Argh! Legos!!

[Rhonda in TX]

My DS has quite the collection of Legos. Thousands of them. I'm not exaggerating. And he loves them. And he uses them to make very creative things. But...

 

They're taking over my house. I have Legos on every floor of every room, Legos in the laundry, Legos in, under, and on my couch, Legos in the bathroom, Legos on the table, Legos on the kitchen counter, Legos EVERYWHERE! And I'm not allowed to toss any - by orders of DH!! The other day I was sweeping the kitchen floor and swept up a tiny Lego. I mentioned to DH that it was going in the trash. Oh, no! DH called DS to come get it. He did, then promptly dropped it somewhere else (NOT in his room). And let's not even talk about the floor of his room. ARGH!! I seriously want to get rid of these things, but I don't see it every happening. Ever! (And then there's the Bionicles...)

 

How do I control this??

[Mabeline]

We have a no toys out of the room rule here. If I see a toy come out of their room I promptly turn him around and say no toys out of the room. Sometimes we slip and find toys in other rooms. First offense: come and return all toys to the room. Second offense: toys can be put into a bsket for several days. This keeps most of the mess down. HTH

[RebeccaS]

I can sort of understand what you are going through-here it is My Little Pony Ponyville (and they're not really creative or anything-they just have tons of teeny tiny shoes...) At any rate, for storage, I got my girls some Rubbermaid drawers on wheels for the toys with little parts. Then, my policy is the toys must stay in their room. If they do not I take them. I keep them. For quite a while. The kids have to earn them back by doing odd jobs around the house (not just chores, in addition to chores). Hope you find something that works for you!

[KS_]

Similar here - they have to have express permission to bring all their stuff out to play, otherwise it stays in their rooms. And ds has plastic bins to keep his Legos in, and we have a clean up time everyday that has to be finished before dinner. He can keep his built creations out in his room, but all the extra, loose pieces are supposed to be picked up and put in a bin.

[teamturner]

My DS has quite the collection of Legos. Thousands of them. I'm not exaggerating. And he loves them. And he uses them to make very creative things. But...

 

They're taking over my house. I have Legos on every floor of every room, Legos in the laundry, Legos in, under, and on my couch, Legos in the bathroom, Legos on the table, Legos on the kitchen counter, Legos EVERYWHERE! And I'm not allowed to toss any - by orders of DH!! The other day I was sweeping the kitchen floor and swept up a tiny Lego. I mentioned to DH that it was going in the trash. Oh, no! DH called DS to come get it. He did, then promptly dropped it somewhere else (NOT in his room). And let's not even talk about the floor of his room. ARGH!! I seriously want to get rid of these things, but I don't see it every happening. Ever! (And then there's the Bionicles...)

 

How do I control this??

 

I could have written this post! Although I'm the one who can't bring myself to throw them away. My ds will put them away when I ask (and sometimes they go in his pocket and end up in the washer). Sometimes I put them on the stairs for him or collect them on a table and ask him to come and get them. I need to buy more storage bins since Christmas/Birthday Legos, but last summer I got him enough bins to sort them by color and one for the mini figures. This helped a lot because now he has a place to put them. He keeps them under his bed and when I ask him to clean them up all.the.way. he can. It frustrates me to find them all over the place, but on the other hand this time in my life where Legos are everywhere will not last forever. I'm thankful that he has a hobby like building and creating that will benefit him in the long run. When all the kids are grown and gone, memories of finding Legos every where will probably make me smile. :001_smile:

 

P.S. If you do a search on Lego storage on this board you will find several good ideas for keeping them stored and organized.

[Blossom'sGirl]

With 4 boys we also have thousands of well used Legos (yet we still keep buying them). I had a Lego jail for awhile where they would pay me a nickel to get their parts back but they have so many now they don't care. We have one huge tote with all the general Legos and then each boy has a box for his own special pieces and a shelf where they can keep some built creations. The Legos are to be kept in their rooms but manage to make their way downstairs quite often. They really love it when we drag the huge tote down and dump it and play Legos as a family.

 

I do find Legos everywhere. The other night I had a fleet of Lego tanks and airplanes parked next to my side of the bed. I also find them all the time in the van, bathroom and even outside. I am accepting as a stage of life.

[claire up north]

I keep a small basket in the kitchen. If I find pieces after we've already "cleaned up," I put them in the basket. Each morning, one child has the job of putting away stuff in the basket. It's usually legos, but also includes a few tools, jewelry, and misc. junk.

 

The emptying out every day thing has been a lifesaver. If more than a day goes by, the job seems to overwhelming to the boy & then there is general malaise. :)

[SonshineLearner]

I'm watching for ideas, I really want to buy more!

Carrie:-)

[Julie in Austin]

I'd require Legos to be played with on a sheet, which you can then easily fold into a rubbermaid tote.

