LEGO… it’s a love/hate relationship. You love that those colorful little bricks get your master builders thinking outside the box, but the failed attempts to keep them all in one place is almost as painful as when you step on one… with bare feet… in the dark (Psst! The two are related!). That’s why we’ve gathered the most clever LEGO storage solutions we could find. From the ultimate table to hardware store hacks, there’s a fix for your brick explosion here. photo: Heidi Kundun via Happiness is Homemade Forget fancy organizing systems. Get yourself to the local DIY store, pick up a package of plastic bins and just like that, you’ll have an easily accessible solution to your kid’s brick collection. We love the way Heidi over at Happiness is Homemade used her err… block, when it comes to LEGO. Get the detailed list of what you’ll need here. Tackle the Tiny Stuff Ever notice that LEGO sets come with a bit more, well, stuff, than when you were a kid?
Using a tackle or jewelry-making box (snag one at your local crafting store) with tons of tiny compartments makes it easy to have a place for each little accessory: from food to sidekicks, tools and more. photo: B Inspired Mama The creative blogger at B-Inspired Mama uses vertical storage and wall space (instead of your kiddo’s bedroom floor!) with this fun way to store LEGOs. Using materials that are a cinch to grab from the hardware or discount store, label each bucket with a white paint marker and then sort, sort, sort! Get the how-to at B-Inspired Mama. photo: Kristin Gentry via Kojo Designs This incredible building/storage combo table looks a lot harder to recreate than it really is. Combine a trip to IKEA with the most sticky glue you can find and you’ll be on your way. Want to know what you’ll need? Skip on over to Kojo Designs for the how-to. LEGOs are something kids love all the way through up to middle school and beyond. When Michelle from That Mommy Blog was looking for a storage solution for her son’s exploding brick collection, she came up with this ingenious Adjustable Height DIY Lego Table and Storage Unit, which can be used forever!
We love the fact that Michelle covered one side of the shelf with green baseplates, and left the other smooth for the option of building without baseplates. For the step-by-step instructions, visit That Mommy Blog. It’s a Type A’s dream. After listening to her boys say they wanted a color-coded sorting system, Jen of I Heart Organizing looked around and decided the IKEA Trofast system was the best way to go. Those nifty little labels are made with paper and Mod Podge. Get the full rundown over at I Heart Organizing. photo: Meredith Rowley via My 4 Misters & Their Sister Now that all the bricks have a place, find a spot for those building manuals, too. Believe us, once one of those suckers disappear, the chances of re-building that set are slim to none. We love the simple but brilliant idea from My 4 Misters & Their Sister. Even busy parents (meaning all of us!) can manage this one. Find out more over at My 4 Misters &Their Sister. photo: Abby Banks via 4 One More
If your LEGO-loving kid wants a way to proudly display his favorite minifigs, take notes from mom Abby over at 4 One More. She upcycled a few frames from the local thrift store, had her kids pick the paint colors and, with the help of one incredible tube of glue, made a super clever and chic way to store LEGOs. Get the details on how to make your own over at 4 One More. photo: HGTV / I-Beam Design Can you imagine the look in your little one’s eyes if you turned his or her bedroom into a wall-to-wall LEGO haven? Designers Lena Seow, Vrinda Khanna and Suzan Wines of I-Beam Design did just that. LEGO boards cover the walls of this room, from floor to ceiling, so kids can build with or against gravity. Plus, every creation becomes an integral part of the play space architecture until a new construction is made. How cool is that? Lay Out the LEGOs Designed by a mom and dad who needed a solution to cleaning, containing and controlling their kids’ LEGOs, this amazing bag acts an activity mat, cleanup, storage and carryall solution in one.
It comes in three sizes— a lite 18-inch, a larger 44-inch and a large 5-foot size. The smaller sizes work great for travel and bringing LEGOs to and from the bedroom and kitchen table. Bonus: You can wash it and it comes with a shoulder strap for easy transport. , $21.95 to $64.95. How do you organize your little builder’s LEGOs? We would love to hear your ideas. Leave us a comment below! — Kristina Moy & Gabby Cullen A place for creative prose Made for Big Ideas Journey to planet big A program for all LaCie Authorised ResellersLog in / register Please fill in your details below to request this product. Our team will contact you shortly with more information.LEGO Storage Brick 1 (4001063) Be the first to review this product| Click on image to zoom Store your bricks in this cool super-sized LEGO brick! The LEGO Storage Brick has tons of space for all of your LEGO bricks and mini-figures. It features a real LEGO stud that connects to other Storage Bricks for super-sized building fun.
Available in three classic LEGO colors (blue, black, red) these are sure to complement any room...or mix and match and get creative! Dimensions: 7" high, 4" wide, 4" long Has 1 LEGO stud that connects to other Storage Bricks Fun way to stay organized and tidy Large compartment to store LEGO bricks, mini-figures and more Create a super-sized LEGO building experience Perfect gift for all LEGO fans Plastic - polypropylene (pp), pvc free Colors: Red or black. Blue no longer available. Write Your Own Review 1*How do you rate this product? 3*Summary of Your Review * Indicates Required FieldsThere are a lot of enterprising and interesting ways to make money in our modern world, but can you really make money with a child’s toy? LEGO may have started off as a way to stop blocks from falling over, but it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry with commercial tie in’s and plenty of competitors. Fueling the growth of LEGO is a combination of adult and child fans, both clamoring to get the latest Star Wars or Harry Potter versions of the plastic toys.
