We have quite some LEGO’s as well in our home. How do you store it all? We have just basic bricks and I put them all in a plastic storage bin. What do you do with the models? Do you keep all the bits seperate in their originial packaging? Do you just mix it all up? I’m not sure what to do with it, I’m afraid some of the pieces will get lost.
I just let my boys manage their own Legos. They like to build them, display them, play games/act out movies or whatever. They have bins and large, flat containers that slide under their beds.
We probably don’t have as much as some people do, so ours are pretty manageable.
For a while after a set is acquired we keep it separate in a small tub or gallon size ziplock bag. Then they boys decide when to mix it in to the main lego tub (a big rubbermaid tote). Some are kept separate for a long time, others for just a few weeks.
We have shelves for the ones they want to keep, but the sets never stay separate for too long. They always decide the piece could be better utilized in a set they come up with on their own. I do have one standing rule: you can’t take apart something someone else has built w/out asking them.
As for storage, I bought 12 x 12 scrapbook paper rolling carts at Target a few years ago, and to this day, we still use them. They keep them sorted by color. This works so well for ease of building, and even little ones can help to keep them cleaned up and organized.
The best part about the scrapbook-paper one is that each drawer has a LID and it latches shut, so the boys can take them out of the cart and can even carry them somewhere else.
We do allow them to leave them out in a small section of our bonus room, but every once in a while they are all put away just b/c the pile of ones they are using grows larger and larger!
They have done well keeping them by color for several years now, though a few colors are together like reds, purples, pinks for instance. Grays and blacks take up several drawers.
We just got a big under-the-bed box that the legos go in. They are in my son’s room (although my daugther did get a few sets, and she builds in his room.) They generally don’t keep kits seperate after making them. I tried to keep the instructions nice and neat – but they ended up mostly getting wrecked… (sigh). My son has a few that are still in good condition.
We do tend to get legos all over the house (sigh)… any legos I pick up go into MY box of legos… which I occasionally give back as a gift (ie, at Christmas or whatever) – but truthfully they have so many that this doesn’t have an affect on them at all…. sigh.
I was reminded of one suggestion I had heard of and liked – but never did…. having a Lego Blanket (I think I originally saw one with handles at the corners.) – you lift the blanket out of the box with all the legos on it, and build it on the blanket – when done, you gather it up with the handles and lift it back into the box…..
We have an old bookshelf we use for Legos. My boys sorted parts by color, size & style (wheels,etc). We purchased approximatly 30 clear small tubs which stack well on the shelves. They are easily seen, slid off the shelf, and opened for use when needed.
For technic, power tools, and NXT parts, they uses tackle and craft boxes, which work nicely.
In the beginning, new lego sets are kept in boxes but eventually my boys end up pulling out pieces to use for other creations (they use http://www.peeron.com). Once they decide to take a set out of its original box, they store the instruction manuals in a designated place – an old suitcase.
We also have an “unsorted” lego tub going at all times, which is used for quick lego clean-ups or for odds and ends mom finds laying around. Boys are required to re-sort them back to their original destination once a week .