Lego Storage BoxesLego Storage BrickStorage ContainersLego BrickLego BoxesBrick 8Toy BoxesStackable Storage BoxesMini BoxesForwardthe boys would LOVE these Lego for storage in their room! 12 Days of Giveaways « Previous postFighting Eczema? Help is on the way! Next post »Little Dog Lost - a warm tale on ice posted: December 29, 2011, 5:00 am in: Big Kid, Preschooler, You and Your Family, Previews & Reviews, Products & Gear, Products & Prizes Holy LEGO takeover at my house, Batman. With two, almost three, kids asking (and getting) LEGOs for Christmas, I’m stepping on them and finding them in places that LEGOs should just never be. Really, my quest for LEGO storage isn’t just out of my sudden new year nesting urge. It’s out of necessity. And survival of my poor feet. First, I headed over to check out the Container Store LEGO Storage options (pictured above), which actually look like LEGOs or LEGO heads. here, which means I have to rely on the kids to clean up every single
one, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. I’m not quite sure I need my LEGO storage to resemble LEGOs though. BLOX4BLOX might not solve all my storage woes, but it seems to do a good job at sorting. Dump everything into the top, give it a shimmy-shake, and down fall the smaller pieces through the vents to the bottom. The Swoop Bag is also not completely perfect but might do the trick in keeping the LEGOs contained. Made from strong canvas, your kiddos can dump all their LEGOs out on the flattened mat, then use the drawstrings to pull it up into a bag, keeping all the LEGOs inside. You are stuck with a gigantic bag, however, but maybe that’s better than a bunch of bins. Now if I was handy with a sewing machine, I might be able to make a bag of my own, like this Lego Storage Bag how-to from Freshly Pieced. If you’re crafty, then this might be a perfect next project if you’re living in LEGOLand like me. So moms with LEGO-loving kids, how do you store your kids’ LEGOs?
(Also, how many times can I type LEGOs in one post? It’s got to be a record!). Welcome back to Part 3 of my little Lego series. So far I have blabbed about the build buckets and the build table, but I know what you really have been waiting for. What in the world did we end up doing with all of those big bins of Legos? Well, be ready for a picture filled post to find out! First, I have to mention, we have been accumulating Legos for YEARS. In fact, my husband had a giant bin of them under our stairs for the longest time, just waiting for our boys to grow old enough to play with. Not to mention, as you know we have three boys, so what is always the easiest gift choice at holidays and birthdays? This project started out with four large Rubbermaid bins full of Legos, along with the craft drawers we attempted to use as storage as well. {we only had one small cart and it just wasn't big enough for our growing collection}. My initial reaction was to sort out the pieces by type.
Bricks, boards, wheels, etc... They wanted things done by color. They were so nicely reminded it was going to be their duty to maintain whatever new system we implement and that the whole point was to make building easier and more fun for them. So I let it be their choice on how things were done, and sorting by color won. The next step was to come up with the best way to containerize all of the pieces by color. I instantly knew the IKEA Trofast system was the way I wanted to go, but I did try and think up other alternative solutions... I had nothin', so Trofast it was! Then came the REALLY fun part. OK, not so much fun. But we tried our hardest to enjoy it. We all sat together, surrounded by bins, watched movie after movie for an entire day and a half until it was done. I had the boys help me for 75% of the time. I figured if they were part of the sorting process, they would appreciate it more and be more apt to help maintain all their hard work. It's been a couple of weeks now and I am happy to report, so far SOOO good!
When it came to labeling the bins, I sat on this one for awhile. I wanted to do vinyl with my Silhouette. And I wanted the words on the front to be the same color as the blocks in the bins. So when I looked online and in stores at vinyl prices, I about had a heart attack. 10 bins at $7 minimum a color... um no thanks. I did some research and heard about adhesive backed cardstock. Again, $5 per color and not every color I needed. Then it hit me! I could use regular colored cardstock, cut the words out with my Silhouette, and adhere them to the fronts of the bins myself, all while saving a TON of moolah over the alternative options! Whew, almost struck out, that was close! So that's what I did. I started cutting out letters from each color of cardstock. The best part of this was that I could use shades of the color that I liked vs. the harsh, primary color that Legos usually are. I used Dr. Seuss shaped font, it is for a playroom after all! To adhere the letters, I wanted something that would last.
And look clean and resemble the look I would have gotten with the vinyl. So I went with Mod Podge in a matte finish {which is the same finish of the Trofast bins}. I used some painters tape to give myself a straight line to work with and to ensure the letters were placed in about the same location on each bin. Then, I used a brush to "paint" on some Mod Podge, stick the letter on the bin, and then Mod Podge over the letter to really make it stick. Don't worry as you are doing this... it gets worse before it gets AMAZING.... Once all of the Mod Podge dried, you wouldn't have even known it was there to begin with! The only items we didn't do by color were the boards and little people. The boards got a large Trofast bin, the people got a smaller storage box. So did all the manuals. Again, I hashed out manual storage options. I originally was going to binder them into plastic page protectors. But I know my boys. I imagined that over time, they would take the manual out and it wouldn't easily find its way back.
So they now just get piled in a storage box and it's done. I am very OK with that since I want it to be easiest for them to maintain. When it comes to the "builds" they create, sometimes they like to keep them for a little while {however, they play with Legos because they love to create and build, so they don't seem to be too concerned about keeping their sets together for long periods of time}. I wanted to give them a place in their new playroom to begin displaying their creations, so we installed some inexpensive shelves above the Lego storage bins. Up until now, they have never really had a place to display their projects, which is why you don't see anything up there right now. But now they have a place should they want it. For the time being, I just shopped around the house for items to prop up on the shelves as placeholders, along with some free kid's printable art I found through the lovely world of Pinterest. Ready to see the whole Lego wall in all it's organized glory?