Legos Organized– Follow Up

I received a response to my post Boy Mama: Legos Organized- Check!  about organizing my sons’ Legos.  The comment was basically- that looks really nice, but how long will it last? This is a totally valid question and one I am sure that has crossed many readers’ minds.  I was pretty proud to be able to respond and say that it has stayed this way for over a month now and this is why.

Before organizing the Legos, I put a great deal of thought into how I would do.  I searched for the “right” storage containers. I wanted something that could be snapped closed so if dropped, they would not spill.  I wanted them to be see through so my boys could see what was in the box.  I also wanted the boxes to be sturdy so they would last a long time, could be handled over and over by young kids and would stack well.  After I found the “perfect” containers for our needs, I sat my older son down and told him the plan. We talked about how the Legos would be sorted and how to care for not only the Legos, but also the containers. This may sound a bit silly, but believe me, getting all this laid out before hand eliminates A LOT of problems later on. Then we set to sorting. I was pretty impressed that my son lasted sorting as long as he did. It is not an easy task nor is it a quick one. He was a real trooper so I happily finished up after he went to bed.  The next day, I added some labels to each container so the boys could see the words that go with the contents of the box.  So, as you can see, this was not a spur of the moment, sloppily done venture, but a well-organized, thought-out process that my son and I did together. By getting my son involved, I knew he would take pride in the hard work we did and  therefore take better care of the end result.

Here are a few other questions that came up–

What do you do when clean-up time is short and pieces cannot be properly sorted? I took two box tops and covered them with some cute contact paper.  When clean-up time is short, we put all the unsorted pieces in the box for a later time when we can sort them correctly.  This also works really well for all those random pieces you find laying around the house after the kids have gone to bed. I just toss them right in the box lid and we take care of them later. The boxes are also helpful when the boys want to take some Legos into a different part of the house. They can load up a box top, take it where they like and then load it back up when they are done and take them back to their rooms.

What about the structures/vehicles etc that your son made and does not want to take apart? These get stored in the box lids as well.  The box lids are kept on our Lego shelf.

Where do you put all those boxes? Stacking them all on top of one another seems a bit risky and maybe even dangerous if they fall on someone!  We made our own shelf to store our Lego containers. We did not want to spend a lot of money, so instead we got some empty boxes from our local paper shop and built our own shelves! They work perfectly and are low to the ground which makes accessing them while playing on the floor really easy. And, they are recyclable!

Have you tried this with any other toys? Yes! We organized our Playmobil and Hot Wheels collections as well.

Random Items

Play Mobil

Hot Wheel etc

Final Note:  Organizing our toys has made several huge differences in our daily lives.

1. Clean-up battles are minimal- almost non-existant!
2. My boys use a greater variety of their toys because they can easily see them.
3. Sorting and reading skills (labels) are being reinforced daily during and after play.
4. The bedrooms (where the toys are kept) are much neater.
5. But by far the biggest difference is the way my boys now play.  They are much more independent in their play.  They can now easily find all the pieces they need and are not constantly saying, “Mom, I can’t find…” or “Mom, can you help me find…”  Their play is more creative, thought-out and a whole heck of a lot more fun!

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