Henry is not quite at an age where he regularly plays and builds with Legos. However, over the last year, we’ve been gifted quite a few Lego kits that with our help, he has been able to assemble and then play with. But after a few days of playing with the new truck or car or helicopter, it often gets put aside. And then as Legos tend to do, they eventually fall apart, get stepped on, get dropped, etc. Add to that a few ruckus playdates and a birthday party with nearly 20 kids, and Henry’s small Lego collection was essentially dismantled, spread across the house, and all mixed together. Over the last few weeks, I kept coming across more and more random Legos…and as I threw them in a basket to “deal with later,” I’d cringed at the thought of the eventual task of getting them all sorted out. Well…I finally decided we needed to deal with the Legos situation before it got worse…and I am pretty proud and excited to show you what we’ve done. Let me show you our simple yet effective way to sort and organize Lego kits so they are contained, accessible and easy-to-find!
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By the time I decided to tackle the Lego situation, Henry’s 10 Lego sets were all in various stages of construction and destruction. Some boxes were falling apart, some manuals were missing, and who knew which pieces belonged to which kits. As I said, Henry is still on the young age for Legos; and if he/we ever wanted to re-build any of these kits again, it would be practically impossible until they were sorted out and reassembled.
To get the kits “playable” again, I knew we needed to disassemble anything that was currently still assembled and sort out every last kit using the piece inventory in the back of each manual. When I told Greg what I wanted to do, I’m pretty sure he thought I was nuts. But after 2 movie nights of working together…we had all 10 kits sorted, reassembled, and labeled! It wasn’t nearly as painful as we thought it would be, and the results were more than worth it:
Not only are 9 of the 10 kits (miraculously!!!!) complete, but all the cardboard boxes have been replaced with sturdier, snap-top, stacking boxes, and all but one original manual has been found (which I am pretty sure we will find once the packing starts for our upcoming move).
Sure getting these all these Legos sorted and put back into their original kits was a bit tedious and time-consuming. But it was oddly therapeutic and relaxing to sort and count bricks…and boy am I glad to have our situation under control and a system in place now before the collection grows! (I’m from a big Lego family, so I know with certainty our collection will indeed grow!)
If you have a similar Lego situation on your hands and need to get your Lego kits under control, here is what worked for us!
Start by assessing your Lego situation and counting up how many different kits you have. I found the original Lego boxes to be quite frustrating (they collapse easily and don’t close up well after they are opened), so I went looking for a better option. I wanted boxes that had the following criteria:
- Clear
- Snap-top lids
- Stackable
- Fit the Lego pieces and manuals comfortably
- Came in a variety of sizes (to hold a variety of sized Lego kits)
- Were a common and easy-to-find option (so I could buy more down the road as we need them)
- Inexpensive (because we’d need quite a few!)
I eventually landed on Sterilite® Clip Storage Totes in various sizes, specifically, the long flat size, the mini size, and the large deep box. (NOTE: I found mine at Target, but they are also available on Amazon.)
Once, you’ve settled on boxes, it’s time to painstakingly sort all your Legos back into their kits. Here are a few tips that helped us:
- As painful as it may be, disassemble everything that is already assembled so you can accurately account for each and every piece
- Use the inventory that is in the back of each Lego kit manual to identify which and how many pieces belong to each kit
- Missing manuals? You can find every manual PDF HERE! #lifesaver
- If you have a lot of jumbled up kits as we did, it helps to sort out the Legos by color first before you start assembling kits. As you need to identify pieces, start in the right color pile, and narrow down from there.
- Note which pieces are missing (more on that below!)
- Get help…it goes faster as a team effort.
- Turn on re-runs or a movie you’ve seen before to help pass the time because it can be tedious work!
Once you have all your kits re-assembled, load them into appropriate-sized boxes and include the manual.
As many of you Lego fans know, most kits come with extra and miscellaneous pieces. We loaded all of these random pieces into their own box; and we also made a box full of generic non-kit pieces that can be easily pulled out for playing and building. Right now, Henry doesn’t create his own creations, so having them all in one box is just fine. I am sure down the road we may need a more sophisticated storage system for free building.
