Corralling King-sized Lego Collections

Dear Lissy,
We've got a full week ahead of us, so my letters this week will focus on those "aha!" tips that make a huge difference for me.  You and your brothers received umpty-bazillion Legos as gifts and hand-me-downs during your childhood.  None of you had the desire to build a set more than once, so we had a Rubbermaid flip-top trunk that all the Legos lived in.

For more of Sawaya's art, go to www.brickartist.com

Dumping all of the Legos into one giant Rubbermaid tote (or 3-4 smaller ones) makes individual Lego bricks extremely difficult to locate and frustrating for your children.  We didn't have the money to buy or the discipline to maintain the color-coded Lego table and bucket systems, either.

My friend Pam shared an ingenious solution that has worked wonderfully for us for years.

Line a flip-top tote large enough to hold all of your Legos easily with a King-sized fitted bed sheet.  


When the child wants to play, they pull out the entire sheet-wrapped bundle of Legos, and open the sheet out in their play area.  The legos are in a pile only 1 or 2 deep in the center of the sheet, and very easy to find.  There is plenty of building/sorting space around the edges and the corners.  When it's time to pick up, they (or you, if they're little) gather the edgest, place the entire bundle of Legos back into the trunk, and shut the lid.  Easy-peasy!

Any pieces your children want to keep separate (pink Legos, minifigs, light bricks, wheels, gears, etc). are stored in a clear zipper bag that bed linens come in, and kept in the big tote.

Building a masterpiece,
Momma