For The Love Of Lego
Tags:Legos are to Simon like scrapbooking is to me. Life.
They are often his activity of choice. He checks out Lego.com for updates, watches Lego videos online, gets the free magazine in the mail, and always wants to visit the Lego aisle at Target.
He goes through phases of interest between the different themes but mainly it's been Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lego City, and now, of course, it's all Harry Potter (that's big on his Christmas list).
When we moved a few months back, packing up the legos and deciding how to organize them took some time. I decided to buy a bunch more plastic drawers in two sizes. With the help of a couple neighbor girls we broke down most of the ships (previously sitting on a large metal shelf in his room) and separated each set into it's own drawer. It was quite an adventure.
After we broke down the sets to fit in the drawers there were still lots of pieces not belonging to any particular set so for those we separated the remaining parts by color.
For his new room in this house we set up two Ikea tables along one wall to create a desk area (these were previously under his loft bed in the other house). At some point he might do his homework here but for now that happens at the kitchen table and this set-up is really mainly for play.
On top of those desks are XL lego baseplates. I'm thinking I might adhere those to the table but for now he can move them around if he wants.
His bedroom has a pretty big closet that already contained built-in shelves. Amazingly those shelves seem like they were built just for those plastic storage containers.
Another thing you might see in the photo that we use are cookie sheets. Cookie sheets have been great for keeping all the pieces together if he wants to move from the dining room to his bedroom.
He's often got a little pile or two or three with drawers pulled out and people being prepared for battle.
Simon's very much a direction follower and doesn't have much interest in making up new ships or places. He follows the written instructions precisely and wants each item to be built just like he sees on the box and in the directions. It's so cool to watch him put one of these sets together.
We keep the instructions for each set in a couple large binders (each set of directions is inside a page protector). This set up has worked pretty good. He goes back to the notebooks when a set breaks apart or he wants to rebuild something. This is also a reason that separating the extra parts by color has worked so great for him - it's easy for him to identify what he needs in the book and then go to the matching color drawer.
Still on my list to do is print out small images of each set to adhere to the front of the drawers to help identify the contents.
I think he's pretty happy in his new room.
Lego, we love you. Thanks for being a part of our lives.
And Simon, I hope Santa brings you that Hogwarts Castle set. It looks so cool!
I asked Simon if he wanted me to capture him explaining what he was playing last night and he got excited. Here's Simon, in his own words:
Simon Edwards: Lego Harry Potter Quidditch Explanation from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.






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257 comments
I have a closet like that at home - but it belongs to my husband!!!! He's 27 and still in love with legos. We need to have a little boy someday so he has someone to play with :) I love the vidoe of Simon! Thanks for sharing!
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Great video Simon---Maybe you would do some more for us to enjoy!
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Thanks for the video! That brought back such great memories. My oldest (now 17) was HUGE into Legos and Harry Potter. The first book came out when he was in kindergarden and I read it to him. Then Legos jumped on the HP bandwagon a couple of years later and that was a marriage made in heaven for my then 2nd grader. I loved hearing him chatter on and on in his room about what Harry and Co were doing. Simon was so sweet and I loved his description of the match right down to the score and Ron Wood. Fabulous!
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ahhh..Legos. They are such a part of my son's growing up years. It took years before I quit finding them hidden in corners. Even now I will sometimes see a special Lego set and will get it for him. He smiles and puts it together and that makes me happy.
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So cool to get to hear Simon's voice, after so many years! Thanks for sharing! We use a lot of Dycem (google it to get an idea of what it looks like :) under toys on the tables at school to keep them from slipping (or you could use non-slip rug liners) - if you're looking for an alternative to adhering the lego bases to the table. Could do the trick! :)
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Love using large cookie sheets for playing with playdough .Makes clean up so easy :)
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Great post! I love to read your suggestions for storing Legos.. great ideas! Thank you for sharing the video of your Simon. I love how much he loves Harry Potter & Legos.... it's awesome!
