Lego Meets Lack

By Kate Riley February 20, 2013

Fellow parents, I have been to hell and back and it’s not a happy place. It’s what is known as Operation Lego Organization and it is torturous but I will say if you survive and come out on the other end, bright golden rays from the heavens shine down upon you and life resumes very pleasantly as it once was. 

My son is an average 7 year old boy – utterly and completely addicted to toy Legos. However, I prefer to live in a bubble and label his many hours spent building them as “future engineer slash architect”.

Over the past 18 months they’ve become a genuine nuisance in our home, so as I was browsing IKEA’s website I happened to notice the dimensions of their $30 Lack coffee table (with shelf!) measured 30 inches across and then I recalled that the road plates my son has been begging me for since autumn were 10 square inches each and then I did the math in my head and realized I could combine the two into an organized play table that would satisfy his desperate need for an airport/racetrack and my need for affordable organization. 

Lego meet Lack, Lack meet Lego, so nice you’ve finally met.

lego meets lack table

 

The road plates were on backorder for many months but they finally arrived last week so we took the school holiday on Monday to pull it all together which included organizing the Legos into plastic bins that would fit on the shelf and underneath the play table.

 

lego play table with storage

 

table + 2 sets curved road plates + 2 sets crossroad plates + bins from Target

 

I must say having spent the cash on these plates, my son loves how he can rearrange them into a racetrack or airport runway as he pleases and what I’ve spent in Lego plates I’ve regained in free babysitting since this is the one place where he wants to quietly spend his hours – in Legovillemania. 

gray road plates

 

To stabilize the road plates, all it takes are some small pieces of this stuff in the four corners to hold them in place until your little guy wants to shift them around into a new formation.

mounting putty

 

To tackle the disaster of piles of unorganized pieces I enlisted the owner of the Legos to help. My theory is if he suffers alongside with me he’ll value the organization and there is hope those little pieces will stay that way a little bit longer. :)

boy and legos

 

The free pieces all got assorted into four main bins: 1) green and blue; 2) black, gray, brown, and wheels; 3) red, orange, and yellow; and 4) white and tan.

by color

 

Then there were the partially constructed contraptions. I have no idea what this is.  Jango Fett’s Destroyer? Ninjago Warrior Interceptor? 

partially constructed

 

It’s one of many I just ended up assorting in their own personal bin – no sense breaking them down with all the energy that went into their assembly so they ended up in the halfway assembled “needs work” tub.

All Legos come with their own colorfully illustrated books which allow even children who can’t read yet to assemble them (ingenious) and I’ve kept them all so they get their own bin so if he wants to reconstruct them he can. 

bin with books

 

And the Jack Sparrows and Stormtroopers and Ninjago warriors and all their comrades and weapons got their own skinnier tub too.

lego dudes

 

The bigger pieces aren’t that bad. It’s these tiny corner pieces that are deadly to any parent’s foot. I know because mine have suffered the pain of stepping on them on a few occasions in the middle of the night.

small corner pieces

 

But in the end it was all stored away in bins for ready-to-go play time.

lego lack table

 

It’s funny, whenever I take the time to reorganize the toys, all of a sudden they are rediscovered again – it’s always been that way since they were little.

playing legos

 

And how nice that all the madness is contained within 30 square inches – which is pretty much a mother’s dream – let’s hope it lasts.

So fellow parents and grandparents, commiserate with me. How do corral and organize the Legos in your household?

 

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156 comments

  1. What a great idea! I’ve been storing the Lego sets (with instruction book) in large zip lock bags and then in IKEA Expedit shelves. The problem with that is the boys never play with them again because they don’t see them.

  2. My son loves Lego to, we use Ikea boxes with internal separators. We divide them by size or use, not color: for example the bigger bricks stay all together stacked one on another of same size, tiled-roof pieces, smaller pieces and finally tiny corner pieces together with little figures. Instructions have their own box. All boxes stay on an expedit shelf.

  3. So adorable and functional and fun! I was giddy about this post and of course you didn’t disappoint! I wanted to cry at points in our Lego organizing process {OK, not really, but it was a bit torturous}, but it was so worth it in the end.

    xo!
    Jen

  4. Love it! My son is 5 1/2 and he’s just started down the Lego path and I see that this is going to get out-of-hand very, very quickly. This is a great idea and would work perfectly in our basement playroom… great idea. Thanks!

  5. Your Lack Lego table looks great!

    After several failed attempts at Lego organization, involving either color or shape sorting, we abandoned the idea altogether. My husband and I were spending way too much time “encouraging” our son to clean up his Legos, only to have to spend time ourselves trying to maintain the sorting system when they didn’t get put away. I finally resorted to 2 long, shallow plastic underbed boxes with hinged lids. He just slides them out to play and when he’s done everything gets tossed back in the boxes and tucked away. Quick and easy! And he loves being able to see and dig around in all his Legos in the shallow space. There’s nothing like the sound of a boy digging around in a bunch of Legos! He’s 10 and after 5 years of struggling with how/where to keep Legos this is by far the best solution for us!

