Yatkuu

Best way to organize a kid’s collection

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Hello fellow EB members!

I have a 6.5 years old son who loves LEGO but I have a bit of a problem with regards to how to organize his collection.

As an AFOL I have found the sorting solution that works best for me using (lots of) plastic drawer towers like this - but I struggle to find the best way to organize a kid's collection. There is no way he could be as disciplined as me and keep his pieces sorted so obviously my solution can't work for him.

Right now his loose bricks are stored in 5 LEGO buckets like this:

416EchFAE2L._SX300_.jpg

The buckets are nice looking and they can be stacked on top of each other so in terms of space efficiency it is pretty good but this solution has 2 issues:

  • I don' know how your kids are but mine can be lazy. The bricks are not easily accessible and it makes playing with them not as attractive as some of his other toys so as a result he does not play with them very often.
  • It is almost impossible to search for a piece in these containers – too narrow and deep - so if you are looking for something in particular the only solution is to dump it all on the floor which is instantly very messy.

I am willing to purchase new containers or invest in another sorting solution but I would like to hear how others are doing it… any ideas?

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When I was kid my father bought a few boxes made for storing tools, the yellow & blues seen on the ground on that photo: http://antp.be/temp/lego/P1090981.jpg

(back then all my bricks fitted in these four boxes :laugh: )

Later when the amount of bricks increased he bought a few more boxes, those seen on the right.

There were less brick types in the 80s so sorting by part type was maybe easier to do.

He made drawings of the brick types in the bottom of each container, allowing to know where what was in case I emptied some.

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You can get a drawstring bag that opens up into a playmat where the bricks can be spread out, and then you pull up into a bag when you're done. I don't know how good they are but worth a look, they're called Swoop Bags.

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I think some shallow medium size drawers could work. I use some of these for large plates, cockpits, and other bulky pieces. But if someone wasn't going to sort too precisely I think these could work well for everything. Just roughly group by shape in each drawer.

PD1_17918004.jpg

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When I was kid my father bought a few boxes made for storing tools, the yellow & blues seen on the ground on that photo: http://antp.be/temp/lego/P1090981.jpg

(back then all my bricks fitted in these four boxes :laugh: )

Later when the amount of bricks increased he bought a few more boxes, those seen on the right.

There were less brick types in the 80s so sorting by part type was maybe easier to do.

He made drawings of the brick types in the bottom of each container, allowing to know where what was in case I emptied some.

Several things about this post of yours really moved me. And to see the boxes in the photograph, still there, and now amongst your own work area... Thank you for that.

I wish I still had a toy box that my grandfather made for me when I was a boy. It was large enough to sleep in. Really, it was.

So I say - one big, huge box. It was so fun digging in that thing.... And, a box disguised, to be part of the decor, or to serve as another piece of functional furniture - that would be even awesome-er. Like a secret stashing place - full of Lego.

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We got ours a drawer cart for loose parts and a bookshelf for the built sets. He tossed whatever in the drawers, no logical sorting but it's accessible. Now that he is in the Dark Ages, I'm re-using the draw cart. :classic:

222157.jpg-bb74da0f1abdaf10b12d8af7153d887815b7e686-optim-282x460.jpg

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When I was a kid, my parents helped me sort my collection by colour around four times a year. I had 1 bin per colour and 1 bin for unsorted parts, when the unsorted parts bin was full, I had to sort all the parts in there.

A personal experience with big bins is to use low bins with a big floor area, this makes it easy to look for parts, also transparant bins will make the looking for parts much easier, especially in dark colours.

Edited by UrbanErwin

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A big plastic tub and an old double bed sheet. Lego goes on bedsheets when being played with and bedsheets with lego inside goes into the tub when not in use. I've got 3 kids aged 3-9 and have tried all sorts of methods and this is easily the best way......

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We got ours a drawer cart for loose parts and a bookshelf for the built sets. He tossed whatever in the drawers, no logical sorting but it's accessible. Now that he is in the Dark Ages, I'm re-using the draw cart. :classic:

222157.jpg-bb74da0f1abdaf10b12d8af7153d887815b7e686-optim-282x460.jpg

I use these myself. They have loads of sizes and designs.

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I use these myself. They have loads of sizes and designs.

It's what I use myself. I made a lego table for my daughter using two of these as the base. I removed one section to lower it and placed a piece of plywood with trim forming a lip around the edge across the two. Just enough room between the two sections to place a kids sized chair. I then painted the top to look like heart lake city. Lake in the middle, surrounds by flowers and paths radioing outward. It's been great for a place for her to both build, sort and store most of her Legos.

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Trying to get kids to keep LEGO sorted never works well :(

I gave up trying to get my son to sort. The interesting thing is he can remember where a particular piece is in the pile of mess in the drawer tower.

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Thanks a lot everyone for the feedbacks and great ideas!

Much like an AFOL's collection organization, I think there is no perfect way to organize a kid's collection... it all depends on the person and size of the collection.

