LEGO storage: How I sorted my son’s LEGO so that he would tidy it up by himself

To continue my series on LEGO, which began last month with How to get your child to tidy their LEGO , I felt I should share the categories and storage units I used to sort and storage my son’s LEGO most of which was handed down to him from my brother in one huge overflowing archiving box.

We have a 12 drawer plastic unit like this with drawers that can be removed for easy playing and clearing up  as the LEGO storage in my son’s room. As his room is pretty small and we don’t have the luxury of a playroom, a tower, which takes up less surface area, seemed a great solution to our LEGO storage needs. Also you can add another set of drawers as the collection grows.

Here’s how I sorted my brother’s old Lego, which included lots of sets (just that we didn’t know which) and some technic Lego. I spent 7hrs sorting an archive box full to the brim of Lego!

 

 

 

My then 4 year old was able to find the pieces he needed and we were able to reconstruct the sets my brother had AND my son was able to tidy up, with help at first, then with questions (which drawer does this go in?) Until he graduated to being responsible for his own LEGO collection at the grand old age of 5.

I still need to get him to break up models he has made once in a while as he runs out of space but generally the Lego in our house is under control. Here’s how I broke it down… 

My categories:

A closer study of the weird pieces in the crazy drawer led me to figure out which sets my brother had as they were pretty specialised. I googled the parts and found the instructions, sifted through the organised lego to find the pieces and then we built the sets. These then needed to be displayed as my son wanted to play with them… but that is another story (see my next post on how to display Lego).

So far the Lego storage system I have set up is working even with the addition of more LEGO sets at birthdays and Christmas and whenever the grandparents are in town! The main reasons it works is that it is flexible, it fits the space and is simple enough for a soon to be 7 year old to figure out where everything goes and to not be daunted by too many decisions when faced with tidying up.

I hope that I’ve helped you to decide on how to tackle your LEGO mountain…. how is your LEGO sorted? Do you prefer keeping it in one big box so that your child gets the fun of sifting through it? Do let me know…