41+ no-brainer Lego storage ideas

Lego is a brilliant toy.  But it’s a pain to store. It’s lovely being able to store sets in their boxes, but it’s rare in our house that anything stays complete or near its original box.  We’ve recently had a declutter and reviewed our Lego storage, so I wanted to share some of our storage solutions.

N has a huge Lego collection.  From sets he’s been bought through to Lego from my childhood (some of which was my dad’s). I’m always amazed by how different modern Lego is compared with Lego from 30+ years ago.

The old Lego in our house was all stored in different ice cream tubs. Mostly divided by colour, plus flat pieces, people and little bits.  Amazingly N still keeps all the colours separate.  He’s never been one to just tip all his Lego on the floor thankfully.

His newer Lego tends to be kept made up if small, and in larger pieces or is re-broken up again and put into bigger mixed Lego boxes.  These are harder to store because of their size and I have to get over yearning for sets to be kept together. But keeping sets broken and all mixed in together make for proper creative builds – constructing from scratch. We simply get out a box (they tend to be spread around the house) and start playing. We have kept hold of some original boxes although the Lego is usually spread elsewhere from playing with it. Sigh.

In our recent declutter I was throwing out some plastic drawers on wheels that I previously used for craft supplies.  The drawers were big enough for the Lego ice cream tubs so we held off throwing one set out and turned it into Lego storage.

It’s working out really well.  Most of the colour based boxes fit in, there’s 1 drawer for all the Lego instruction booklets and 1 for small made up pieces.

The best thing about the drawers is that they’re on wheels.  The drawers stand the other side of N’s bedside table and any early mornings he wakes up, he’ll pull the drawers next to his bed, get some of the tubs out and build. Several times I’ve gone into his room and found about 5 makes sitting on his bed.  N’s certainly prolific once he gets building.

We do have some leftover Lego that doesn’t fit, so the rest is combined into as few boxes as possible and kept in a large plastic box.  The hope is that we’ll move into more ice cream tubs so we can fit them into Ikea Trofast drawers.

Now all we’ve got to do is prevent him being given any more Lego in future.

If you’re looking for other ways to store Lego, check out these alternative methods:

Lego storage and organisation

1.       Drawers on wheels  – whether boxes inside or with colours or pieces straight in the drawers.

2.       Blokapod Lego filtering storage system. Each pod holds different sizes of Lego (review at Over 40 and a mum to one)

3.       Tool box storage like at Jinxy Kids where they store by size or colour.  There’s a myriad of tool box styles out there. They also make great travel storage.

4.       Plan your purchases to buy the classic sets which come in plastic Lego storage boxes (that stack!) or buy storage boxes specifically for stacking. Petite-Moi Big World shows how stacking boxes work for them similar to Mama Geek‘s below.

5.       Make use of hardware storage like these you’d usually see hanging in a garage

6.       Fishing tackle boxes are great for storing smaller pieces or use craft divider boxes like at Childhood 101.

7.       Go serious with cheap storage from Ikea – see an example at Keep Calm Get Organised

8.       Make furniture into a storage and play area with this Ikea hack from The Ginger-bread House.

9.   Small trays or drawers within a larger set of drawers or box as Mrs Shilts does.

10.   Use underbed storage drawers.  They’re shallow enough that children can use these for play trays as well as storage.

11.   Use baskets within drawers or shelving systems like Brick Dust and Glitter for a classier more adult room.

12.   Make a Lego play area as well as storage hacking a table.

13,   Make a lego building area using Ikea Trofast drawers keeping the storage within easy reach.  Check out this desk style storage at That Mommy Blog

14,   SnapGuide has an amazingly cool hanging bucket displays .

15,   Play and sweep up the pieces in these drawstring bags similar to Baby Budgeting’s solution.  For these you can play and store.  You can buy or make your own with circular strong fabric, fold round the edge and stitch, then feed through some cord to tie.

16,   Hang baskets for instruction booklets

17,   Use magazine files for instruction booklets

18,   Use ice cream tubs to keep colours or different size/type pieces separate

19,   Make Lego head jars for small pieces, check out ObSeussed for how to make them

20,   Chloe also shares her DIY storage jars, great for keeping sets together depending on the size of the jars.

21,   Make use of door hanging shoe organisers

22,   Store instruction books in hanging photo organisers

23,   Punch and reinforce holes in instruction books to store in ringbinders

24,   Use drawer systems for different colours like I heart organising

25,   Store sets in zip lock bags to keep them together (I wish I’d done this!)

26,   Use Tupperware or plastic cereal storage cartons

27,   Use accordion files for Lego instruction manuals

28,   Printers trays make for great separators or storage for figures as Mondocherry suggests

29,   Use jewellery trays with separators to store small pieces or mini figures. Pick them up from junk shops, charity shops or car boot sales.

30,   Some great tips for storing a large collection using book cases and stackable containers at The Brick Blogger

31,    Here’s a round up of 40 more ideas at The Organised Housewife

Lego travel storage

32,    For a travel Lego kit, convert a little suitcase as Mama Papa Bubba did.

33,    Make a mini Lego tin complete with board on top – check it out at Mommo Design

Lego displays

34,    Build, store and play on Lego walls

35,    Use fishing wire to hang built pieces from the ceiling

36,   Use picture rails to stand small builds or figures on

37,   Use wall hanging spice racks to display small builds

38,  Add lego bases to the top of shelves to create copy cate ones.

Bonus – neater Lego play

39, Make a play tray for kids who prefer to be on the floor. See how Thrifty Decor Chick did theirs.

40, Why not try gluing lego boards to a tuff spot for a similar style floor tray

41, A store and play circular drawstring mat / bag. You can buy these, although they’re simple to make. Simply

For more storage ideas, check out Amazon through my affiliate links.

How is Lego stored in your house?  Share photos of your Lego storage ideas on my Facebook page.

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