 

If I found Legos anywhere besides the sheet, I would put them away for a long, long, long time.

[WTMCassandra]

I like the sheet idea, which also implies that there is a designated place for the legos to live/be played with. We have a playroom and all toys stay there (not even in bedrooms). I think designating a Lego Place will help a lot.

[Old Dominion Heather]

My guys have thousands of LEGOs, and we recently did a purge where I boxed up half and let them go through and pull out any pieces they couldn't bear to part with and then passed them on to friends with a tighter budget than we have at the moment.

 

To keep them neat, I bought them one of those rubbermaid containers with wheels for under bed storage. It is only about eight inches high and we can roll it under the bed. They play legos several hours a day, but at night, all the legos go back in the box and they get rolled under the bed. No LEGOs are allowed out of their room except to show off a creation and then it goes straight back. I think it is important that the container not be deeper than a few inches, otherwise it is too frustrating to try to find the piece you are looking for. My boys have been warned that I will not pick up LEGOs. I warn them to check when I am about to vacuum and then I just suck them up. I figure if they weren't missing the piece before, they will probably never know it is gone.

 

I will add that we no longer buy them LEGOs. They are allowed to save their money and to receive them for Christmas and birthdays from grandparents.

[Nestof3]

Our oldest kept all of his in his room. This was especially important because Nathan and Ben were babies/toddlers when he was playing with them.

 

Nathan and Ben have toy tables now in the family room because their bedroom is too small for playing. Toys have to be in either their bedroom or the play area (which ends up extending into the living area b/c it's one space, really).

 

We have those big Sterlite drawers for storage.

 

But, I could never get rid of Legos. :)

[happi duck]

No solutions here...DS currently has a layer of Lego on his bedroom floor. DH doesn't know the drill...last night I heard him walk into DS's room, crash over the bits and miraculously land without destroying anything. I call out helpfully from our room "never step honey, always shuffle!":tongue_smilie:

[Rhonda in TX]

We use plastic shoebox-size boxes for storage. I've tried several things, but this works the best.

 

I need to set a "no Legos out of the room" rule and stick to it. I think I'll start picking up all the Legos I find and hold them hostage for awhile. I doubt he'll notice, though. :tongue_smilie:

 

Thanks for the ideas. :)

[Linda in Oregon]

Sometimes I get legos in my vacuum.....oooops!

 

If I had a blog, I'd call it legos in my vacuum.

 

Seriously, though, we do the king size fitted sheet for dumping them out and bins for storing them. Regardless of what we do, they are everywhere! Ever wrongly step on one barefooted, in the dark, on your way to the kitchen for a glass of water at night. That hurt! The dag gone things can cut your feet if they catch it right. I've even got them in my car. I know some of you will suggest enforcing some kind of rule about the loose legos, but I've kinda just accepted this stage of my life right now.

 

Where's the oddest place you've found a lego?

[elise1mds]

Where's the oddest place you've found a lego?

 

The litter box. I do NOT want to know.

 

I am also loving that sheet idea, and I think I'll implement it with my daughter's popbeads, too. And his Playmobil stuff. Loving the sheet idea. :D

[Linda in Oregon]

The litter box. I do NOT want to know.

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[Mom0012]

My son received a train table and a train set from Costco for his birthday when he was 3. He soon lost interest in the trains, but the table is still hard at work for storing and playing with his legos. There are 2 large drawers that roll out from under the table that we dump all the legos in and my son uses the table to build to his heart's desire.

 

I also had an old coffee table I was going to get rid of and my son begged to have that in his room for his lego building. So, now he has that as well, along with a rubbermate storage container that has drawers that pull out for lego building in his room.

 

This is not to say that I never find legos anywhere else in the house, but for the most part, the are contained in those two areas.

 

Lisa

[Jill]

No solutions here...DS currently has a layer of Lego on his bedroom floor. DH doesn't know the drill...last night I heard him walk into DS's room, crash over the bits and miraculously land without destroying anything. I call out helpfully from our room "never step honey, always shuffle!":tongue_smilie:

Bump! Because we are in same situation. I took the broom and dustpan and honestly just swept up legos and dumped them into boxes and bins we have for them - dog hair and dustballs included.:tongue_smilie:

We also recently instituted "no legos on other floors or they will be thrown away"* and regularly pick up legos and they must be transported back to ds's room.

* - I actually am collecting them in a little bin. I figure they can be donated to Goodwill or such or given as gifts.

The shallow but large under bed lastic containers would probably be the best container for us. we have those bins in a rack for easy access but they are full.

If anyone ever bumps into a Lego "sifter", please post!

[dtb1999]

For a while, we had a toy storage shelf with plastic bins that was kept in the garage. It housed all the teeny tiny little toys, like legos, playmobil, etc. They could go and get 1 bin at a time, and had to put that bin back before taking another one out. I eventually gave up on it cause I am a slacker :o , but it did work for a while.

