Lego organization can be anything from having one big designated bucket to having a system of organized, color-coded bins. (I tend to prefer the latter.)
Here’s how we simply organize Legos with a house full of boys that love Legos.
SORT BY COLOR: We love THESE bins from Walmart. I have lots of them in various sizes around our home. I like these because the price is great and they fit exactly in the space we’re currently using to store the Legos. Update: for the black and grey bins, we’ve now graduated to THIS SIZE bin. It’s still cohesive since the lids are the same color and bins are the same height. Same bins, just different sizes.
We have 8 bins that stack in two rows on the bottom of the boys’ bookshelf.
Here’s how we sort them:
- Green
- Blue/Purple
- Yellow/Orange/Gold/Brown
- Red/Pink
- Black
- Grey
- White
- People/people parts/accessories
I find they spend more time in creative play when they’re organized this way. It’s easier to find parts they’re looking for, especially the people and small accessory pieces. This is helpful to my 4 year old, who is most interested in playing with the people and swapping out the accessories.
HAVE A MISCELLANEOUS BASKET: We have two baskets that are designated for Legos to be placed in at the end of the day. I have two media size baskets from Target similar to THESE. They hold plenty and slide under their dressers and out of sight very easily.
Once those baskets are full, the boys re-sort them back into the colored bins. This happens once every couple weeks. They’ll line up the bins on the floor, each take a pile from the basket and start tossing them in. Sometimes they’ll listen to an audiobook to help pass the time while sorting.
DISPLAY CREATIONS: Of course, they love to put together new sets as soon as they get them. The creations will eventually get broken apart and the parts get used to make other things. They have space on the top of their dresser that’s out of reach of our youngest’s hands to put completed projects or those that are “in progress.”
EASILY MAINTAINED: This simple system has been easy to maintain. About a year ago when we swapped to this system, we all took small piles and slowly got all the Legos into their appropriate colored bin.
From then on the boys have been able to maintain it mostly by themselves. With four small boys, our years of Legos are far from over. This system works well for us now, but may need to be tweaked over time or possibly moved to larger bins if the rate they accumulate new Lego sets stays steady.
INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS: Initially, I tossed all the instruction booklets. They end up getting torn and add to clutter even though I had a small basket on one of their closet shelves they were kept in.
They can be reprinted online, so I thought that would be a good solution if they want to re-build a set. The boys REALLY like the instruction booklets. It’s not often that they re-build a set, but from time to time they want to. They also like looking through the booklets at pictures of other sets, especially my youngest. So we’re back to keeping them for now!
This will look different for every family depending on your space and how detailed you want your sysytem.
How do you store Legos?
Photos by Allison Muirhead
