I’ve been waiting so long for this project that I could hardly believe it had arrived.
Before the project – this was the state of Ryan’s Lego collection:
There was no organization. Just a sad, ineffective attempt to keep pieces in the right boxes and off the floor.
A couple years ago I ran across this post by Ali Edwards on how she organized her son’s Lego collection. At the time, Ryan’s collection was still pretty small, but I anticipated that his ever-growing love for Legos would not diminish. While I don’t have as much closet space as Ali does, I was inspired to come up with a better system for us than our current lack-there-of. So I researched some ideas, pinned a few (loved this one), and since then I have been keeping my eyes open for a seven drawer Sterilite container that wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg.
Low and behold, this one practically fell into my lap via Facebook just recently. (Good things come to those who wait, right?!) For only $15. I was SUPER excited.
Ok, I admit, I was so excited about this project that the night before I woke up multiple times shivering with giddiness about getting started.
As much as I am artsy, messy, free spirited … something inside me still LOVES organization. Can I keep things organized? Not always. But it’s still good therapy.
We started with a lengthy family discussion regarding if the drawers should be for certain colors or if we should keep the sets together in each drawer. (I wanted them to feel like this was theirs so they would build enough enthusiasm to both finish the project with me, and keep it organized in the days to follow) After everyone voiced their opinion we all decided dividing them up by color would be our best system.
And then we began to tackle the huge pile on the floor.
The top drawer was reserved for Lego “guys” and their accessories – ie swords, heads, hats, animals, flame throwers etc.
In the second drawer we combined red, orange and yellow pieces.
The third drawer contains green, blue and purple.
Fourth is white and clear.
and lastly is black, grey, and brown.
The bottom two empty drawers are for “projects” that the kids create and want to hold onto for awhile. (Ryan is always coming up with some new creation. The imagination and cleverness on that boy never cease to amaze me. Future engineer? I think yes.) I suppose I could label the drawers with some cute labels, but I think they’re pretty self-explanatory for my kids since they’re see-through.
For the Lego direction packets we used this idea from aliedwards.com (using a three ring binder and a few 8×10 page protectors) so that the kids can reference them and make the originals.
I think I have a hoarder hiding somewhere inside of me because I had a slightly hard time with throwing out the original boxes for each set. But after some soul-searching I realized I needed to let go. And out they went. Now my computer desk is way less cluttered, and I have less anxiety and fewer Legos ALL OVER the place.
Happy kids and happy mom. Yay!
my five freds 
