Easy LEGO Storage Ideas + How We Organize LEGOs

If you got LEGOs coming out of your ears, here are a few ideas for storing them

If you got some LEGOs all over your house, let me show you our LEGO storage ideas that are simple, sustainable, and nicely organized for maximum play.

It’s time to share an our LEGO storage ideas

So many of you have LEGOs taking over your house and you’ve been asking me for LEGO storage ideas. So it’s time to talk all about it!

We’ve been a LEGO family for years, and my husband was a LEGO loving kid long before that.

When our oldest boy was finally old enough to play with LEGOs, my in-laws gifted all of my husband’s old pieces to us. They were all organized by piece size in multiple tackle boxes. We spent hours organizing them and re-organizing them over the next few months until we finally gave up and dumped them all in a big bin.

But when they were all mixed into a bin, it was impossible to find the pieces he wanted and he would get bored of playing easily.

Sorting LEGOs by color is the best of our LEGO storage ideas!

Finally after a few years of this, we did The Great LEGO sorting of 2017. We had accumulated thousands of LEGO pieces, and they were all mixed up in various bins. So we dumped them all out and sorted them by color.

I can’t even explain to you what a difference that has made in the way that they play!

It’s easier to clean the LEGOs up, it’s easier to find what they’re looking for, less LEGOs get dumped everywhere, and it’s all very visually appealing to have them sorted by color.

Here are some LEGO storage ideas that have worked for us

(of course, adapt for your family as necessary).

1. Throw away all the instruction books

We used to keep binders and bins full of all the LEGO building instructions that came with each of our sets. Then I discovered that all the instructions for every set are online! You literally type in the set and all the building instructions come up. It saves so much paper, so recycle those booklets and save yourself so much storage space.

2. Sort the LEGOs by color

We bought THESE 15 QUART CLEAR STORAGE BINS at Walmart (they come in a 10-pack for less than $35!) and they’re a perfect size for us. They fit just right in the old IKEA bookshelves we had in our old house (see it here), and we built our custom built ins in our new home to fit them perfectly.

This is how we sort them:

• Green
• Blue/Purple
• Yellow/Orange/Gold/Brown
• Red/Pink
• Black
• Gray
• White
• Miscellaneous

We always have one Miscellaneous/To-Be-Sorted bin. Let’s talk about that next.

3. Have a dedicated To-Be Sorted Bin

There are lots of nights when they/I just don’t feel like re-sorting after they’ve been playing in the playroom. So we have a dedicated to-be-sorted bin that is a catch all for all the colors. We go through and re-sort these when it gets too full, but in the mean time it’s nice to take the sorting pressure off when needed.

4. What we do with their LEGO creations

Whenever they get new LEGO sets, they obviously put together the sets. Then we put them on display for a few weeks, and eventually they get broken up and sorted into the LEGO bins according to their color.

It’s going to be different for every family, but my kids never want to re-make the same LEGO set. They want to build their own creations from their imagination using the cool pieces from the set. So I’m never worried about breaking their sets and re-sorting them.

I find that they are most creative with a big bin of just one color. They could play for hours and create the coolest creations!

5. Make your kids do the sorting

When we sorted all of our LEGOs, we dumped every one of our bins in the middle of the floor in the boys’ room (we didn’t have a playroom), and we spent literally two months sorting bit by bit. We had a lot of LEGOs. Every night we’d give the boys each a small pile and they’d sort them into various color piles and then dump those into the color bins when they were done.

Doing it in these small piles helped them focus on just that section, instead of feeling overwhelmed with the thousands of LEGOs in the big pile. Of course Philip and I helped and sorted these little piles by ourselves, but the boys were mainly in charge of it.

It was incredible to see how proud of their work they became, and also how dedicated they are to re-sorting because they remember how hard that task was to complete. Don’t miss out on that chance to give your kids a sense of accomplishment for a really big task!

6. This LEGO sorting system has been easy to maintain

It’s amazing how easy this LEGO organization system has been to sustain. We’ve kept everything pretty well sorted for two years, and with just a little encouragement, and a little bit of extra work every so often, everything stays pretty well sorted!

7. Our one rule when playing with LEGOs

We only have one rule when it comes to this sorting system: You can only dump one bin out at a time. This is the best way to keep them sorted. They still play with multiple bins at once, but they can’t be completely dumped out.

I hope this is helpful for sorting your LEGOs! What other questions do you have? Leave me a comment here or over on my Instagram post!

You might also like: 

• 10 tips for raising boys

• Our colorful playroom in our new house

• Sanny’s woodland themed bedroom

Photos by Aubrey Stock