Lego Storage boxes: how to organise your expanding collection

This week we have been debating; yes, debating; the conundrum that is 'how to store our increasing collection of Lego sets.'

I came to the conclusion; after working out that if I was to invest the £39.99 it would cost for a Lego Sort and Store head, which look amazing but seem horrifically over priced for what is essentially moulded plastic; that I would need to actually buy at least 3 storage heads. One for Princess Peppa's 'Friends' range, one for Little Miss George's Marvel Hero and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ranges and three for my shop. Yes three. Apparently they only store 1000 pieces and if I ever do demolish the shop (which is unlikely) it had 2,182 pieces.

It seems a hugely extravagant solution to a basic storage problem.

So what about the Lego storage heads that just store, and don't sort?

For my money the space for storage is just too big. How do you rummage through and find the small pieces in such a deep container?

How about the non-Lego designed solution in the BoxforBlocks range?

These do a similar sorting job as the official Sort and Store Head, but again I'd need a few, and once the total number of sets they have increases, would we need to select exactly which sets would go in which sorting box? How to arrange? I don't want to just have single sets together and restrict their ability to design and make their own Lego creations with access to pieces from any set. but neither do I want it to be so difficult to find the pieces that you spend more time searching than building when trying to build the original set.

 

Our current holding strategy is that we have a plastic box (IKEA) of partially completed sets, another box (same) with almost exclusively pieces from Friends sets- though I can't guarantee it, and another mixed box that I have split into 6, white pieces, light grey pieces, dark grey pieces, dark blue pieces and a final box of mixed dark purples, blacks, greens etc. These smaller sorting boxes are Tupperware boxes, so small enough to find pieces fairly quickly.

The problem? I'd prefer to do it by size. All skinny 4s together, all 6s, all 8s. Need a yellow 8er? Go to the 8s box and you can see the yellows easily. With the current system you go to the yellow box and rummage for 5 minutes.

So I guess I need a lot more Tupperware.

The shallow plastic containers that some takeaway food comes in would potentially be perfect for this. Small stackable, durable. Until the number of 2ers you have exceeds the size of the box of course.

And a quick look online tells me that I am not alone in this Lego storage dilemma. There are parents across the globe trying to work out the best way to store the Lego and avoid a 'piece-in-the-foot' injury.

It shows how Lego has changed though. My dad said, don't you just need about 6 boxes, for 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 6s and 8s? I don't think he's seen the vast range of pieces and designs that now exist compared to 40 years ago!

So how do you do it? How do you store your Lego?

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