If you have LEGO-loving kids (or husbands) you’ve probably wondered about the best ways to store and organize LEGOs… right? Well, just about a year ago, I was stuck with those same questions! Our family was given a large assortment of LEGO Duplo blocks (all for free!) and it honestly took me a few months to figure out the best kid-friendly LEGO storage system for our family.
I tried a few different ideas that did NOT work, and now I feel we finally have a really great kid-friendly system to store and organize our LEGO Duplos. The best part is that our kids actually use the system and put their LEGOs away!
Yeah, I know… it’s pretty amazing!
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My “genius” kid-friendly LEGO storage idea began last summer when the older kids requested separate bedrooms (they were previously all sleeping in the same bedroom, per their own request).
Dave and I decided the summer was a great time to switch things around, so we moved the boys into their own bedroom and bought matching beds that sit quite high off the floor.
I was adamant that the beds be up off the floor (with no middle support leg) because I wanted to utilize the area under their beds for toy storage — namely, kid-friendly LEGO and train storage!
The trains are under Simon’s bed and the LEGOs are under James’ bed (watch the full video tour of their bedroom here).
Our Kid-Friendly LEGO Storage System:
I bought a used train table on Craigslist for $30 (similar to this one). It has 2 large “drawers” on caster wheels that pull out from under the train table surface.
We completely disassembled the train table and slid the train table top under Simon’s bed, along with all our other train things.
Then we put the train table drawers under James’ bed to hold all our LEGOs.
The drawers were already on large caster wheels that glide well on the carpet and were easy enough for the boys to pull out and push back in.
We put 2 black shoe boxes inside one of the drawers to hold smaller items like people, animals, and odd parts… but the majority of our LEGOs are simply dumped into these drawers and shoved back under the bed.
No cute or fancy organizational system, but the LEGOs are picked up and off the floor at the end of every day!
Yes, I realize this isn’t a Pinterest-worthy organizational post.
HOWEVER, if you’re looking for a simple, frugal, real-life, kid-friendly storage solution for LEGOs (or other small toys in your home) I highly recommend under-bed storage drawers. And you don’t need anything fancy either — just something large enough to hold the toys, small enough that kids can manage it, not so deep that toys get lost at the bottom.
There is no sorting, no color-coordination, no meticulous detail work (none of which my children would actually do right now).
They just dump everything into the drawers and shove them back under the bed… and their room looks clean!
I know our system will need to change as we amass more LEGOs and as we “graduate” to the tiny LEGOs with intricate sets that need to be stored together. However, our current kid-friendly LEGO storage system works for us for now… and I hope it might work for some of you too!
NOTE: We do have some very small LEGOs from Dave’s childhood. He has them organized by set and only lets the kids play with them when he’s around. 🙂
Do you have a great kid-friendly LEGO storage solution?
I’d love to know how you store them at your house!
Jude says
I’ve been a “fan” of yours for years & love your emails & links. Our 2 boys, now both in their 40s, loved Legos & now the 2 youngest grandsons love our mega amount of Legos, too. I store them in 1 large full clear tub with a cover in a closet. Works great for us.
Andrea says
Thanks so much Jude!
And yes, we anticipate that our LEGOs will be around for a while. Dave still actually has several of his childhood sets too!
Jude says
Legos are like Tupperware! They almost last forever.
Andrea says
haha — true, but do they have the lifetime guarantee for replacement if they break 🙂
Jeanine Waal says
I just wanted to let you know that our 21 year old grandson was married last week, and their reception was decorated with legos at the tables where people sat. They had 2 small metal tubs of legos sitting on each table for the children, and several adults, to use their imagination in building something. It was quite amazing. He and his wife both enjoy legos. They even made flowers out of the legos to place on the tables. It was really nice. They melted old crayons and made lego shaped crayons for kids to color on the brown paper on the tables. So, you may have legos in your life for a long time! It was really neat.
Andrea says
This is such a fun idea! Thanks for sharing, Jeanine! Maybe someone else will read it and be able to use it for their wedding or upcoming party 🙂
Jeanine says
You are welcome. Since we were just at his wedding last week, it was all fresh in my mind. I guess you can’t take the kid out of an adult!
Kate says
My kids like to build things and keep them together. They keep adding to it and playing with their creation for days/weeks. We have an old coffee table in our playroom that is the “Lego table.” They are off the floor so I can vacuum. 🙂 Over time when it seems like there are just too many out, we break them apart and store them in the shoebox size plastic bins by color. That way, if they do ever want to rebuild one of their sets, they can find the pieces easier. (These are the smaller Legos- I miss the Duplos!)
Andrea says
yes the Duplos are nice and big — easier to “find” if they get dropped! The boys have a table in their room that usually has their various LEGO creations on it too:)
Karen says
Very impressive! I especially love the wheels on the boxes!
Our son (now 34) LOVED his leggos and we kept them in two big “Christmas popcorn” tins and always spread a big ol sheet out for easy pickup and pour back into the tins. I still have them! And he has 2 boys 8 months and 22 months! I can’t wait to pull them out!
Andrea says
yes, the wheels make the system much more doable for our kids — otherwise they wouldn’t be able to pull the bins out and push them back again 🙂
Christine Meurer says
I can’t believe Dave’s sets are still all separated out! That’s impressive! I’m such a mean mom – as soon as they’ve had a set for a few months, i dump it all together in the big bin! Haha!
