My son Leo has loved Legos since he was about 3 years old. His first set was a plastic box filled with the Duplo bricks which are bigger and easier for little hands to build with. Not to mention, storing these is a breeze since they come with their own durable box. Fast-forward a few years and he’s long outgrown Duplo and has graduated to regular Legos. Many of the sets are still intact and displayed all over his room. His latest gift was a 3400+ piece superhero creation that now occupies most of his desk. But what about all of the sets that fell apart over the years? It’s a lot of Legos!

Any parent can attest that you don’t want those things sitting around on the floor because of the pain they inflict when you step on them. As a kid, I remember watching Circus of the Stars on TV in the late 70s and early 80s. TV stars would do crazy things like ride elephants and walk tightropes. One act of bravery was walking barefoot across hot coals. Forget hot coals. I’d like to see a reboot of that, and instead of coals, they could just walk barefoot across Legos in the darkness of night. Hot coals have nothing on Legos. In fact, one year we were at a Super Bowl Party at a friend’s house when 4 year old Leo came running up the steps crying and a total bloody mess. Turns out, he slipped and fell onto a Lego creation and it was so sharp that it split his head open. He had to get stitches and also acquired the nickname, “Lego Leo.” You can imagine us explaining that one to the doctor at Urgent Care. Hopefully you understand where I’m going with this. Legos are dangerous and need to be contained!

I searched the internet to find the best way to store Legos. Some people think that you should store them by the set, but there was no way that could happen here. A lot of them are mixed together and I don’t have the time or patience to recreate each set. I decided the best way for us is to store by brick color. You could go nuts with fancy plastic drawers that cost a lot of money, but I decided to do it on the cheap. I bought plastic shoe box sized containers from Lowes for a few bucks a piece (It’s not a brand name storage container, but it does the job) and printed color labels with my label maker. Next, I got to work sorting. I sorted each brick by color and some of the less common colors (pink, purple) went in the same bin. It really didn’t’ take long. Next, I took all of the kit instructions and put them all in a plastic envelope that I had sitting around. The bins and folder all sit on an old toy shelf unit that we bought at Target years ago. It’s cheap and effective. I have yet to find any decent way to display his completed Lego creations. For now, they all sit on his desk and on top of bookcases and dressers. If anyone has suggestions on a better way to store them, I am all ears!