Honestly, most of the small Lego kits came together quite quickly. I think we had all 9 sorted in an afternoon. However, we also have an Expert-level kit that contains more than 2400+ pieces. Our Ferris Wheel met an untimely end when it was accidentally pulled down during a playdate. Like our other, smaller kits, if we ever had hopes of putting it together again, it needed to be disassembled and inventoried. Accounting for all the pieces in the Ferris Wheel easily took us twice as long as all the other kits combined…but it is so nice to know we can eventually put it back together again with relative ease!
Keeping the pieces sorted by color wasn’t necessary for the smaller kits; however, reassembling such a large kit will be made much easier by having the colors already sorted out. As such, we loaded these bricks into Ziplock baggies before putting them all in a snap-top Tupperware.
One of the most exciting things of this whole organizing adventure was to learn that ALL the little kits were complete (which is a true miracle!) and only 8 pieces were missing from the Ferris Wheel kit (another miracle)! Did you know that you can order replacement bricks from Lego? I am convinced we will find more bricks as furniture is moved out of this house…but in case we don’t..we now have a list of the exact pieces we need to order from Lego to complete the Ferris Wheel again!
With all of the kits sorted, accounted for, and loaded into new (sturdier!) boxes, you can certainly stop there. I, of course, had to add some labels so Henry could see/find what he had. If you’d like to do the same, here is how I did it:
- Measure the tops and sides of your boxes to determine the best label sizes.
- Use Google to find and save images of your Lego kits.
- Using a graphic design program (PicMonkey, Illustrator, Canva, etc), create labels that include the Lego Kit name and number, as well as the picture (if desired).
- Print the labels onto cardstock or photo paper and trim down with scissors or a paper trimmer.
In addition to the kits, I also made labels for our extra bricks and pieces…
My favorite hassle-free way to attach labels to plastic boxes is with clear packing tape. Cheap, quick, removable…and looks nice, clean and smooth!
I chose to label both the tops and sides of my boxes, so we can quickly and easily tell which kit is which.
Boy, it sure is nice to have all those kits back together…but the cute little labels are pretty awesome too!
Now there is no mystery about what kits we have and where the pieces and manuals go when we come across them. Hopefully, with these newly organized kits, we won’t have as many random Legos around the house as before!
Ahhhh…so much better!
Although it was somewhat of a happy accident, another reason these turned out to be the ideal boxes is that they fit perfectly on our IKEA Kallax shelves! #meanttobe (NOTE: I also bought a few extra boxes so the next time a Lego kit makes its way into the house, it can immediately be transferred to a better box, hopefully reducing the amount we lose after building!)
I will certainly be putting these away during future playdates and parties…but man it is so nice to have a tidy, functional, and accessible way to store our Legos now!
My goal was to get these kits back to a state where Henry could build them again. Half disassembled and parts spread across the house, there was really no way for Henry to play with his Legos anymore (since he’s not quite to a place where he can spontaneously build on his own). Literally, within minutes of me placing all the Legos back on the shelf…Henry brought the little blue car kit into my office and asked to make it. Because of this organizing project, he could easily see and remember what he had again. We sat right down to make the car, and boy was it so nice to be able to easily complete it without having to rummage around or hunt for missing bricks. #gamechanger
You can now see all my Lego storage solutions by clicking below!
Organize This
My Organize This series is all about (relatively) simple and quick organizing projects that make a big difference in your day-to-day life. These aren’t intended to be large organizational overhauls, but rather quick sessions you can accomplish in an afternoon or weekend! This Lego project may take a bit of time depending on how many kits you have, but with some good music and helping hands, it’s easy enough to do today or this coming weekend! Catch up on other projects in this series by clicking on the pictures below:
We are just at the beginning of our Lego adventure with Henry, and I am sure our organizational needs will evolve over time as he explores different ways to play and create with them. For now, though, having each kit sorted, complete, and labeled will allow all of us to enjoy these kits again…and when he’s moved on from that particular creation…it now has a home to wait for Henry to come around again!