Andrea says
yes, he separated them all out 3 years ago and now just lets the kids play with one set at a time 🙂
Thuong K Nguyen says
Andrea, I found a train table and will try your system. My son loves LEGO and race track, Hope this will keep them contained. Thanks for the tip!!
Andrea says
oh good — glad to offer some helpful ideas!
Suzanne Shirley says
I love your storage idea! What a great solution! I’ve found that the storage has to be shallow or it doesn’t work for my son. He’s older – 8 years old, and I found the Sterilite shallow drawers work pretty well. They are generally organized by type like people, “little bits”, bricks, small flats, large flats, car parts, etc. This way he can dig around in the general category. I have yet to discover how to best store finished pieces or works in progress since he doesn’t want to disassemble those each day, but that category keeps growing! Thanks for all the great ideas you share! Of all the blogs and people I follow, yours has to one of the first and one I still go back to again and again!
Andrea says
sounds like a good system! Glad you found something that works for you!
Amy says
Well, I disagree! I think these are cute storage solutions and completely Pinterest worthy!
Andrea says
haha — thanks 🙂
Janene says
My son loves to put the sets back to together over and over. I put each set with the instructions in a gallon or 2.5 gallon zip lock bag depending on the size of the set. Then they all go into a large tote. Then he can find them. There have been summer days he would put together multiple sets. They stay out for a while then back to the ziplock bags. Frugal and keeps things together.
Andrea says
That’s awesome! our kids have not reached the point where they like building “sets” and since we’ve gotten all our LEGOs used so far, we don’t actually have that many sets. But I’ll keep this idea in mind for the future if we ever get any full sets!
Christina says
Our system is essentially the same. I buy the Sterlite Underbed storage containers and use them for our wooden blocks, duplos, magnatiles, and trains. They all slide under the kids’ beds. It is the easiest system I have found for storing their toys.
Andrea says
yup, those are great storage containers!
Erin says
My kids are older but my husband also had some old Legos from his childhood. My kids don’t ever seem to want to rebuild the same sets over and over so I don’t worry about keeping sets together. However, saying that I initially kept the Legos in a low trunk. After playing with the kids myself I realized how frustrating it was always digging for certain pieces. Now I have the Ikea drawers and Legos are organized by color. It is so much easier to find the right piece. One of the drawers holds all the instruction pamphlets for sets in case they want to build a previous set ( I don’t think they ever have though). Another drawer holds the boards and another holds the mini figures and assessories. We have used this system now for around 6 years and they still put away the Legos in the correct color bins everytime. May be a little fussy for some but cuts down on the frustration of digging for the perfect piece.
Andrea says
Thanks Erin
I DO think that once we graduate to the tiny LEGOs we will need to have some sort of color-coded storage system in order to make it less frustrating. For now, I’m loving just being able to dump everything into one bin. But the kids are already asking for the tiny LEGOs so I know those days are coming! in a couple more years, I’ll be back sharing how we organize our tiny LEGOs!
Johanna Wäster Hägg says
Don’t sort by color! It’s cute, but completely impractical! The best way is to sort by brick size. Then, if you need a red two-by-two, you check the two-by-two box, and the red stands right out. (I learned this the hard way, by first color-sorting like 400 lbs of legos, and then having to re-do all of it… We keep ours stored in this Ikea-solution: https://www.ikea.com/se/sv/p/trofast-stomme-vit-80153800/
Erin says
Hmm we’ve used the same trovast system sorted by color for 6 years now. My 10 and 6 yo still play daily. I can’t imagine sorting my brick type. I think we would have over a 100 different types with all of our Star wars, lego city, and Lego friends blocks. I think we have over a 100 Lego sets.
Johanna Wäster Hägg says
We’re the same, three lego-loving kids, a lego-loving husband and me, and OMG, the special pieces… But we just dump “special pieces” together, works like a charm.
Andrea says
haha — the special pieces get me every time too! SO MANY PIECES!
Andrea says
this is something I’ve never thought of before — but I can see how it would work well. Thanks for sharing!
Linda Tenhage says
I wish I had been better at this when my kids were first receiving Lego sets! If I could start over now I would put the instructions for each set in a plastic sleeve in a binder. Then each set would go in its separate container. Now the instructions are mostly lost, and the sets are all mixed together. It seems like a shame. The only benefit to what we have now is that they have to use their imagination to build things – and that’s great too!
Andrea says
yes, just think of how much more creative your kids were 🙂
Nicole says
I sorted all of my sister‘s and my LEGO sets of our childhood a couple of years ago and I could find most of the instructions online if I sort of guessed the correct year they came out
Andrea says
this is awesome! Dave did this with all his sibling’s LEGO’s 3 years ago — he gave them their completed sets for Christmas and they were all SO excited!
Erika says
My kids are too young for Lego but love the large MegaBlocks! Right now it is all kept in a large laundry basket in their playroom. They actually love tossing the pieces back in during clean-up! Works great for us right now!
Andrea says
yup — that was us a couple of years ago! the laundry basket worked great here too! 🙂
Julia says
I love storage that encourages kids to put toys away :). And totally not the point of your post, but I noticed a little table in the “Dave legos” picture and wondered the approx dimensions (and if you like that size) I’m considering having a kids table be the “big” gift this Christmas and since your two youngest and my two are the same age, am hoping it’d work for us too!
Andrea says
hey Julia,
Yes, that was a cut “Little Tikes” wooden table and chairs we had for several years and LOVED.
We sold it last year as we “outgrew” it — but if were just for 2 little kids, it would probably be sufficient!
here’s a link to the same style set — just a different brand