For The Love Of Lego
Legos are to Simon like scrapbooking is to me. Life.
They are often his activity of choice. He checks out Lego.com for updates, watches Lego videos online, gets the free magazine in the mail, and always wants to visit the Lego aisle at Target.
He goes through phases of interest between the different themes but mainly it's been Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lego City, and now, of course, it's all Harry Potter (that's big on his Christmas list).
When we moved a few months back, packing up the legos and deciding how to organize them took some time. I decided to buy a bunch more plastic drawers in two sizes. With the help of a couple neighbor girls we broke down most of the ships (previously sitting on a large metal shelf in his room) and separated each set into it's own drawer. It was quite an adventure.
After we broke down the sets to fit in the drawers there were still lots of pieces not belonging to any particular set so for those we separated the remaining parts by color.
For his new room in this house we set up two Ikea tables along one wall to create a desk area (these were previously under his loft bed in the other house). At some point he might do his homework here but for now that happens at the kitchen table and this set-up is really mainly for play.
On top of those desks are XL lego baseplates. I'm thinking I might adhere those to the table but for now he can move them around if he wants.
His bedroom has a pretty big closet that already contained built-in shelves. Amazingly those shelves seem like they were built just for those plastic storage containers.
Another thing you might see in the photo that we use are cookie sheets. Cookie sheets have been great for keeping all the pieces together if he wants to move from the dining room to his bedroom.
He's often got a little pile or two or three with drawers pulled out and people being prepared for battle.
Simon's very much a direction follower and doesn't have much interest in making up new ships or places. He follows the written instructions precisely and wants each item to be built just like he sees on the box and in the directions. It's so cool to watch him put one of these sets together.
We keep the instructions for each set in a couple large binders (each set of directions is inside a page protector). This set up has worked pretty good. He goes back to the notebooks when a set breaks apart or he wants to rebuild something. This is also a reason that separating the extra parts by color has worked so great for him - it's easy for him to identify what he needs in the book and then go to the matching color drawer.
Still on my list to do is print out small images of each set to adhere to the front of the drawers to help identify the contents.
I think he's pretty happy in his new room.
Lego, we love you. Thanks for being a part of our lives.
And Simon, I hope Santa brings you that Hogwarts Castle set. It looks so cool!
I asked Simon if he wanted me to capture him explaining what he was playing last night and he got excited. Here's Simon, in his own words:
Simon Edwards: Lego Harry Potter Quidditch Explanation from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.
He is the cutest kid EVER!!
i completely agree.
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My son is also a Lego fanatic! He still gets a lego set every year for Christmas and he will turn 20 in January! We have them all stored in drawer units ( not quite as orginized as yours) and have every instruction manual. I am very thankful to Lego for the many peaceful hours they gave me. Glad to hear so many others love them too.
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This is the same story at our house right now..both my hooligans have lost their minds over Lego Harry Potter. I just wish their room and Lego pieces were as organized as Sweet Simon's....
Santa has a few sets coming their way and I'm scrambling to get figure out where they're going to set the sets up...
I can a quote from the movie "Jaws"
"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat!"
xoxo
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thanks to all who are posting storage ideas. We are going through this in my household as well! We don't have a walk-in closet for storage, so all the different ideas help.
In our last house I had just started using the drawers and they sat on a metal shelf in his room - that worked well.
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Thank you for this post. I usually stay back and read blogs but your post really got me to post a comment. We also love Legos. Our 5 yr old twins (a boy and girl) are so into these and we've accumulated so many Duplo ones, couldn't stop indulging the kids with these and I think part of it is because both me and my husband never had them growing up. My husband even wanted to buy the twins Legos when they were born!
I'm so in awe of how you have managed to organize and tame the tiny Lego pieces. We are debating about switching to the smaller pieces as we are running out of space (one huge plastic tub is almost overflowing). My son is into the Star Wars ones. And my daughter is into the Duplo ones.
Just wanted to say thanks for commenting :). Anna has her own Duplo collection too - it's starting to grow as she gets more interested :).
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Simon is precious! The love of legos can last long past childhood. My stepson and his wife made little Lego 'bride and groom' figures for the top of their wedding cake! It was the talk of the reception.
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My grandson (age 5) has recently discovered the joys of the Lego world. We have just begun collecting set for him to enjoy when he and our other grand kids visit but Mr 5 year old is the most enamoured with them and will spend hours with his Poppy and I building. I love your organizing ideas here and my sweet grandson loved watching Simon's video.. We had to watch it twice.. Thanks for sharing Ali..
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Ali, thank you so much for sharing Simon's legos! Our world revolves around legos as well. Our son has ADHD and the legos sooth him. He plays with them constantly and he also carries his lego magazine everywhere. He's hoping for some Harry Potter lego sets this Christmas as well! Thank you so much for sharing your organization! I have been racking my brain trying to figure it all out for Jackson! Your video of Simon was just beautiful!
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What a cutie pie! I love that he's so passionate about his Legos. We love Lego's too. Great tips on how to organize them. I love the binder idea. Thanks for sharing this snippet of Simon.