I hope you all are having a fantastic start to your week! Coming up on Thursday…my long-promised Linen Closet reveal! See you then!
One other thing we found while sorting these LEGO bricks; the colors can be difficult to distinguish on the page. Especially if they are transparent. Recommend sorting in a well lit area, comfortable clothes for crawling around on the floor to find dropped pieces, and with your favorite adult beverage.
Good tips, Babe! Should have consulted you during drafting 😉
Hi Megan
What a lovely post once again !
I still have the Legos of my daughters at home but it is easier as they only had two buckets which are sturdy and easy to be filled. You only have to put everything inside.
They didn’t have any kit so the situation is not at all the same.
Have a nice week.
Michèle
Hi Michèle!
Yes – when we were kids, there weren’t many kits and you just played and built out of big buckets! I think Henry will get there eventually, but right now, the kits and the directions make it easier for him to play!
Hope you’re having a great week!
Megan
Hi!
I think this is the first time I’m commenting on your blog. I love this idea.
The only advice I have for down the road (I have a 21 yo and an almost 16 yo that amassed an amazing amount of legos) is to store the manuals in 3 ring binders using clear page protectors. It made a huge difference in our being able to find the manuals and not have them be destroyed. I wish I had gotten the idea sooner as many manuals are in the binders in pieces. As the boys got older they learned to put them in the binders as soon as they finished the initial build.
Now I just have to face the HUGE tubs (each one has a Christmas sized tote on wheels) full of legos. But I have 2 daughters (9 and 7) and a young son (4) that may someday be willing to tackle a huge sort like this.
I’m going to try to catch the younger ones sets using this system before it becomes such a huge project. This is so inspiring!
Jenn
Hi Jenn!
Thank you so much for taking the time to say hi – I am so glad you did! I love hearing ideas from Moms who have older kids…since Lego play is so unique by child and by age! Transferring manuals to a binder is a brilliant idea…especially when kids phase out of wanting to keep kits together! Thanks for sharing…I’ll definitely be using that down the road!
Good luck with your Legos and thanks for stopping by!
Megan
What an awesome idea! I consider myself very organized and on top of things, but I admit… The gigantic tub overflowing with crushed Lego boxes, half assembled airplanes, combines, police stations, coast guard helicopters – you name it, was completely overwhelming. Thanks for the starting point and sanity saving tips! (Gonna miss you in Kansas!)
Hi Janet!
Good to hear from you! Yes – I hear you about feeling overwhelmed. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been looking at our stack of boxes trying to figure out with a way to deal with them. I promise it wasn’t that bad once we started…and was oddly therapeutic to count out 20 purple 2×2 bricks etc 😉
Our time in Kansas is indeed drawing to a close…we’ve enjoyed it far more than I thought we would!
Hope you’re well!
Megan
You are a far better mom than me. Most of the booklets are lost and ripped. I couldn’t tell you where anything else is. But this does inspire me to sort and help the kids keep their sets separate. Thanks for sharing a great idea. Now to find the manuals online. 🙂 I’ll be checking out that link you listed above. Thanks!
Definitely not a better mom…maybe just more of a neurotic one 😉 Henry is not much of a builder without directions, so I knew I had to get them under control if he was ever going to play with them again. As he gets older, keeping them in sets will likely become less important…but for now…this has been awesome!
Finding the manuals online was a huge relief! Good luck!
Megan
Hi Megan. Great post for corraling those wayward Lego pieces. While reading your post I thought of my sister and all the Lego kits from her 3 kids. When they outgrew them, they sorted each kit’s components into zip top bags and then put those bags into a large tote bin for storage. Not quite as modular as your system, but your son will still play with his kits for a long while. Go mama!
Thanks Laurie!