  6. Great idea Kate! I love this one. My son loved Legos when he was little. Incidently, I am now the proud mother of an Electrical Engineer so hang in there!!!

  7. Both my kids (a son and a daughter) looooove lego. I found that sorting by colour doesn’t last too long unless I want to make it my own regular activity. To organize, we store all the loose pieces in 2 large drawers of our credenza-come-entertainment centre.
    I modified a long 9 drawer midcentury dresser into a media/video gaming/tv stand. The drawers/doors that don’t contain electronics house board games, video games and 2 drawers at the bottom store lego.
    The lego creations they build on the base plates slide neatly under the credenza, ready for action later, without cluttering up the floor.
    This has been my most successful solution to date- the kids don’t want to play alone in their rooms, so having lego in the family room where everyone sits makes it work.

  8. Love this idea! Totally going to do this for my son. I need lego organization in our home, and We’ve stepped on enough little pieces to know real pain :). Would you mind sharing the model numbers on those lego plates? Thanks.

    • I linked to the road plates in the post Mel, they’re under that second image of the plain table and road plates.

  9. This is magical. We are lego crazy at our house which is presently ruled by the mini-figures.
    We keep all of our instructional booklets in a binder and the kids love to go through them. We also have the Legos sorted by color. Like many commenters have mentioned, for the younger lego enthusiast it becomes a mommy job. I love a good makeover post, but this post makes my heart sing.

  10. FABULOUS TABLE!!!!!
    We aren’t quite at the Lego stage with a two year old but it seems that the books and cars are OUT. OF. CONTROL. We bought a Brio train table which isn’t too much bigger than the Lack table and try to confine all the cars / trains there but it’s still a glorious moment at the end of the night when I can put them all away and see the floor again and not feel like the coffee table as Matchbox or Fisher Price cars all over it. His books were becoming out of control so I organized them like this (http://www.migonishome.com/2013/01/radio-flyer-library.html); he loves being able to see them all and it has helped keep him busy in his room while I blow dry my hair or whatever. :) I’m just waiting for the Lego bomb to hit our house…

  11. Love it! Going to try and incorporate this idea into the kid’s space in the basement!

  12. My girls are 7 and 4, and thankfully, we do not yet know the joy of stepping on legos in our house. Wooden building blocks are another story. They fit in a dish pan under the dresser (on the rare occasions when they are put away).

  13. Love this idea, especially the Lack table and a place to store the crates. My kids’ Lego has lived in a plastic crate for many years. Inside the crate is a large circular cloth with eyelet holes all around the edge and a cord threaded through. It lifts out, opens out flat on the floor so all the bits can be spread out a bit and at the end of the play, all the bits can be swept by hand back on to the cloth, the cord pulled up and the whole thing dropped into the crate- really easy and practical. My Lego mad son grew up into an Engineer (civil) also!

  14. As a side note, I really like the dresser in the room and looks similar to the post from a few days ago. Was that another DIY?

    • Hi Chetna, that dresser was a project from a few years ago, the IKEA Hemnes dresser with the drawers given some fun blue box shaped trim with paint!

  15. Oh the Legos and creations we have in my house too! I go back and forth like you, with thinking his creations are genius and wanting to scoop it all up in a trash bag. Lol! I’ve tried a lot of things through the years (he is 8) he now gets the sets that cost way too much and ha a few thousand pieces. Ridiculous to store! My youngest (2) gets into them too… And you know how that turns out! Right now we have all Legos in an ottoman in my sons room which doubles as a nice reading spot w some pillows. It’s a big place for him to dig through.. Because isn’t it funny how they know exactly what one piece they need?! I will keep this in mind though… I love the idea! It would be good as an art table too :)

  16. Pure genius! I wish I had the space for something like this. I have been struggling with Lego containment lately. My biggest problem is that the Legos of today all come in kits that build something very specific (especially the Lego Friends line for girls), so once my girls build the house or horse stable, etc. they don’t want to take it apart, so I have all these built structures with no good way of storing them out of sight when not in use! I miss the Lego sets of my youth that were more “general purpose” and encouraged real imagination!

  17. We did the same thing with my son’s legos a few months back. He got over playing Thomas trains and got so interested in Legos that we converted his train table into a lego table. My hubster bought (I believe) 12 lego mats and glued them on top of the table. As for those pesky wee lego parts I used those ikea skubb storage boxes and stored them in the trundle under the table.

  18. Looks fantastic. Too small, though! My guy is 13 and has his creations set up all over the room. He says my allowance of 4 plates by 8 plates worth of floor space is too restrictive!

