Tired of stepping on LEGO pieces? Here are three LEGO storage solutions for your child's large collection that will get them organized.
It's official. The playroom has been overtaken by LEGO. Somehow, our son has accumulated thousands upon thousands of these little plastic pieces. To prevent them from getting stepped on or lost forever, I needed to come up with a new Lego storage solution, stat!
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Our previous LEGO storage situation involved separating the pieces by set and keeping them each in their own labeled box in a storage tower similar to this one.
We even added an additional, smaller one on top for even more storage. You can see them in the corner of his new DIY Lego table set up below.
We have far more than six sets now, and there are more than six colors of LEGO, so we needed even more storage. I picked up a huge 1600 piece box of random pieces on Black Friday last year, and we were tossing every loose Lego we find into the box. If our son is looking for one piece to finish a creation, he needed to dump the entire box onto the floor and sift through it.
After cleaning this up for the millionth time, I made this clear sided Lego bin to make it easier for him to see that elusive piece at the bottom. The built in Lego baseplates and handle lets him take his Legos on the go!
His minifigures have a home on this DIY Lego minifigure display case, but the pieces are still all over the place!
So I started researching a new LEGO storage system. A lot of the great ideas I found either were made for a smaller collection or didn't allow for the level of OCD organization I was looking for. I wanted to sort by color, and to some extent, size and shape. I narrowed it down to these three options.
Lego Storage Option 1: Drawer Cabinet
This one has lots of drawers in two different sizes, so he can separate the larger pieces from the smaller ones and sort by color. It comes in either black or red and gray, which matches his brightly colored decor. The drawers can be removed if he's building something with a lot of one color, or he can pull a drawer open to grab a single LEGO without disturbing the others. It can be mounted on the wall or kept on top of his desk.
I attached a brick to the front of each drawer with double sided tape to make it easier to find the part he needs. You can find more details about this set up here.
Lego Storage Option 2: Wall Mount Parts Rack
There are lots of different versions of these kinds of bins on the market, but I liked these because there are multiple sizes in bright colors. I'm not sure if the bins can be removed if he's constantly reaching for the same type of Lego piece repeatedly, though.
Lego Storage Option 3: IKEA Trofast
It became clear pretty quickly that our son wasn't going to sort his Lego pieces with any resemblance of organization! He just needed places to quickly spot what he was looking for in his vast collection.
I bought two IKEA Trofast drawer units like the one above, put them on wheels and turned them into giant Lego bricks! You can check out the full tutorial on how to make this IKEA Lego table here.
The Ultimate Lego Storage and Organization Set up
Remember this scene from The Lego Movie?
Legoland California has the actual set, all exactly as it was in the dad's basement. We went back to it three times during our stay so we our son could check out every detail. I was looking back at the photos we took of the set one day when I noticed the black version of option number 1 on the dad's workbench! I was sold!
The smaller boxes are perfect for separating out the different sizes and colors, and the larger boxes are being used for things like wheels and minifigure accessories. Sorting out all the pieces in his collection is a work in progress, but at least all those LEGO finally have a home!
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Sarah @ Accidentally Crunchy
Tuesday 27th of December 2016
I LOVE organizing LEGO :D
I found that the GLIS boxes from Ikea (which are super cheap) are a great solution for us so far. We have 5 of them I think and just stack them on top of each other and have colour themes for each box.
Here's a pic of ours so far (my son is 5! I shudder to think what it will look like 5 years from now!)
I tried to use a link shortener but it wouldn't pass the spam filter, sorry! https://fb-s-b-a.akamaihd.net/h-ak-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/14955851_10157724801750608_8566900177490330823_n.jpg?oh=1290e8042193355563225a27c04b9536&oe=58D8AE2A&__gda__=1491251661_1abae140f37a9ad923670c37f4b0f3a5
Vineta
Tuesday 27th of December 2016
Wow, those look like they would work really well too! Our son is 8, and it seems like his collection grows exponentially every year. We need to re-sort his pieces now that he got a new haul for Christmas!
Lynn Spencer
Wednesday 15th of June 2016
Holy Cow, as a mom of a 16-year old young man who spent many years buried in (and loving every minute of it) in legos, I finally gave up 'organizing' them. My son had no interest in sorting the pieces by color, shape, size, project or any other metric. My final solution was to make a huge circle drawstring bag that we could just cinch up, containing all the legos, and store until such time as we needed to lay it out again...which was often. I have a very soft spot in my heart for legos...they are a fantastic toy and I think fondly to those days when my little boy would sit for hours letting his imagination hold sway.
So glad you found a storage solution that works for your lego-master. Thanks for sharing this oldie but goodie with us today. Hugs, Lynn
Andrea Negron
Tuesday 29th of December 2015
I'm trying to get a handle on how many legos fit inside of the container you purchased. I have an original bucket style container and it is overflowing.
http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m2RxGU7fwkXDiiFqhbLhzGA.jpg
How does that compare to your son's collection? Should I be getting one or two? Love this solution!
The Handyman's Daughter
Wednesday 30th of December 2015
Thanks Andrea! I would suggest getting two. The one we have got filled up pretty quickly, and his big box wasn't full to the top because most of the bigger pieces are already in use. Once he breaks down an old creation, the one storage unit can't hold all the pieces. I need to buy another one, especially after seeing how many new Lego pieces he got for Christmas! Good luck sorting them all out!
Margaret L.
Thursday 24th of December 2015
What a great system! I'm curious about whether your son has maintained it. I've been trying to decide if it is worth it to separate all the pieces out of my son's big tubs. Does your son sort things back into the different bins or do you end up doing that?
The Handyman's Daughter
Saturday 26th of December 2015
Honestly, most of the things he creates from the bins stick around for a while in their built form. Every once in a while I'll ask if something can be taken apart if he's not playing with it, but usually the answer is no! He's gotten a bunch of new Legos for Christmas, so I'll be prodding him to sort all his old ones away.
Tori
Friday 18th of December 2015
I like the clear bins...but, I think I would E-6000 one lego piece to the front of each drawer so my son could just glance and know exactly which lego piece was inside. They can look kinda the same through the outside of the drawer (other than color).
The Handyman's Daughter
Friday 18th of December 2015
I thought of doing something like that, but when I suggested to my son that we sacrifice a Lego piece for each box, he looked horrified! For now, I just put a label on each box that says "1x2" or "2x2" so he knows the size, and he can see the color through the front.