LEGO Parts Organization Ideas

I have seen young LEGO enthusiasts (including myself back when I was a child) keeping their unused (not part of a current build) LEGO pieces in a box. Usually a tall and narrow box for some reason; the worst kind to find anything.

This setup makes it difficult to find parts unless you empty the box somewhere else. I really cared about my LEGO when I was a child (and still do) and there was a designated location at my parent's house where I could safely empty the box of parts and spread out its contents over a wide area to find parts easier (and it would be relatively easy to put the contents back in the box). Of course it helped that I did not have that many pieces. I believe that my nephews have twice (or more) the amount of LEGO pieces now than my siblings and I had when I was a child. I was at my nephews' place recently and had a difficult time finding a handful of parts to supplement one of their builds (without emptying the contents of the box and being responsible for cleaning the whole thing up when I was done), so I gave up quickly as the build was not that important anyway.

But out of this (and after noticing that the nephews simply leave their LEGO minifigs and partial builds all over the house) an idea came up to organize LEGO bricks in a way that would require little to no effort (and time commitment) in both organization and cleanup. Perfect for busy families where LEGO is only one of several activities they are into.

The multi-bag time saver approach for younger LEGO enthusiasts:

1. Search for "play mat and toy storage bag" (on Amazon, for example) to find a round play mat about 150cm (~60inches); something like this (click for bigger image):
   
   
2. Buy two (2) of these for now:
   • One mat/bag will be used for smaller pieces (less than 6-8 studs long/wide) minifigures and minifig accessories, smaller tires/wheels, etc.
   • The other mat/bag will be used for bigger pieces (ex: plates, motors, pieces longer than 6-8 studs long/wide, bigger wheels/tires).
3. Only purchase more bags if you have more pieces than the bags will allow, or if you want to get more granular (ex: medium pieces at 4-6 studs long/wide). Start with two bags and see if this is a good solution for you.
   • The bags can be used for other types of toys, so it shouldn't be a waste of money.

NOTE: Do NOT buy the official LEGO Cinch Bucket; it is way too small for this purpose.

PROS:

• Little to no cleanup needed. As long as you keep your unused pieces within the play mat area, cleanup is as simple as drawing the strings of the playmat into a bag.
• Having two of these mats (one for smaller pieces; one for bigger pieces) solves the issue of smaller pieces being harder to find because the big pieces/plates are often covering them.
• No need to spend any time organizing your pieces into colors, type, etc... unless that's your thing.
• Pieces can be spread out on the mat making them easier to spot.
• Pieces cannot "fall to the ground" (ex: from a table) because you will already be working at ground level.
• Less chance of losses of some of your smallest LEGO pieces to a vacuum cleaner, as long as you make sure all pieces are within the mat's area when you play. The mat has a bit of a lip preventing pieces from escaping for the most part.
• Easily carry your unused pieces collection wherever you want to (ex: a friend's house).

CONS:

• Your pieces will not be as organized as those YouTubers with the organization drawers, so the pieces may be slightly harder to find. But such organization requires some time commitment whenever you are disassembling sets or purchase new sets for parts only.
• Play area will be mostly on the floor (you will need a MINIMUM of 6x6 feet of floor space), instead of on a table. May simply be a matter of preference.
• Big thin baseplates (ex: anything bigger than a 16x16 baseplate) could get bent, so those will have to be stored somewhere else (probably at the same storage location as the manuals or not-yet-opened LEGO boxes?).
• A cat may mistake the "smaller part" open bag as a litter box if the pieces are small enough? An odd thing to say, but I have seen my nephew's cat standing in the one playmat they already have, and the cat was not sure what to do (may have been about to pee in the mat if it weren't for my nephew shooing the cat away).

What do YOU do Uncle Erik?

I get asked this from time to time, so despite my method being NOT a very good method (see the PROS and CONS below), I will share it, but I still recommend the 2-bag method above as a "do as I say, not as I do" sort of thing. :-)

I organize my pieces by size, color (yes, by color, I know it's not recommended) and type, as outlined below (click for bigger image):

If you are curious where I got these two bin racks on casters, I bought them at Michael's, but make sure you look at the Michael's website on your phone for a coupon barcode (that you can show to the cashier), because they ALWAYS have a coupon. Never buy anything at the regular price at that place. I usually get 40% off those overpriced, flimsy bins.

PROS:

• Inexpensive way to be organized (but never buy these at full price).
• Looks colorful in a child's bedroom.

CONS:

• The bins are a little cheap for my taste, flimsy and the rail-like part of the plastic bins themselves (not the metal rails) tend to break easily if the bins are full or overfilled like some of mine. If the bins are half-full they should last longer.
• Despite this system, each bin is rather full at the moment so I often run into the issue of bigger pieces covering up little pieces, so I have to take the bin, remove the bigger pieces, to find what I am looking for. I would have to buy more of these bins, or consider a better system.
• According to this LEGO organization video by former LEGO designer Tiago Catarino, sorting pieces *only* by color is something that should not be done, because it makes it difficult to find a specific piece (especially a small one) when it is part of a sea of other pieces of the same color. I would agree with Tiago on this one, as I have encountered this situation a number of times. ***PLEASE check out Tiago's video as it is very informative, especially regarding the nuts and bolts organizers that you see a LOT of builders on YouTube use, and for his own method of organizing LEGO, which is pretty close to what the LEGO group actually uses. My current setup never bothered me to the point of buying more bins (or spending CAD200-400 on 1-2 IKEA ALEX wide cabinet(s) on casters, and then purchasing(ex: IKEA GLIS)/making(ex:from plastic containers my grocery store still uses) compartments/trays/dividers inside the cabinet drawers) because I do not interact often enough with LEGO bricks, but if I were to do so more than a few days a year, this wasted time would add up and really bother me. Tiago really goes through some of the organization methods but never mentioned my method mentioned earlier on this page where kids can be tidy AND not have to sort bricks AND be able to find their pieces a little faster. I wonder what he would think of that.