[dirty ethel rackham]

My boys have been Lego maniacs as well. We have a "Legos cannot leave the bedroom" rule in our house. We implemented it when dd was a baby because I knew I would not be able to keep up with keeping those out of her mouth. We also implemented the sheet rule - Legos must be on a bed sheet. That way clean up is super easy. Fold up the corners and dump back into the bucket. On the rare occasions when the pieces have made it outside their bedroom, I would put them in "toy jail." They have to earn them back. My jail was just a basket, but I had a friend who used a small fish tank. Her advantage was that the children could see the object and would request a chore to earn back the item. Mine ended up languishing in jail for a very long time.

[dhudson]

My son received a train table and a train set from Costco for his birthday when he was 3. He soon lost interest in the trains, but the table is still hard at work for storing and playing with his legos. There are 2 large drawers that roll out from under the table that we dump all the legos in and my son uses the table to build to his heart's desire.

Lisa

 

 

That's exactly what we did and it works fairly well. We also have a large family room where we have a designated play area behind the couch and the table and the legos are to be kept there and that works pretty well.

[pixeldog]

Our house is small so we use a small blankie instead of a sheet and it goes into a decorative basket in the living room so they can play with them outside of their rooms. It *is* a strange feeling to hear that "TING" in the vacume and wonder if that was a Lego or a Playmobile weapon. I love the visible aquarium/jail idea with chores for bail....will do that instead of put the offending item up on top of the fridge.

 

I love this forum!

[dragons in the flower bed]

DH called DS to come get it. He did, then promptly dropped it somewhere else (NOT in his room).

 

When he does this, call him back, have him pick it up, watch him to make sure it goes in his room, in a bin or whatever storage unit it belongs in. Do that every time. Make Lego round-up a part of his regular routine.

[asta]

My DS has quite the collection of Legos. Thousands of them. I'm not exaggerating. And he loves them. And he uses them to make very creative things. But...

 

How do I control this??

 

As the mother to thousands of LEGO (literally), the answer is:

 

The Ikea Trofast System.

 

Only, don't ever buy the "large" bins - it is too hard to dig to the bottom of them. Small bins for the little pieces, and medium bins for the larger ones.

 

(I admit, I didn't read the whole thread... this is just my personal solution)

 

 

asta

[laughing lioness]

We have certain areas for certain toy toys. The legos and train are on the front, enclosed porch (think big old farmhouse front porch)- they get 1/2 the porch with a train table (they are no longer playing with the train) - they use the table for legos.

In the winter they put on their coats and play legos on the front porch. If it is bitterly cold they can do legos on the left side of our front living floor but have to keep it out of the way of the staris and no set-ups past 2 days.

The play mobile gets the living room. Only occaisionally do they want to play with playmobile and legos together. Those set-ups have to be cleaned up that day and toys put back in their bins (we have 3 huge lidded bins from Sams for the legos, plus trays under the train table. Misc pieces that I find become mine for indefinite (think long) period of time.

When they want certain pieces they sort and keep them seperate.

[KatieJ]

I miss those Lego years! REally, remember someday he won't be playing with Legos..for what it's worth.

 

If I read your sig correctly, your son is in 6th grade?? Plenty old enough to do a lego clean up all by himself.

Maybe have him pick up every single Lego for now and then warn him there are new rules in place. They must be contained to his room or the sheet or whatever.

 

 

ONe thing I thought of as I was reading no one wants to just throw them away..how about if you save them until you have a large pile or container full of them, meaning any you find after you send him on his clean up today, they go into a container. Then he can choose to do a chore and earn them back, or he can go with you to donate them someplace. That way someone else will get to use them and maybe that will trigger him wanting to keep them picked up.

[ereks mom]

Bionicles too. ER was very meticulous about his LEGO stuff though. He kept each set in ziplock baggies, along with the instructions. Baggies were kept in plastic bins, sorted according to the type of set (Aquanauts, Pirates, Wild West, Egypt, etc, etc, etc.). Spare or "extra" pieces were kept in a big bin on the shelf in his room. He's 18yo now, but still has all those bins in his closet and the big bin on the shelf too. A treasure trove for my future grandchildren!

[Catwoman]

How do I control this??

 

I don't know, but if you figure it out, let me know because my house sounds a lot like yours!

 

Cat

[Audrey]

I could have written your post. I have no clue how to control it either.

 

I do try not to leave the Legos unchaperoned, though. I'm pretty sure they're breeding out of control every time I turn my back on them.

[dangermom]

I'd require Legos to be played with on a sheet, which you can then easily fold into a rubbermaid tote.

 

If I found Legos anywhere besides the sheet, I would put them away for a long, long, long time.

This is what my mom did, and it worked well. Also it is fun to pick up all the Legos in the sheet and dump them all in the bin at once with a lot of noise.