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Thanks for sharing. My son recently got into lego too, and that is all he wants for Christmas. I've been using the clear plastic shoe boxes with lids to store his lego (I find it amazing how the boxes are so big, but when you pull out the pieces, they really don't take out much room. He likes to mix things up, so I haven't worried about sorting by colour or set, but I am looking for a good place to store the instruction books so that if he wants to go back to them to make the intial item he can. Thanks for the great idea.
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You are so organized!!!!! Love it!!!! The video is priceless :)
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Oh, how I envy that system-- and a boy who would follow it. Mine has eight or ten bins of pieces, but can never be convinced to use them at a table-- they MUST be on the floor. And cleaning up each time he builds is a ridicule idea, as far as he's concerned! However, the amount of creativity and joy they bring him outweigh the mess.
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Mary Kay - Your son and mine a two peas in a pod. Organize by color? Organize by shape? Pick up the legos? Create some place other than right in the middle of where people are? Why would I want to do any of that? And don't move my lego stuff! I'm still playing with it! ("Still" being a measure of time with out end all at the descretion of the player). But I must say, he makes some fabulous creations and the stories that go with them are intriguing.
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He is the cutest kid EVER!!
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i completely agree.
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My son is also a Lego fanatic! He still gets a lego set every year for Christmas and he will turn 20 in January! We have them all stored in drawer units ( not quite as orginized as yours) and have every instruction manual. I am very thankful to Lego for the many peaceful hours they gave me. Glad to hear so many others love them too.
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This is the same story at our house right now..both my hooligans have lost their minds over Lego Harry Potter. I just wish their room and Lego pieces were as organized as Sweet Simon's....
Santa has a few sets coming their way and I'm scrambling to get figure out where they're going to set the sets up...
I can a quote from the movie "Jaws"
"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat!"
xoxo
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thanks to all who are posting storage ideas. We are going through this in my household as well! We don't have a walk-in closet for storage, so all the different ideas help.
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In our last house I had just started using the drawers and they sat on a metal shelf in his room - that worked well.
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Thank you for this post. I usually stay back and read blogs but your post really got me to post a comment. We also love Legos. Our 5 yr old twins (a boy and girl) are so into these and we've accumulated so many Duplo ones, couldn't stop indulging the kids with these and I think part of it is because both me and my husband never had them growing up. My husband even wanted to buy the twins Legos when they were born!
I'm so in awe of how you have managed to organize and tame the tiny Lego pieces. We are debating about switching to the smaller pieces as we are running out of space (one huge plastic tub is almost overflowing). My son is into the Star Wars ones. And my daughter is into the Duplo ones.
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Just wanted to say thanks for commenting :). Anna has her own Duplo collection too - it's starting to grow as she gets more interested :).
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Simon is precious! The love of legos can last long past childhood. My stepson and his wife made little Lego 'bride and groom' figures for the top of their wedding cake! It was the talk of the reception.
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My grandson (age 5) has recently discovered the joys of the Lego world. We have just begun collecting set for him to enjoy when he and our other grand kids visit but Mr 5 year old is the most enamoured with them and will spend hours with his Poppy and I building. I love your organizing ideas here and my sweet grandson loved watching Simon's video.. We had to watch it twice.. Thanks for sharing Ali..
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Ali, thank you so much for sharing Simon's legos! Our world revolves around legos as well. Our son has ADHD and the legos sooth him. He plays with them constantly and he also carries his lego magazine everywhere. He's hoping for some Harry Potter lego sets this Christmas as well! Thank you so much for sharing your organization! I have been racking my brain trying to figure it all out for Jackson! Your video of Simon was just beautiful!
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What a cutie pie! I love that he's so passionate about his Legos. We love Lego's too. Great tips on how to organize them. I love the binder idea. Thanks for sharing this snippet of Simon.
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My son and I built Hogwarts this weekend - it was fantastic fun! Hope Simon gets to enjoy it this Christmas!
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