In this house, we like Lego. This weekend we decided to take apart and put our Lego away. We do this on a regular basis. We build things, play with them, store them and eventually dismantle them in order to play again. 🙂 Since we have a fairly massive Lego collection, this created a problem of how to store our Lego without it driving us crazy in the searching for pieces and how to display what we made well.  We tried various options like Rubbermaid bins, in the closet, under the bed and it just wasn’t working for us.  We needed a good way to organize our Lego and have a display shelf.
We’ve organized our lego a few times, each time fine tuning it. This was the original method we used.Â
Since our first rendition, we got rid of the tiny bins, and simply changed what went where in our bins.
I use four of those stackable bins that you can find at Walmart or on Amazon.  The ones I use have five drawers rather than the ones you see here. *images are clickable*
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I find I can rearrange them as needed too, Sometimes I place them in a square and put a large square of wood on top for when we want to build pyramids and representations of Egypt or medieval or pioneer life. Â I don’t leave the wheels on as I’ve learned THAT’s a recipe for disaster.
Below is a city/town that we are in process of taking down as we pack to move. Gives an idea of how we change our set up once in a while.
Anyways, divide up the Lego however you want. Â
Our division tends to be:
- wheels/wheel part
- lego build books
- castle pieces
- ones
- twos
- threes
- fours
- larger than fours
- Large flats
- Smooth flats
- smaller flats
- car parts
- Axles and round holes
- unusual pieces
- figurines and all their paraphernalia
- Tiny pieces (like flat ones)
Some types of Lego have so many pieces it takes two bins to hold them all. Â
Basically pieces that are mostly similar find their home spot in the same places. (like axles and the legos with holes in them go together), along with crane parts.  Things shift as we gain (and sometimes lose) various pieces. All my StarGate Lego goes in one bin.
No one will organize their Lego exactly the same way, so find a method that works for you and how you think, and don’t be afraid to change it. Ours has been revised several times since we started this method, and then as we discovered the joy of moving the bins and making a temporary table and what not. We’ve done the “let’s divide by colour” (colossal failure) We’ve even transported them as needed to other homes for play dates with friends who don’t have Lego.Â
This is our normal set up
Organize your Lego, it makes playing with your Lego a lot more fun as you don’t have to spend all your time searching the corners of your bin for just the right piece. Having a display shelf right with your lego stash keeps it all neat and tidy and off the floor. Â
Join the crew this week in organizing your homeschool.