Yes – there are so many different ways to store Legos…and it mostly depends on your kid(s) and how they play with them. Down the road, it may not be worth keeping them separated out by kits, but for now…that’s the only way Henry understands how to play with them. He’s not quite ready to build his own creations…yet! When he gets there…we’ll re-assess!
Hope you’re having a great week!
Megan
Hi Megan – My son is way past Lego’s (26!), but I still remember the crashing sound from when he would up-end the plastic tote box we stored them in. It was a warning to watch out for the little pieces! I read quote somewhere that the there were three levels of pain: pain, excruciating pain, and stepping on a Lego. I don’t miss that!
Looking forward to hearing about the upcoming move – hope you get to enjoy the transition time.
Aloha, Tenney
I love the idea of having the legos organized this way. Right now, all of our lego sets are broken apart and mixed together with random headless characters in 3 separate containers the size of large shoeboxes. I am not sure I will ever tackle those with this system, but I can tell you that when I buy new legos, I will definitely be buying them a plastic storage container to go with and labeling that sucker up. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great post! Thank you so much for sharing! I spent most of my son’s spring break simply sorting his legos by color. It was exhausting. He has over 45 kits. I love the way you have organized them with the labels and appropriate sized boxes!!! Well done. Loved your tips!
this is exactly what I’m trying to do with grandsons many junior lego sets 4 yrs.
How do you print lables with picture of set for the box though.
Thank you will save your post.
how do you print labels for the set in the boxes.?
My kids just went to visit their dad for the summer & I can’t wait to sort two full under-bed boxes back into sets. A lot of them are random parts from yard sales–which helps fill in missing pieces.
My advice: use Contact paper cut an inch or more larger than your label. My daughter just turned 12 & they still peel right off the plastic bins I did when she was a toddler. Of course, your boxes probably won’t be repurposed, but when your LEGO collection grows you may end up combining set types/themes like we do in our Iris/Sterilite drawers.
This is fantastic advice, however, my grandson has hundreds of sets. The methodology is perfect for a small number of Lego sets to organize, but when pieces from many more sets become jumbled, I’d be curious to know whether you think your solution works as well. In the meantime, I’m staring at a monumental task!
I was commenting on this post and saw your comment from 2017. I was saying that I use those same clip boxes, but the larges size they make. Then each of my boxes has a few sets per box, and they’re sorted by theme. For example, I have a Batman box, Toy Story box, Lego movie box, vehicles box, Spider-Man box, etc. I have a block box and a people box. I actually go through and get rid of all those random extra pieces occasionally. I’m so OCD about it. But the kids can grab one or two boxes and it limits the mess.
Megan, I love your Lego labels! They are perfect! Their size, color, print, description, and graphic design. With the millions of Lego users you’d think that someone would be able to make them. It would be so nice to be able to contact that person and order them. Do you know what I mean? To be able to get two labels for a reasonable price would be good…
My husband and I just spent the last three days almost non-stop sorting Legos by color and then extracting 7 Star Wars sets (most around 500-900 pieces) while documenting the missing pieces to order from Bricks and Pieces on the Lego website. This is not how i imagined spending my time, but I look forward to this fall when it will be like Christmas with the “new” lego sets. And we still have so many pieces left in the color coded bins. So many more sets to go… Thanks for the storage and labeling idea. The pieces are already in the same bins!
Hello! I really love this way of organizing a smaller amount of lego sets. I use Canva….recommendations on size and font you used to create the labels? You don’t happen to have free printable option to change image and title? (long shot, but love exactly how you created). Thank you!
You are my favorite person!! I decided to do this with my kids legos after it took us an hour to find one piece! I should have done this much much sooner, I didn’t realize until I started that my kids have 21 sets and according to the brickset site, this equals over 5500 pieces!! Took me a little longer than yours, but it was way worth it!!!
So, 3 years after this initial post, are the lego sets still nice and neat in their boxes? Do the kids keep them that way, or do you have to organize for them? I’m trying to find a good way to organize that my kids can keep track of their own stuff.
Hi Christine!
