enough ends up in the general use pile, that it no longer gets a special bag.

The general use Legos are stored in 12x12 bins in a tower leftover from my scrap booking days. We have a bin for: black/white, grey, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, translucent, house pieces (windows, doors, flowers, trees, fences), car pieces (base piece, wheels, steering wheel, etc), technic, and people.

[MamaMolly]

I give credit to those organized families who can keep sets together.

I think they are an urban legend.

[mikeys_mom]

We have 3 large bins where most legos are jumbled together. One bin is lego friends stuff that DD didn't care about keeping assembled.
DS and DD have some special sets that they keep on shelves so they stay assembled and they can play with them. We keep the instruction booklets in large Ziploc bags but it has been rare that they have wanted to rebuild exactly as per the instructions. Typically, DS will find a half-built piece and turn it into his own creation.

[okinawama]

We use this. It has three different trays, and each tray has different sized squares that allow you to sift the legos apart based on size. Tge largest pieces stay on the top tray, the medium pieces sift down to the middle tray and the smallest lego pieces down to the very bottom. It works exactly as it says it should. When DS is building, he takes the two trays out, and is able to find the exact pieces he's looking for based on the size. He's still fairly young, and we are fairly new to the Lego world, but I'd say we have at least 15 of the creator planes, cars or boats, we have a 800 piece starter set and then a set that's made up solely of axles, wheels and windshields. So far, they all fit in there with plenty of room for more. I also like that it looks decorative, and we keep it stored out in the open without it adding to any visual clutter in the room.
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-KP001-Lego-Sort-Store/dp/B005L0MKS4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382627719&sr=8-2&keywords=lego+head

[abh5e8]

box4blox is also a lego sorting storage option. http://www.box4blox.com/

[acmom]

box4blox is also a lego sorting storage option. http://www.box4blox.com/

Has anyone tried this one? Was it successful?

[Seitvonzu]

All our Legos are in one large box. I would like to get a bigger box so that DD can store her creation of the day without taking it apart because she often wants to do that when it's time to clean up and it doesn't fit. We typically build a set once, then it all goes in the big bin. I can't imagine the nightmare it would be to try to keep it all separate!

i assure you--it's a serious nightmare ;)

[ahisma]

We have a 3 drawer plastic cart from Target, like this (but this is a set of 2, oddly): http://www.target.com/p/sterilite-3-drawer-cart-white-set-of-2/-/A-11861870#prodSlot=large_1_2

The top drawer is for tiny pieces and minifigs - the stuff that gets lost in the bottom of a traditional bin.

The middle drawer is for anything that is not tiny or not a standard brick / square / whatever. We call it the "special shape bin"

The middle drawer is for the standard brick / square / flat pieces / whatever.

When they build sets, they go onto a small wooden shelf and are played with until they eventually fall apart. Then they get tossed in the drawers. There are a handful that they keep together like the space shuttle and rocket set.