hey friends! i hope you enjoyed the 3-day holiday weekend!

yesterday, the 3 kiddos and i hung around the house all day. it was such a treat not to drive all over town carpooling and running errands. we didn’t get into the car one time. those are some of my favorite days! although, when we stay home all day, there needs to be structure and activities planned otherwise chaos prevails.

so, what did we do?

we stayed in our PJ’s all morning, colored, created fun things with bendaroo’s, made pancakes for lunch, played outside in the unseasonably warm temps, and played with Lego’s most of the afternoon. while little sister napped for a few hours, i thought a small Lego organization project was a great afternoon activity to do with the boys.

the last few weeks our 7 year old has come home from school to find several of his Lego projects taken apart or missing pieces. our 1 and 5 year old look up to him so much that they enjoy playing with his toys when he isn’t home. they also know if he was home he wouldn’t allow them to touch anything belonging to him. so i suspect they felt like they are getting away with something. anyway, this has brought our 7 year old to tears. the last time he came home crying, he and i decided we would sort through all of the Lego’s in order to find a better solution for keeping his finished or in-progress creations out of their hands while he is at school.

and truthfully, the Lego bin needed better organization…

oooooo-kay, really, what i’m saying is i am so OCD that i couldn’t let one day go by without accomplishing a small organization project.  😉

here was the status of our Lego set-up…

 

we have the Imaginarium Lego table along with a simple 3-drawer bin on wheels. even though the bin is a great place to store Lego pieces and build books, our son likes dropping Lego’s into the 2 mesh bags attached to the table….

 

those mesh bag drawers are great! however, we did need to sort through each bag and put them back into the bin. it’s not easy locating a piece when they are hanging in those bags.

i had some ideas on how we could improve the situation. i found this adorable Lego mini-figure sorting box at, of all places, our local grocery store…

 

there i was walking up the aisle toward the dairy section…and suddenly found myself in an aisle full of Lego organization supplies!…

 

we also had these cute little Lego zippered bags to work with….

 

first, we sorted through the build books and placed them into the bottom drawer of the bin…

 

my son decided the middle drawer is where he would put (read = hide!) all of his completed or in-process projects…

 

then came the big job of sorting through all of the Lego’s and deciding where we would put everything. my boys were shocked when they watched me dump out our entire collection of Lego’s. into the carpet, no less! that is so NOT like mommy. sometimes we have to be ruthless, right? they had so much fun helping me make a “mess”….but of course, not so much fun helping me sort and put away. 🙂

we decided all of the standard build bricks would go in the top drawer of the bin…

 

all of the teeny, tiny clear and solid color pieces (used for headlights, sirens, etc) were placed inside the red zippered bag. and all of the accessories and weapons were placed inside the blue zippered bag. what i love so much about these 3 Lego bags is that the top is clear. the kids can look right inside the top of each bag and know exactly what is inside…and i think that might help reduce some of the mess…

 

we placed all of the wheels and bigger accessory pieces inside the yellow zippered bag…

 

again, that great clear lid for easy viewing…

 

finally, we used the mini-figure box to sort all of the people. inside they will find heads, bodies and hats/hair…

 

here was the final result of about an hour’s work…

 

a few weeks ago we moved the Lego table to this corner of our playroom…which happens to be right next to our game/dress-up closet…

 

what do you know – the Lego bin fits perfectly inside that closet next to the game shelf…

 

here it is – safe and sound out of reach from his little brother and sister…

 

why do i think this new system will work for us?

because first thing this morning, my son brought his newest Lego creations (which he slept with last night) upstairs, placed them inside this bin in the closet, locked the door handle, and closed the door. he told me on the way to school what he had done. what he doesn’t know is that i watched him sneak upstairs to the playroom this morning and had a hunch he was doing just that. i think because he helped me with the project, he’ll be more inclined to keep up with the system.

there are so many great Lego organization resources and ideas on the internet. i’ve seen them sorted all types of ways; by size, by color, by set, etc. i think it all comes down to what works for you and, more importantly, your child or person that is building them.

do you have any Lego organization ideas to share? i’d love to hear about it!