Thanks for reaching out about this! I actually wrote a follow-up post to this post a year or so later…you can see it here: https://thehomesihavemade.com/2017/09/organizing-legos-by-color/
Now that it’s been another few years, I can tell you this: my 8 YO son loves the IDEA of having his Legos color sorted, but is incapable of maintaining it that way. We still have a lot sorted by color, but it was pretty hard to maintain (since he wasn’t putting pieces back) and now we have the “dreaded” box of all mixed and random pieces. He keeps asking me when I’m going to sort the big box back into color groups bc I do think he likes to be able to find what he’s looking for…the next time I have a TV series I want to plow through, maybe I’ll plop down and work through the box…but I’m not convinced it’s worth my time 🙁
Hope those few insights help!
Megan
Hi Megan! Just found your post, and it’s so helpful for our family! Do you by chance remember what font you used for the labels? Thanks so much!
Pretty sure this is the font I used: https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/josefin-sans
Good luck!Megan
Hi Megan! Can you please tell me the dimensions of the sterilite containers you used. I bought a bunch but I’m not sure they’re the same! I love the looks of yours! Mine seem smaller. I tried to go the the link on amazon but it failed me! Thanks!
Hi Mandy,
I used these. They are the “small” size.
Hope that helps!Megan
Hi Megan! Which program did you use to make the labels? Mine are very blurry and I am wondering if you have any program or printing tips!
Hi Mandy,
Thanks for writing and I am sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your labels. I used Adobe Illustrator, which I realize most people likely don’t have access to. If you are using large, good resolution images, you really shouldn’t have any problems (unless it’s program related). I would actually try to make labels in Word to see if you have better luck!
Megan
I just want to say this might possibly be the most useful thing I’ve ever learned on the internet. Thank you! Pure brilliance. I love my new LEGO storage!
Hi Megan,
I’d love your permission to link to this from a post about LEGO organization on my site.
Thanks!
Hi! I just came across this post and I love it! We actually use the same bins for our LEGOs and I was searching for a good way to label them. Do you happen to remember the dimensions you used for your labels??
HI there!
I am so sorry, I don’t have the file anymore and we’ve actually starting using a different method for storing our Legos (and have since re-purposed all these boxes.) In general though, I think they were similar dimensions as the sides and tops of the boxes.
Sorry I can’t be of more help but good luck!Megan
I noticed your post since I sort my kids legos similarly. I actually use the large clip boxes and put themes together. Like recently, all our toy story sets are in one box. I try to keep them as together as possible within the box. We also have Jurassic World box, Trolls Box, Lego Movie Box, Batman Box, etc. I have one for just vehicles and one with just people alone. (I’ve been collecting since before I had kids, lol!) Organizing is key as you get more and more sets!
Hi,
Thank you for some nice tips! We have plenty of sets so we try to find now the way how to organize them!!! very nice article by the way 🙂
Thanks so much! Good luck with your LEGOs!
~Megan
Megan, what are you using for LEGO storage now?
Hi Shirley!
Thanks so much for sharing your story, I love it! My 82 year old Dad has always built LEGOs, and has built SO many new things during COVID. in fact, he just started some fancy race car last night!
It’s funny you ask about how we organize our LEGOs now. I was getting ready to write a new post called “Why We No Longer Organize Our LEGOs,” because both our kit system and color-coding system fell apart. However, our middle son then discovered all our manuals and wanted to build some of them. We determined sorting out the LEGOs by color (again) was really the only way to salvedge the kits we already had, so we embarked on sorting them out by color again. Sure enough, since doing that, we’ve re-built about 5 or so kits we already had.
So…color sorting seems to be what works best for us…at least right now!
Hope that helps!Megan
I started building and collecting used LEGO sets during the height of COVID. (I’m 70+). It gave me a neat connection with my LEGO addicted grandkids, and filled many empty hours. As you can imagine, used sets are often missing parts. I get my replacement parts from ToyPro online. They have quick and efficient service, and let you add to your order over a few days.
Thanks for the organizing tips. They’re very helpful!