If you have a child who loves LEGO like mine, then you can feel my pain. While I love that these little toys are great at promoting a STEM mindset in my kids, I don’t love all the little pieces so much! They get everywhere and can seriously accumulate faster than mosquitos in July in the midwest! But after YEARS of trial and error, I’ve finally found a LEGO organization system that works. And today I’m sharing all about our super simple and maintainable system with you!
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While my son is only 6 years old, he has an incredible amount of LEGO. He has inherited a large amount from my husband and asks for LEGO from all of his family members for his birthday and Christmas. And while he doesn’t often get LEGO at other times throughout the year, it’s not uncommon for him to receive 6-8 sets during these holidays. So the accumulation of LEGO has been rapid since he was 4 years old.
We started out with the classic building set and have grown into the larger superhero, Star Wars, and Ninjago building sets since. He loves to both build and play with his LEGO. I wanted him to have a place to display his creations, but also the ability to play with them. He does have a 2 year old little brother, so we knew we needed something that would be “semi-Ben proof” as we like to call it! We didn’t want Ben to pull down and destroy his larger sets that took hours to build.
I also wanted him to have the ability to free build LEGO creations. He really enjoys the mini figures and constantly plays with them too! (Does your child love these little people as much as mine?!) I wanted a place where he could keep his mini figures safe and displayed without them getting lost easily. Because those things are tiny!
After a ton of trial and error, I’ve come up with a system that not only is simple to set up but also easy for my son to maintain.
LEGO Organization
Storage
The first thing I wanted to do was sort his miscellaneous pieces by color. This took a LONG time and was something that we did together. But the time spent was so worth it! I purchased these latch bins from Walmart and they work wonderfully. They are easy to get into, but the latches keep them securely closed avoiding major spills.
He not only needed to store his pieces sorted by color, but also his larger LEGO plates. And we definitely needed a LEGO repair shop which is why we have a “to fix” bin. We always seem to have a few sets that need repairs! You can download the label’s I used for his LEGO tubs here!
In Caleb’s room, we have a small nook in the corner where we keep the LEGO. I found this 6 cube organizer at Walmart to store the majority of his LEGO. We use 4 cubes to store the latch bins.
Caleb has also begun to collect the LEGO idea books. He LOVES reading these at night before bed to get new ideas of things to build. We designated a shelf on his cube organizer for these idea books.
With LEGO organization also comes LEGO instruction booklets. And if a LEGO set ever breaks, then these instruction booklets are gold! (Don’t throw those things away. I had to learn this the hard way!!) I’ve found that placing them in sheet protectors and putting those in binders is working best for now. I’ve just separated them by LEGO type (i.e. Star Wars, Ninjago, Superheroes, etc.) Each category has it’s own binder. These are located on the bottom right shelf.
LEGO People
Now, onto those little LEGO people. I recently created a LEGO people display board. I still need to add a frame, but it’s totally functional for now! It holds 66 mini figures. I just painted a 2’x2′ plywood board that I purchased from Home Depot. I then took LEGO rectangular pieces (2x4s) and glued them onto the board using E6000 craft glue. My husband then screwed this board into the wall. It’s a perfect place to display all of his favorite LEGO people.
LEGO Display
Finally, we wanted him to have a space to display his creations. We try to keep the top shelf of the cube unit free for him to build. However, we needed storage for him to put his sets.
My husband created these 4 shelves using basic pine boards and wall brackets we got from Menards. They are a great place for him to store his favorite creations, but can also be used for multiple different purposes as he grows and his interests potentially change.
I love that my 6 year old has a space to really enjoy playing and building LEGO. I also love that it’s completely contained to this little nook in his room. I feel that this space gives him a little bit of room to grow and can easily be converted in 5-10 years if his interests change.
LEGO organization can be extremely hard and overwhelming. But I hope these ideas will give you inspiration to set up a system that works for you and your child.