Lego {Re}Organization

When we moved into this campus rental house, we were not sure what to do with the room that had built in drawers and cabinets.  Obviously meant to be an office, we needed it as a bedroom.  We decided that we would make this the boys' room.  Since all the toys are down in a shared basement toy room, the children don't have to keep many toys in their rooms, so we designated the boys' room as the Lego station.  For the first months we've been here, I walk past that room multiple times a day and shudder, as it usually looks like this...

I tried to be zen and ignore it.  Truly I did.  But alas, I told Mike it was driving me crazy.  Legos on the floor, in the beds, on the counter...it was madness, and driving me to insanity.  I loved that they played with them and played together and showed me 1000 creations all day, but the constant need for one specific piece that was in a large multi gallon tote that took hours to find because it might be on the floor....ahhhh.  We were currently housing all the Legos in 2 of the clear totes that you see on the bed in the picture below.  You can see smaller bins scattered around, where mom has tried in the past to sort and organize and given up in frustration. (And a naked lamp, because someone broke the shade.  Someone who start with a Z.)

Mike and I first thought we'd buy 3 drawer plastic sterilite containers for the sorting, but in the end we brainstormed and decided to re-use the 21 drawer cupboard that Phil had made me when I started teaching.  It's shallow bins, that are easy for the kids to get in and out, turned out to be exactly what we needed.  We kept one small desk sized 3 drawer sterilite container for the very smallest pieces and returned the others that we bought.

Then we started sorting.  It took 4 of us about six hours to sort the thousands of Legos we own (6 of us worked on it, but 2-3 of those helpers were scattered helpers).  That's about 24 hours of labor.  And that's insanity.  I told Mike that I thought the mindlessness of it would relax me, but in the end it didn't.  I was able to go through and sort out 2x4 and 2x2 blocks and the like, but SO much of what we had was arched or curved or for vehicles.  I found myself constantly asking Xavier, "is this for building cars?" or "what's this for?"  Car parts got their own bin in the end, so that they can be more readily found when they are building.  

I cleaned and freshened the boys' room while we were at it and I feel pretty confident that every tiny Lego is located.  I got under the bed, in the nooks and crannies and everywhere a Lego could go.  I went ahead and sent away the dust bunnies while I was at it.

We ended up with 18 buckets in the following categories:  people & animals, arches, slants & curves, accessories (weapons, food), doors & windows, specialty, car parts, and then a bucket each for 1 dot, 2 dot, 3 dot, 4 dot, 6 dot, 8 dot, and 9+ dot (# of dots on top of the brick to help Z and M understand how to sort).  Each child has a bucket also, so that they can stash away things they are building that they might not get done that day.  The little drawers hold a whole lotta tiny circle pieces that serve a purpose, but alas, I do not know what it is.

I used my label maker to label both sides of the buckets so that no matter if it got flipped when they were taken out and put back in, there was always a label.

There's been such great joy and success at re-building sets already because they kids can quickly find the piece the instructions say they need and move on.  Mia has completed a pet set, largely on her own, and Xavier was excited to rebuild his pizza van and be able to find all the right colors of pieces to do it.  Zayden is currently working on a Batman set and Natalee is building a town creation of her own imagination. 

On the counter, each child has a large base plate (although all are currently wishing for bigger ones yet) and those get to stay out.

We took the cupboard in the boys' room to store built sets or creations that are not ready to be dissembled.  

Xavier has the top row.  Natalee middle right.  On the middle left is a few odds and ends instruction booklets and a couple extra rolls of base plate tape that we haven't used yet.  On the bottom, Mia has the left and Zayden has the right.  

We only let the kids keep instruction books until they are torn up.  All the instructions are free online and we download them for them when they need them.  I tried to keep the booklets nice and neat years ago and it was too hard.  That's why you see the iPads laying in the rooms in the pictures - our kids don't have free access to electronics but when they want to build a set they bring me an iPad and I look up the instructions, download them, and then turn the WiFi back off.  

There was a lot of Lego action this weekend after we organized, and I had to go in just a couple times to say, "hey guys, let's pause and tidy."  Old habits (of messes and mixes) die hard, but I think in the long run if we keep at it with a positive attitude, the effort will pay off.