[busygirl]

I've just had a big clean-up of DS's cupboard, and am currently surrounded by Lego! There are things that are fully built and others that are only partly built (which have fallen apart and I now have to find the rest of the pieces for ), plus we have one of the blue tubs with lots of bits and pieces in it as well as a heap of Bionicles.

So some questions for those whose kids are into Lego:

How do you go about storing it all? Do you keep things fully built and, if so, where do you put it (especially when other kids visit or with younger siblings around)? And if they're not fully built, do you keep all the kits separate or the pieces thrown into together? I haven't kept any of the boxes (except for the Bionicles) - should I have done this or maybe I should just use zip-lock bags?

One last question: I've bought DS (age 5) the big City Police Station for Christmas, but I'm wondering if this is a bad move now and maybe I should have just bought some smaller kits instead? Will this be a PITA to have around seeing that it's so big and I'm already overwhelmed with the smaller Lego kits we have?

Sorry about all the questions, but I would really appreciate some advice on sorting all this out!

This post has been edited by Pinkalicious: 13/10/2008, 11:13 AM

[sparassidae]

We only have a couple of sets- a couple of cars plus a few bionicles. Generally if the 'set' is built it is allowed to stay on a high shelf in the child's bedroom, but if not all lego is just chucked into a big tub together.

When they want to rebuild something particular like one of the cars or a bionicle they are happy to fish through to tub to find the right parts.

[Stacey*]

My DS got the big city police station for his 6th Birthday plus we have lots of other lego.

Most of it is in a big tub put we put the sets broken up in their own little tubs. He will normally rebuild something every few months and it will stay up until he stops playing with it, about a month.

[JRA]

In this house it is the million dollar question, and really despite feeling we are organized at the moment our house looks more like a lego shop than a house.

We have a large number of sets, mainly star wars, and city stuff. Although we do have some mars.

What do we do:

- sets are either built or in pieces in a zip lock bag (a bag per set). Sets never go in to general revenue unless this is agreed as a family (some technic stuff has gone in to general as it is "handy").
- sets that are made up are MEANT to live on the shelves in DS's play room or in the shelves in the family room.
- not made up sets (in bags) live in the drawer.
- all maps live in a folder.

General revenue items are separated as such:
- general blocks simply in a box.
- special bits (slopey bits, hole bits, cogs, wing shapes etc) go in electrician type boxes so all similar bits are together and findable.
- we also have a "work in progress" box where half built, not put away bits live.

This post has been edited by JRA: 10/10/2008, 10:14 AM

[mjaler]

We also have a lego mad son and all bits go in one big tub and all instructions stored on his bookshelf. I did have it in broken down tubs but DS prefers making his own creations so was mixing and matching pieces a lot so was more than happy to put it 'all in'. Makes it SO much easier for ME!

We have also had visitors break down the sets which caused much grief!!

[blissfulqueenb]

I bought an entire green garbage bin full of lego for $10 so it has just stayed in there! No way am I sorting it out!!!!

[Foogle]

Everything JRA said. We also have a lot of Lego, nearly all the SWs ones and Batman and some Mars Mission.

- sets are either built or in pieces in a zip lock bag (a bag per set). Sets never go in to general revenue unless this is agreed as a family between DH and DS.
- sets that are made up are MEANT to live on the shelves in DS's play room or in the shelves in the family room.
- not made up sets (in bags) live in the drawer their boxes. DS insists that all boxes are kept.

- all maps/instructions live in a folder that lives in a designated drawer (along with all transformer instructions also). It is called the Instruction Drawer.

[mumma23]

Our lego is in one big plastic storage box. I drove myself crazy trying to keep all the parts that belong together, together but the kids had different ideas so I surrendered and gave up trying.

The books are also in the tub. Keeps them entertained longer if they have to look for the pieces to make whatever it is they want to make LOL

[**Kaz**]

DS has a bookcase so all built lego goes on top of that but usually after a few weeks he is pulling it apart and making something else.

We have a big lego bucket that we got a few years back and all lego half built or pieces go in that. Drives me nuts all the lego I have to pick up though, boy does it hurt if you stand on a piece to

[mindy05]

Another idea for storage is to get some of those display books, with the plastic pockets. Each set of instructions goes into its own pocket so they can be easily located. We're doing this for all of DS's construction kits- not just the Lego.