Legos Everywhere: A Storage Solution

Do you have Legos everywhere?  I found a tiny piece next to my toaster this morning, a few in the laundry last week, and well,…..there are always Lego creations in various states somewhere in the house. 
My son had three boxes to store his Legos: a Lego-brand box (a hand-me-down from his Uncle’s old Lego collection),  an Artist’s Tacklebox (a hand-me-down from me), and a set of small drawers (see pic below).  These work for small collections, but he has outgrown them.  T also likes to keep some things assembled for awhile to play with again, but I don’t like them laying around the house.  He was also complaining about not being able to find certain  pieces to complete his projects or that it took too much time to dig through his boxes to find the pieces.

Our Mission:  Build or buy an inexpensive storage piece that could house his Legos neatly and provide a space for display.

I started by cleaning, re-arranging, and re-organizing his room….finding a lot of Legos along the way!  I had pretty much decided that I was just going to buy a small bookshelf and a bunch of bins when inspiration hit….or maybe it was that I was too tired to think about another trip to Walmart.I purchased this weird piece of office furniture months ago at the Habitat Store.  It is an office system….laminate outer cabinet with a moveable plastic drawer system.  They were obviously used in an insurance office for forms (there were a few drawers with labels on them). They had two of them the day I stumbled on them, one large (that my mother purchased) and one small (mine).  As soon as I saw them, I knew they would be perfect for my mother’s paper storage (she is a CTMH consultant and paper crafter).  I let mine sit in my garage for awhile and finally put it in my craft room closet awhile ago to hold paper.  It works great for that but it was really wasted on my paltry paper supply.  But, re-purposed into a Lego storage unit…perfect!!Using a can of spray chalkboard paint (leftover from my Chalkboard-footed Wine Glasses), I spray-painted all of the drawfronts….two coats.  The next day, I rubbed all of them with chalk and wiped them off.  After organizing the Legos by color/styles, I put the Legos in the drawers and labeled each drawerfront with chalk.The only issue for using these drawers for Legos is the holes in the bottoms…but nothing a little duct tape can’t fix.

May not be fancy, but what does my 10 year-old care if there is a square of duct tape in there?

T loves his new storage and how easily he can find things.  I love that his Legos are picked-up.  And, we both like having an area where he can display a few creations too.
I don’t know if these systems are still available or how expensive they are to purchase new, but it may be something to be on the look-out for at your local thriftstore or used office furniture place.  You never know what you could re-purpose that piece to do in your home.
After attending LegoFest with my son last weekend, I realized that the sets only get bigger and more complex….and some people play with these things FOREVER!  We were quite impressed with some of the complex builds they had on display.  Hopefully, this cabinet will provide enough room to store my son's Legos for awhile.

Happy Re-purposing!








This post is linked to:
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2012/09/think-pink-sunday-no-77/
http://www.niftythriftythings.com/2012/09/nifty-thrifty-sunday-74.html
http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2012/09/show-and-tell-saturday-090812.html
http://youngancrafty.blogspot.com/2012/09/free-for-all.html
http://tatertotsandjello.com/2012/09/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-shailie-starter-set-giveaway.html
http://www.shakentogetherlife.com/2012/09/whats-shakin-link-party-25.html
http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/2012/09/hy-guys-welcome-if-you-are-brand-new-to.html
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2012/09/just-something-i-whipped-up_9.html
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/2012/09/creative-bloggers-party-hop-76.html
http://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2012/09/motivate-me-monday-139.html
http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2012/09/the-sunday-showcase-no-118.html
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2012/09/10/made-by-you-monday-118/
http://blackberryvine.blogspot.com/2012/09/tuesday-to-do-78-and-77-list-makers.html
http://www.sweetlittlegals.com/2012/09/trendy-tuesday-14.html