For now I have opted for some basic clear containers, wider and shallower. Not sure these will work out any better than the previous ones but these were very reasonable ($27 at Target for the lot shown on the picture below) so worst case scenario I will re-use these for home storage and get different ones for the LEGO.

storage-new.jpg

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That looks like a great option for kids, actually. I agree with what everyone said about asking kids to keep their LEGO neat. My kids were, unfortunately, not into LEGO like I am (although we do play occasionally), but the kids I know with big LEGO collections (and one of them, unfortunately, likes Megabloks more because of the licenses, like Halo and COD), have the one giant, not clear, tub - like the big 20+ gallon tubs. I don't know how they do it, because I don't think they dump the whole thing out... or maybe they do. What do I know?

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Hah, I still have big clear tubs full, sorting just never really happened. While it has a few downsides it really makes me work creatively with what I can find!

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Several things about this post of yours really moved me. And to see the boxes in the photograph, still there, and now amongst your own work area... Thank you for that.

I just remembered I had this pic from me in 1987 where one of the storage boxes is visible:

10426822_10203864583075795_8724835798312563949_n.jpg?oh=063c67f52ad969170fc9ddf8e6fc3267&oe=55464830&__gda__=1430232521_e4ae018e2dd70e0df653808fb16a3ff6

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I just remembered I had this pic from me in 1987

Nice... It could be me on that picture!

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We've used the transparent, shallow plastic tubs for the kid's Lego collection. Sometimes they stay in the tubs when they're looking for things, but more often than not everything gets dumped onto an old bedsheet we spread out on the floor. When they're done playing, we gather up the corners of the bedsheet and use it as a sort of funnel to pour the Lego back into the tubs. The tubs then get stacked in the corner of the bedroom (or sometimes the living room) until we want them next. This seems to be the method that works best for us in terms of keeping the Lego off the floor while still making it accessible.

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Also, something my aunt used to do for my kid cousins is use old baby wipe bins for legos. It sounds strange but it worked quite well.

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For a small kid with a small collection, Rubbermaid bins or similar light storage containers would be ideal. As the collection gets larger and they become a more serious builder, you'll probably want to expand so that you don't have disorganized bins everywhere. What I have is multiple sets of drawers that you can get at any hardware or home improvement store. I think I have 16 sets of drawers total and all the overflow, larger parts, or pieces I have a ridiculous amount of (like black Technic 2 module pins) go in Rubbermaid bins. These are useful because you can fasten them to a wall which keeps pieces and bins out of the way of the floor and keeps parts well-organized when you're looking for a specific part in one color.

X8mgSBs.jpg

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For a small kid with a small collection, Rubbermaid bins or similar light storage containers would be ideal. As the collection gets larger and they become a more serious builder, you'll probably want to expand so that you don't have disorganized bins everywhere. What I have is multiple sets of drawers that you can get at any hardware or home improvement store. I think I have 16 sets of drawers total and all the overflow, larger parts, or pieces I have a ridiculous amount of (like black Technic 2 module pins) go in Rubbermaid bins. These are useful because you can fasten them to a wall which keeps pieces and bins out of the way of the floor and keeps parts well-organized when you're looking for a specific part in one color.

X8mgSBs.jpg

Is that your collection!?

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Is that your collection!?

Yeah, it's my family's. It's shared between myself, my brothers and my father located in my parents' basement. That's what happens when your whole family likes LEGO. :classic:

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Yeah, it's my family's. It's shared between myself, my brothers and my father located in my parents' basement. That's what happens when your whole family likes LEGO. :classic:

It's beautiful... *sniff*... soon... I'll get there...

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I have 3 swoop bags (mentioned in an earlier post) for my 5 year old son. 1 very large and 2 smaller. They are not cheap but are fantastic, especially the large one. It has a lip of about 3 inches around the side and is so easy to get out and put away, by far the best solution I have used for young kids. Thing is, he always comes over to my organised draws because he can't be bothered to find a peice in his bag! That's a whole other problem!

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Yaatkuu, A great thread BTW! With a child who is that good of a builder at age six, I would buy whatever storage is needed to keep him building. But then he has a great role model in his dad's LEGO efforts!

I am putting most of our LEGO into Sterilite 1868 clear letter boxes with black tops. Found these on sale for 5US at WM yesterday, and they are just wonderful. If you are in the US, make sure they are in stock and then start your engines because they are flying off the floor at this price. Each store around Raleigh seems to be receiving a pallet or two.

After 25 years of keeping most of our collection in colored Roughneck 10 and 18 quart containers, we are switching to these smaller ones which are easier to lift and to see what is inside. These fit well on those wire rolling carts with four shelves if you want mobility. (You can stuff about fifty of these stacked inside each other in a Honda Element!)

Oh, and I forgot to mention our most favorite item in the LEGO room...thanks to Yatkuu, we have dry mounted a LEGO Turtle Contest Poster on our wall. It is a real winner!

Good luck with storing your kids' collections. That is a tough chore, but the sheet idea sounds like a huge help in picking up pieces. Cheers!

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