Lego storage ideas?

[columbusmomma]

DS loves Legos and has sooo many. Especially the put together models, star wars,indian jones,etc. He displays the bigger ones on a shelf, but we have so much clutter in the way of little pieces that have fallen off or little put together models that need homes. Any creative ideas?

[BCFD]

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008/...ego-table.html

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2009/...le-on-one.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cageyjames/2773981243/

http://heatherjslife.blogspot.com/20...-download.html

Maybe one of these links will inspire you!

[Theoretica]

[zebra15]

What we do is each set gets its own clear plastic box (yes it adds about $5 to the cost). Even if the set stays assembled the box gets labeled and insided we store the instruction booklet and any extra pcs.

I use these - sometimes a set needs 2 of these
http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProdu...=252&section=1

sometimes these - only for a small set
http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProdu...=252&section=1

Everything gets labled and stacked in the closet or floor. The label contains the set # and abbreviated set name.

DS will NOT mix pcs (his thing, not mine)

I find those boxes at Target and they stack wonderfully, DS can get them at elast 10 high and they will not topple over.

[goddessjulia]

BCFD those are awesome!! I do what zebra15 does, with the sterilite containers. it hasn't really worked, though; ds1 keeps too much out. I'm looking for new ideas myself

[wendy23]

My son is 8 and absolutely loves legos! He plays with them for hours every day so we have to keep them out and easily accessible. I have been using a beach towel or sheet lately and it seems to be the easiest for clean up. Just throw a sheet on the floor, pour the legos out and let them play, then gather the sheet up and either pour them back in a big box or put the whole sheet in there too. We have been using this method for the last few months so I think I am going to buy or make one of the playmat/drawstring bags. I found some on etsy, but if you google it, you will find others as well.
For display, we hung two shelves high on the wall in his room, so other kids can't reach. I know other moms who put the special ones right in their china cabinet. Not such a bad idea considering how much those huge lego kits can cost!!

[MyLittleWonders]

We have more Legos than I like to think about around here. That said, my boys mix everything, so we have 3 large under-bed storage bins for most all pieces, plus some of those "boot" sized bins for specialty pieces (people, weapons (think Star Wars and the like) and wheels/axils, I think). The boot sized bins are supposed to have a lid on them and put on a shelf in their room. They too like to keep every creation they made on display, but I usually give them a shelf on top of their cubbies and/or a shelf in the closet (about 2' x 2'); they keep the most important ones there and the rest are put back into the regular bins to become something new again. Sometimes the Legos will be put in the garage on "time out" if the boys are having too hard of a time keeping them contained, but if we stay on top of them with the bins (on top of the Legos), and work together to clean up at the end of the day, the big bins under the bed keep most of it contained. Convincing them to pare down their creations is another story, but having a physical space that limits the amount helps.

[4evermom]

All the instruction books go in the file cabinet. Built sets go on shelves. I'd love ones with glass doors to keep the dust off! Loose legos go in plastic tubs with snap lock lids (so they don't spill if tipped!) kept on the bottom shelf. People, animals, and accessories are mostly in a separate bin. Then, we also have a set of plastic drawers from a hardware store in which we keep special little pieces. Oh, and we have a closet full of boxes, too.

[elsie]

My OCD friend stores them in plastic, pull out drawer bins - she uses one of those screw and nut organizers for the little funky pieces, and then uses larger pull out drawers for the bigger pieces. She segregates by color.

[4evermom]

The trick is to organize them based on how your dc uses them.

Mine is more concerned about the type of piece than the color so we don't segregate colors. We do keep some themes separate. For a while we had them sorted by type of piece but that just meant we had to look in multiple spots to find the desired piece. It actually seemed easier to find them mixed together. Plus, sometimes ds would be inspired by different pieces he'd find along the way. He is either building space ships and bases or he is using minifigs to act out a story. So it works for him to have people and accessories separate from blocks, etc, but it would be a waste of time for us to sort the bricks by color. And this way it is easy for him to pick up by himself. He wouldn't mind them more organized but he doesn't want them that way badly enough to sort as he picks up, either.

Since he is careful with his built sets and likes to keep them assembled, shelves are important for storage. He doesn't dump the bins out (I may have encouraged that, lol) but just rummages in the bins so we don't use a sheet or anything while playing. But it's nice to have translucent bins rather than opaque ones so we can hold it up and look to see if the tiny pieces we want are on the bottom. Ds usually builds at a small table. It's just a coffee table from a thrift store but it has a nice little lip all around that keeps small objects from ending up on the floor.

[naturallyspeaking]

I'm glad to see this post. I am also looking for the ideas to store these things. Our problem is that we want to separate like pieces together so if he is looking for THE one piece, he can find it easily. I do like that towel dumping idea though. My son gets frustrated sometimes because he can't find a small piece that he knows that he has, so I want to know how people separate little pieces...

[phathui5]

We use the plastic stacking drawers to store them, but there's no organization whatsoever. Ds and his friends are always playing with them and I don't want to deal with making him organize them (or doing it myself) when they're all going to get dumped out and played with the next day.

[Village Mama]

The under the bed storage bins are awesome for lego/ knex/ playmobile collections. They are the long flat ones which are perfect because you can root around and find pieces without dumping the box. we can fit three of these under a loveseat futon in our playroom, or under a bed. Lidded and put away all tidy! Love these!