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I stress over lego sets. We have a few Indiana Jones and Star Wars sets - the $10-$20 range sizes. My 7yos enjoys building them and my 11yos w/ special needs plays with them, but inevitably breaks them up to bits. We've lost the directions and so now what do I do? Do I just dump these pieces into the big lego box for imaginative play? That just seems wrong :).

 

I would like to buy more of these sets for Christmas, but I need a better system. I'm thinking I'll buy one shoes box for each set. I'll keep the cut down box and instructions in each box - and any broken pieces can be stored in the correct box. Is this what most of you do?

 

Playmobil isn't this hard (we have tons of that), but they like the Legos so much more.

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Our oldest had an obscene amount of Legos. It was his favorite thing. Once he made the set, the pieces went in with all of the others. It was always more fun for him to make his own designs.

 

You can still print out instructions for sets you have. We always save the instructions.

 

http://us.service.lego.com/en-US/BuildingInstructions/default.aspx

 

http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/

 

http://www.squidoo.com/legoinstructions

 

http://www.peeron.com/

 

We save all instruction books for Legos and Playmobil for the little guys. We have a Sterlite drawer unit with three 8.5x11 drawers. The Playmobil instructions go in one drawer, the Lego in another, and the misc., like Lincoln Logs, go in another. I'm compulsive about keeping the paperwork.

Edited by nestof3
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I think you will be much happier if you mix them all together once the boxed design is made and taken apart. Ds8 then goes on to make his own designs. He made a big frog or something for the fair and when he was complimented on it he would look dejected and say, 'oh, I used a pattern' as if it wasn't good because he didn't come up with the design. :glare:

 

Anyway, don't try to keep them apart. Too much trouble.

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Our oldest had an obscene amount of Legos. It was his favorite thing. Once he made the set, the pieces went in with all of the others. It was always more fun for him to make his own designs.

 

 

 

We still have obscene amts of legos. My dc still play with their legos occasionally (esp. 14yob). We have sets that were in the ranges of $80 -$200 that are in pieces now, so don't stress over it. They are toys that are meant to be enjoyed!

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I think they can get so much more out of them if you just mix them together and let them enjoy! My boys also have an obscene amount of legos and continue to get more. I love watching the things they create from their imagination, looking at pictures, etc.

 

We still keep the instructions and they still build them at times, but they aren't in the best shape. I have one friend who has actually laminated all of the instructions for safe-keeping.

 

We have large bins for the most common pieces (bricks, flats, etc.) Then we have Sterlite multi-drawer units into which we have sorted pieces like people, windows, doors, angles, wheels, etc. It makes it so much easier to find pieces when they are trying to build a specific creation.

 

Have fun!

Staci

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I think they can get so much more out of them if you just mix them together and let them enjoy! My boys also have an obscene amount of legos and continue to get more. I love watching the things they create from their imagination, looking at pictures, etc.

 

We still keep the instructions and they still build them at times, but they aren't in the best shape. I have one friend who has actually laminated all of the instructions for safe-keeping.

 

 

The sets are nice, but the beauty of Legos is what you can build from your imagination. We have the instructions in a drawer, but DS rarely looks at them once he has built and then taken apart the original design.

 

DS has more Legos than I could possibly count. After many storage methods, I now just put an assortment of Legos in a plastic shoebox-sized box. The idea is that he pulls out one box at a time. He can get more, but it's cut down on the Legos everywhere problem.

 

Sorting didn't work for us. He was incapable of keeping it up. The only thing separate from the other Legos is the tiny pieces and mini-figure pieces. And if he doesn't keep those separate - oh, well.

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DS has more Legos than I could possibly count. After many storage methods, I now just put an assortment of Legos in a plastic shoebox-sized box. The idea is that he pulls out one box at a time. He can get more, but it's cut down on the Legos everywhere problem.

 

Sorting didn't work for us. He was incapable of keeping it up. The only thing separate from the other Legos is the tiny pieces and mini-figure pieces. And if he doesn't keep those separate - oh, well.

 

Yep! Sorting is not for everyone. It took my boys 12 and 9 a while to get used to the idea and to see the benefit of it, and now they are glad that we do it this way. I think each family just has to find a method that works for them. :001_smile:

 

Most days, they just end up with a mess of legos all over their bedroom floor, and they are required to clean it up at the end of the day. That is the only place they are allowed to play with them.

 

~Staci

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Take it from someone who has 13 years of Lego (not counting my old Lego that I handed down): you don't want any "deep" containers - once the bin is over 6-8 inches deep, the kid will stop digging.

 

We have so much Lego that we have one of these (all small bins) and one of these (small and medium bins) filled with sorted Lego as well as two train sets and miscellaneous "made" stuff that falls out of the closet (off the shelves, etc.) and a Mindstorms brick.

 

It's an addiction...

 

 

asta

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We have loads of legos. I tried to sort them in tackle boxes for all the smaller specialty pieces. The boys loved it, because it was fast and easy to assemble, but they never put them back in there when dismantling the creation. I gave up, and all the special pieces go in a "smaller" drawer, while all the bulk pieces go in the bigger bins.

 

As to the instruction guides, I have a LARGE 3 ring binder with all the instructions in plastic sheet protectors. That way they can find one if they want it, but they typically like to make their own creations. Still, it's nice to have the original on hand. This makes it easy to find too.

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No way do we sort. DS (6yo) puts it together for the first time just so he can figure out how the pieces work together, then it's free game. He keeps all of his legos in a huge plastic tool box. It has an insert so he can divide up all his weapons and stuff, if he desires. Usually, there is a section with all heads. I don't know why he does that but he gets a real kick out of changing all their heads around. Crazy kid.

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This thread has been so helpful to me. My son is a Legomaniac. And he always abuses the instructions so they get torn up. Then the Legos end up in his big Rubbermade tub. He builds the sets within an hour and then it's "what's next?"

 

Thanks for all of the tips, guys!

Kelly

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I'm reading this thread and melting all over my keyboard.

 

My boys have lego coming out the wazoooooooo. My next HUGE project is to find some sort of system that gives them creative license *and* allows for some sort of tidy-up so I can tuck them in at night without stepping on, over or around the current project.

 

Whoever figures out a lego system . . . hat's off to you.

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