Lego!

Bennifred

All three of my boys were Lego mad - no chance of keeping kits together after the first time of making! We think it is the best toy ever, and have kept it all for their future offspring. DH was always saying he wished he still had the Lego he had growing up - would have saved us a fortune! It is in several huge lidded crates, which is how it was stored when they played with it.

Chakani

We have a big, clear, plastic box, with everything mixed together. My MIL painstakingly separated it all into different colours at one stage, but it didn't work really at all. We have never built a kit, all our lego is inherited, but personally I love the imaginative play, and I would much rather have on display a castle my kids built from their own wild imaginations, than spend hours following complicated instructions.

I do have a dedicated clean dustpan for the lego - it's one sold as a garden one, it's really big, and it takes seconds to whip it all back into the box with that. Whenever there are kids here, the lego ends up all over the floor within seconds, but isn't that what lego is for?

itzmee

I recommend superglue!!!! Seriously, DH and I got p*$$ed off with spending hours on Xmas day assembling big lego sets for it to be thrown on the floor and broken to pieces shortly afterwards, so he superglued the last couple of sets (plane and airport). DS (9) has about 4 big plastic boxes full of mixed sets as I get so irate at finding it all over the floor that it just gets thrown in together. If he can't keep the sets together, then tough! The boxes get chucked but we save the instruction booklets. He has a storage unit like this which also gives plenty of room on top to play on. http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=7190250

Luckily, he has gone off lego at the moment and my living room (and hoover!) is free of it but I know that he will start again in the near future. I am never buying him any lego again - though I say that every year and I stupidly give in every time.

londonsurrey

Chakani wrote: »

My MIL painstakingly separated it all into different colours at one stage

That's one way of keeping a MIL busy!

I'm now got this image of some newlyweds unwrapping their wedding presents, and staring nonplussed at one present consisting of a stack of lego and little plastic boxes. Little do they realise what a marriage saver this gift could be! :rotfl:

londonsurrey

itzmee wrote: »

I recommend superglue!!!! Seriously, DH and I got p*$$ed off with spending hours on Xmas day assembling big lego sets for it to be thrown on the floor and broken to pieces shortly afterwards, so he superglued the last couple of sets (plane and airport). DS (9) has about 4 big plastic boxes full of mixed sets as I get so irate at finding it all over the floor that it just gets thrown in together. If he can't keep the sets together, then tough! The boxes get chucked but we save the instruction booklets. He has a storage unit like this which also gives plenty of room on top to play on. http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=7190250

Luckily, he has gone off lego at the moment and my living room (and hoover!) is free of it but I know that he will start again in the near future. I am never buying him any lego again - though I say that every year and I stupidly give in every time.

Who wants to buy my new product? It's a Lego Playpen.

You put the child/adult in it, together with the Lego pieces.

Everything stays in the pen, and at the end of the session, you lure the adult/child out with a tasty snack, and just open the little "drain" at the side, pour the Lego pieces into a container, and fold up the Playpen.

*waits expectantly for the orders to roll in*

JodyBPM

Love the idea of a clean dustpan to sweep it all up! Pure genius!

Not sure about the superglue idea. Have heard of that before, but surely the point/fun in lego is building and then taking it apart again? If you superglue it together you can't play with it anymore, surely?

Think I'm going to have a chat with DH tonight about the best storage unit for DS's room. I think I have to accept that it will be all mixed up together, and to stop stressing about the sets, so now its just a case of what will work best and fit well into his tiny room.

Chakani

Superglue.....? I'm speechless!

Just like my friend who superglued her son's Brio trainset so the kids wouldn't mess up the "proper" layout, defeating the whole point of a creative toy.

victory

londonsurrey wrote: »

*drools at the thought of Victory's ReallyUsefulBox collection*

All from car boot sales, charity shops and given to us by friends and family, one was outside in the bins, the legs were missing the wheels so we asked and got it:D we had a coloured one but son did not like that one because you cannot see inside to see the Lego pieces so he uses that one as his colouring/art draws.

chakani Son and I spent an age colour coding the whole lot of his Lego, only for him to need various colours/bits and pieces/tip them out to see so I never did that again:rotfl:

We used to save all the lego in the cereal bag liners because they were sturdier than the sandwich bags and lasted an age

Fosterdog

Sorry not had chance to read all of the replies so this may have been said.

My brother used to have one tub for all the big bits and another for all the small bitty pieces then a smaller tub for wheels and motors etc.

victory

We also had some of these but they were too deep, dark and son was forever rummaging around and you could guarantee the piece he needed was at the very bottom so we took it all out of there put books in and use the clear pastic draw ones now