Thursday, June 2, 2011

De-cluttering the legos


*Be sure to enter my Lamplighter book giveaway!!!!*

I try to stay out of the "play room" at our house these days. It really is just a storage area for games and a big space for playing with legos. It was getting out of hand though, and I just could not avoid it much longer with a move coming up. Either I would have to deal with it now, or the movers would throw the whole mess in boxes and I'd get to deal with a bigger mess on the other end.
So...

About two weeks ago I made my proposal to my kids. "The legos are getting out of hand. You are having a hard time keeping them cleaned up, organized, and even just playing with them. How about we go through them, pick the ones you really like and then get rid of the rest?" I proposed we use one of those plastic towers of drawers, each older kid would get one drawer, and the bottom one would be for "classic" or "normal" legos that I pulled out after they had each picked what they wanted. I expected to do some negotiating, but things must have really been bad (even to kids), because I did not hear one bit of arguing. In fact a smile came across the face of my biggest lego fan, he thought it was a great idea!

We spent little bits of time over the last two weeks sorting legos. Ahhh....

The room looks so much better!

I still have to go through these. I think we all got tired of the process at the end, so even the "classic" legos I wanted to pull out started getting dumped into the "get rid of bin".

I think we are going to e-bay most of these though. The kids are excited to get some spending money (NOT for more legos!). We are all excited to have the legos much more manageable! The new rule for getting more legos.... Does it fit in your drawer? We all know the boundaries, and this should be easy to maintain.

*I'm linking up to Organizing Junkie*

7 comments:

  1. Wow! Our Legos are out of control too! Love your post! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  2. We aren't there yet with the Legos...but I can only imagine how out of control they can get! Thanks for the ideas, I will keep them in mind! :)

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  3. AHHH, I LOVE The idea of selling the Legos on Ebay! Our house is overrun with them and my boys might be willing to let some go if they can make some money!

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  4. OOh this looks great!

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  5. If you're looking to send your legos to a new home, please consider donating them. Our little library is trying to start a monthly Lego night and is requesting donations. You can view the post here - http://cutlerlibrary.blogspot.com/search?q=looking+for+legos. Check your local schools, libraries, and youth groups as they may be in a similar situation.

    Thanks!

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  6. We have separated the legos by color. We use stackable bins labeled with a color. We've been doing this for years and it really encourages the kids to keep things organized.

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  7. Our 10 yr old (aka The Lego King) is obsessed with Legos. so much so that he's decided he wants to be a Lego Designer when he grows up (if not, he says he'll settle for architect). Anyhow, we've tried the stacking bins, totes, the under the bed bin, a blocked off 'cubby' area in his room (complete with rubber-puzzle-mats)... currently we have a plastic swimming pool in his room. He can dig through it without spreading them all over. The room looks great! Wish I could say the same for The Lego King's... lol

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