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My son and I built Hogwarts this weekend - it was fantastic fun! Hope Simon gets to enjoy it this Christmas!
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That video is awesome! I love your Lego organizing system.
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We are big time lego fans here...thanks for the organizing tips! We use the binder/page protector system for legos and everything else around here and very successfully! Love the tip about the little drawers...off to Target we go!
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dear simon, you're pretty much a rockstar. thanks to your awesome video, i learned something new today.
(ali, it's more and more clear to me every time i read your blog just how awesome you really are...both professionally and in your personal life. thank you for constantly inspiring. i think you're a rockstar too.)
Thank you Tania :). I just sent you an email too -
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My boys loved Legos when they were young. Have you seen this? http://ldd.lego.com/ Fun stuff...
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My sons life revolves around legos too. Don't know what we'd do without them. Loved your video. We love the plastic drawers as well. My question is....is that a poster in Simon's room? With Lego guys? If so, where did you get it.....my son would LOVE LOVE LOVE that.
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I think I just got a glimpse of my future....my boys are 3 and 4 and love thier legos (mainly Thomas).
You really should try to get to Legoland in San Deigo. Simon would love it and he is the perfect age.
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Ali, I am always so inspired by you! I too have a Lego-loving son. He is 12. His Legos are EVERYWHERE and while I know this is something I will miss later, right now, I would love to have a better storage system. Two questions for you: how do you store/display the finished product where it is safe from harm, but still accessible; and do you find that most of the sets fit into one of the larger drawers? I love the binder idea. Thanks for the post! Heather
Hi Heather - finished projects tend to be on his table. Right now that happens to be the smaller Harry Potter sets he has been playing with most. His larger Star Wars sets are currently in pieces. Most of the sets have fit - there are a few that needed to be in more than one drawer. At some point we might add some shelves to the wall opposite the tables.
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{sigh} :) I remember my son at this age. Every moment of his day was L E G O. We tried to keep his Legos organized in storage drawers like you are doing but it didn't work, as hard as I tried. My son liked the idea of keeping the pieces in the drawers but didn't like putting them back. lol Just the other day, in his 18 yr old wisdom, he said to me that he never realized how expensive Legos were until recently. He then thanked me for all Legos he had been given throughout his childhood and appreciates how much money was spent on them.
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Oh this is soooo my 7 year old, Kyle! It's everything Star Wars Lego for us and that's the big thing on his Christmas list. As with Simon, he wants everything to be just as in the picture/instructions and will completely follow them! I recently took some pictures of his Lego to scrap and this makes me want to do just that today! Thanks!
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Lego mania has started in our house as well. My daughter (8yrs) loves the Lego City theme and is coveting the Harry Potter Castle and Hogwarts Express.
Excellent post! I like the idea of keeping the instructions in a binder. I'm going to have to do that too.
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My son (and my husband!) loves legos too. We have them in the tilt bins organized by color. Mostly, he builds the item and then takes it apart and builds something of his imagination. But there a few he keeps as is. Right now he's big on rebuilding the Coast Guard fleet he has. He and I love the XL lego bases!
I am loving the binder idea! We currently have them in a big mess of a pile in a bin and I don't like looking at that mess when he goes through it. So I am getting a binder right now and organizing them! Thanks Ali!
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i too have a lego guy. he's 12 and he still loves his legos. comes home everyday and goes straight upstairs to create something too cool! i have lots of project life photos of his creations.
he even took lego camp at our local college for 2 summers. they used the lego motors to build a car of sorts. he had a great time.
i thought once he got into JR HI that he wouldn't play with them anymore, but he does. all of his friends are already "dating". crazy! but my child spends his evenings making the best things out of bricks.
he discovered that there is a lego store over in MASS...and it's very close to the IKEA...i am planning a road trip for us some saturday...he is most excited.
his dad is on a business trip in San Diego and he is so dstressed cuz lego-land is right by his hotel...lol
take care, ali. i love to read your blog everyday. thank you.
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how wonderful! Love the organization and the video is so cute! someday it will be so fun to go back and watch this when Simon is older. I have a little guy (6 years old) that is very into Fisher Price Trios right now, they are similar to legos and I see us going in the direction of legos as he gets older. You gave me lots of ideas how to organize! Although, right now my son doesn't like to build his trios as they are supposed (like a castle set) he makes all sorts of other thing with them. But I always keep the directions around, and I love the idea of the binder with the page protectors to keep it all together. You are so very organized! One question for you...what have you done with the toys simon has grown out of or doesn't play with that much? Saved them for Anna? In storage? donated them?
Hi Michelle - some of the toys have been saved for Anna but many have been donated to Goodwill. We also have a closet downstairs in our living room that has games he likes to play.
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Love Simon's video! Hope Santa will bring him the Hogwarts castle :-)
My son (who turns 6 in Febr.) loves lego too - his top picks this year for his Christmas wishlist is the Powerminers. He is the same - loves to follow the instructions. Thanks for the tip of putting all the instructions into a binder!
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"and that's him!" made me giggle. I love that little guy.
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