Learn how to help your older kids store their growing Lego collection by color in a rolling cart, plus tips for how to organize all the tiny body parts, wheels, and accessories.
Legos are some of the most popular toys for kids of all ages, and they come in a few different shapes and sizes for each age group. For younger kids, it’s usually easier to dump them all into a lidded container so your children can get creative with all the different options. But for older kids who build strategically, it may be time to upgrade their storage systems. Here’s the best method I’ve found so far for storing and organizing Legos for older kids, along with a few hacks for all the tiny little accessories that come in the themed kits.
Use A Rolling Cart For Lego Blocks
What I’ve noticed about my own son’s Lego building habits are that he likes to build with them in different places around the house. Sometimes he wants to build in his bedroom with his Alexa jamming out his favorite playlist, and other times he breaks out his stash in the living room and my husband joins in on the building fun.
For this reason, I recommend storing Legos in a rolling cart. The one we have has 12 drawers, which is perfect for a large collection of blocks and pieces. The wheels have brakes, and it’s really light so your kiddo can roll it from his bedroom to the dining room table without help.
Store Legos By Color For More Creative Building
Since the cart has twelve drawers, we were able to separate the Lego blocks by color. This was actually something my son requested to do, and of course, as an organizer, I was definitely down for it. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure he’d keep it this way. I thought in a few months I’d peek inside a drawer and it would be a jumbled up rainbow.
But I’m happy to report that we set up this cart two years ago when he was 11, and here we are a few months from 14 and it still looks exactly the same. (Plus a bunch more blocks now, though) Turns out, he really likes having the colors separated. He says it makes him want to build with them more because it makes it easier to find what he needs.
We used eleven drawers for colored blocks, and saved the twelfth drawer for holding the instruction books. I definitely suggest keeping these books in case a fully built Lego set gets knocked off a shelf and has to be rebuilt, but if you accidentally trashed a book, you can always download them from Lego’s website.
Storing Tiny Lego Accessories And Body Parts
Aside from the basic colored blocks, there are a lot of other Lego accessories that need a home, too. In our house, we use these Sterilite divided latch boxes. I found ours at the Dollar General, but you can also order them from Home Depot.
We now have three of these Sterilite cases stacked on top of each other on top of the Lego cart and they hold all the heads, bodies, costume accessories, wheels, gears, random car parts, and specialty pieces. I like them because they latch tightly so you can be sure there won’t be an accidental spill.
Storage For In-Progress Lego Kits
Usually, my son doesn’t finish a whole Lego kit all in one sitting. To keep things easy to pick back up and work on later, he uses these plastic divided trays from Ikea to hold his in-progress sets. He will open one bag from the set at a time, and divide the contents of that bag by color or type, depending on the set.
He also keeps a highlighter in the tray with the instruction booklet so he can highlight the step he stopped on. It’s super important to give your kids something to store their in-progress sets in, because if the bags get opened and mixed up, you may have just spent $100 on a set that will never get touched again…ask me how I know…
Use Trays For Building With Legos Safely
Nothing is worse than stepping on a teeny tiny Lego that is wedged into your carpet. Those little pieces can turn a shag rug into a mine field. I recommend giving your kiddo a tray to use as their building surface. I started by giving my son an old cookie sheet from the kitchen, and later I upgraded him to a DIY Lego Tray with velcroed-on race tracks.
Turns out, he still uses both of them, and no matter how many times I try to get rid of that old cookie sheet, he’s not having it. Whether you make a tray like I did or give your kid a cookie sheet, make sure it’s got raised edges on all four sides to keep the itty bitty bricks in place and out of your floor.
Quick Recap Of Lego Storage Tips For Older Kids
If you’re a skimmer, I got you Girl! Here’s the super quick recap of all the tips in this post:
- Get a rolling cart with drawers for maximum storage and portability.
- Sort by color inside the cart’s drawers.
- Keep body and car parts in a divided case for easy access.
- Add another divided caddy or lidded container to hold in-progress Lego sets.
- Provide a tray with raised edges to keep Legos from getting lost in the floor during building.
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