There are actually a few ways that you can turn this to your advantage and make money with LEGO. The most common way people are making money with LEGO is through speculation. The idea is that you buy LEGO sets when they first come out, or better yet when they are on sale, and hoard them. When (and if) the LEGO set becomes discontinued, you can sell the set for a price much higher than the original set cost. Profits on these sets can be staggering when looked at in relation to standard stocks. Let’s take the Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon which sold for $499.99 in 2005 and now sells for approx. $2918.13 which means it has a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 28.37%! In comparison, people like Warren Buffet suggest you will only see an average of 7% return annually from stocks. The thing about speculation, is that you need to make sure what you’re purchasing to store will actually sell in the future. As such most LEGO investors focus on popular items such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter etc.
This doesn’t mean you can’t find other sets to purchase though. There’s a market for architectural LEGO sets as well as some of the more obscure ones. The main thing here is to do your research. Using sites like BrickPicker can help you find trends and ideas, as well as monitoring marketplaces like eBay. The main place to sell pristine condition LEGO sets is eBay. It’s popular, safe and easy to use. Of course they take a slice of the pie, but for the security you get versus selling direct, it’s worth it. As an alternative you could use BrickLink, which is a marketplace for selling LEGO sets and pieces. There’s actually a whole bunch of things you need to be aware of before starting your LEGO speculation career: #1 Condition – any LEGO sets you buy, and every LEGO set you store has to be in perfect condition. This means your storage area has to be climate controlled or at the very least damp and rodent free. #2 Storage – As well as keeping your sets in top condition, you need to make sure that you actually have enough room to store everything.
LEGO sets are bulky and the largest (and potentially most profitable sets) can be positively huge. A garage sized space can be enough to get you started. #3 Depreciation – Like with any investment, there is the chance that the price can drop. All it takes is for you to either pick the wrong set, or for LEGO to reintroduce a set to see your profits disappear. #4 Shipping – Depending on how you sell the sets, shipping and packaging costs need to be considered. For the most part these can be put on the buyer, but even if they are, you still need to physical pack and ship the sets which take time and space and some up front costs. As an alternative to selling pristine, mint condition LEGO sets, you can always go the “salvager” route. Here, you look to buy LEGO in bulk from other people – yard sales, Craigslist, eBay etc. With these pieces in hand you can sort them into color, size, or by set and sell them on. As with most bulk purchases, sorting and selling smaller sections generally earns more than the whole, allowing you to make a profit.
If you have complete sets in there that can be built (building manuals can be found online) these can be sold for even more, though rarely to the level that pristine sets fetch unless it’s an incredibly rare set. This method of course take sup much more time, but is offset by the generally lower cost of bulk purchases and then fun that you and your kids can have sorting the LEGO bricks out. Unsorted LEGO can be purchased in bulk quite cheaply (source, Craiglist Listing) #1 Time & space – LEGO bricks still take up room, and sorting them into re-sale bags can be time consuming #2 Local isn’t always good – You may need to leave your local area in order to find decent sets, especially if there is a good sized LEGO enthusiast community near where you live. #3 Ask for more info – if you’re buying a bulk set of LEGO make sure to ask if the seller knows what’s in it – this can help determine the value to you, especially if there are some popular sets
If speculation and thrift shopping LEGO doesn’t interest you, but you’re a whizz building LEGO yourself, then you should consider designing new LEGO sets. LEGO themselves make this absurdly easy with their LEGO Ideas website. The way it works is that you first create a new LEGO set from existing bricks and then submit it to the LEGO ideas site. People then come and vote and if your idea reaches 10,000 votes it will then be flagged for review. The review process is done by LEGO employees and there’s no guarantee that your set will be chosen, but if it is they will actually make the set for sale! Well according to the LEGO ideas site, if your idea is chosen you will receive: 1% of the total net sales of the product (this includes projects featuring original models based on third-party intellectual property such as a game, TV show, or movie). 1% might not seem like much but consider the size and scope of LEGO’s consumer base and price structure of sets (even small simple ones sell for $10 or more), and you can see that this has the potential to be a very good, and passive, money spinner.
Of course, getting your ideas selected in the first place is the hard part, but if you have the skills and enjoy building new creations anyway, it’s worth submitting them. Continuing the ideas for LEGO builders, there are also other opportunities you can grab that can showcase your LEGO building skills. The company behind the bricks employs people to build LEGO, called Master Model Builders. These are the guys that make everything you see at LEGOLAND and beyond. This might sound like a dream job, but the recruitment process is actually quite hard, and made up of several steps just to get on the ladder. From there it takes time and skill to work your way up to the title of Master. Sadly, even masters only earn about $37,000 per year which isn’t life changing. A $900 dollar LEGO lamp. More and more people are using LEGO bricks outside of their general use case to make money. People are creating art and even furniture with LEGO. Artists like Sean Kenney and Bruce Lowell command high prices for their unique works of art.