  19. I would just like to thank you for getting me inspired with Ikea furniture! You are reminding me that you can really create great, functional and stylish pieces with affordable furniture. Thank you!!

  20. Kate, I recently saw an AMAZING Lego lamp on an HGTV decorating show…. It was a beautiful Orange/red classic shape and absolutely a work of art. I guess Legos aren’t just for kids…

  21. this is so cool Kate! love it! My kids legos are still in boxes, I should probably do the same as you did. ;-)

  22. Pure brilliance. I want to do this right now, and our baby isn’t even close to Lego-playing age! My husband is obsessed with Legos, and this post would have him drooling. I’m going to pin this and hope I don’t forget about it by the time comes for our baby to play with Legos!

  23. you’re amazing. i just want you to know that. i absolutely love reading your blog posts and could spend hours on your blog if i had the time.

    i love this post. and i don’t even have kids.

  24. I love this table. I wish my son’s room was big enough for another piece of furniture like this. We organize the Legos in those plastic drawers you see at Target, Walmart, etc. The overflow goes into bins like yours. However, my son believes the Lego sets that are built deserve to be seen so his entire room is decorated in Lego sets – Star Wars, Ninjago, Hero, etc. And he keeps running out of shelf space. I like you also consider it training for his engineer/architect degree.

  25. I have been to hell and back way to many times dealing with Legos. I love them and hate them. One day I dumped out all the lego bins and started sorthing them out. My boys walked in and looked at me with fright on their faces and said, “I am not cleaning this up.” Well, they sure were happy to have nice neat Legos but it did not last for long. You have a great idea here. My boys are older now well into their teens and still do not want to get rid of their Legos. I will attempt again to organize them (big sigh).

  26. This is my life story! I have 3 lego obsessed boys under 10! for years I have tried and tried and tried again to come up with solutions for smart storage. I have an old ikea coffee table that I’ve been saving to reuse and this post has inspired me to finally do it, thank you! I love your blog so much, xoxoxo

  27. I did this with the small lack table, but yours is so much better! I am almost ready to make another trip to Ikea. (I have to work my-self up to go out there it is such an ordeal!!!) We are down to our last bag of meatballs, so I am sure we will be going soon.
    ~Jamie

  28. We also suffer from Lego addiction in our house. I have three boys. Not everyone could do this but we turned a large walk in closet in my oldest son’s room into The Lego Room. It is completely organized thanks to Ikea. We have an Ikea Vika Adils table to build on and the legos are organized in the Trofast unit, using all small green bins, labeled such as yours. We have bins for the instructions, bins for people and weapons; bins for specific projects, etc. It has made a huge difference and I can actually enjoy that they are all in one place! Thanks for this additional idea.

  29. Wonderful idea – we used a plastic drawer system when my son was young but I love the Lack table idea. My son grew up to be a chemical engineer so maybe playing with all those Legos builds engineering skills!

  30. Lack and LEGO look like a good combo to me! Good for you–those base plates fit just perfectly on the tabletop, and what fun he’ll have with that play surface!

    Unfortunately, there are no storage options adequate to the task of storing all the LEGO bricks in this house. We’ve been buying LEGO sets for 17 years, though! I tell people that we live in LEGOland North Carolina. That’s not much of an exaggeration.

    If your son ever wants to know more about a particular set, he might be interested in my 15-year-old son’s YouTube channel. My Lee is known as “LegoLee329.” He creates videos of reviews of LEGO sets, showing the features of the sets and giving his opinion on how much fun they are to build, playability, etc. Considering that many LEGO sets are very expensive now, it’s really nice to learn a little more about a set before making a purchase. If you’re interested, you can read all about it here: http://www.impartinggrace.com/2012/06/tip-free-service-for-parents-of-lego.html .

    Here’s to lots of fun hours for your future engineer/architect! :)

    • Oh wow Richella, I’ll check it out, your son must know his stuff! We bought the Millenium Falcon for my boy for his birthday last year, it took him four days to build it but he loved it and we put that one up on a shelf so the pieces didn’t get all mixed in…. Matt is going to build him a small platform for it to hang from the ceiling – like a floating space port. :)

  31. This is fantastic!!! We’re not at the Lego stage yet with our little one, but I’ll keep this for future reference. Do you mind if I Pin it?? I’d actually love to show this to my sister, who’s son is 9 and obsessed with Legos!

  32. We bought my nephew a large bin that would fit under a bed. He doesn’t have as many legos as you guys do, but I like that it corrals the loose legos and there is enough room for his semi finished projects on top. Last Christmases he got mostly legos, so we bought the bin and just tied a ribbon around it and put it under the tree. All Christmas Eve and morning he was just incredulous that we would be giving someone such a lame-o gift as a plastic storage bin, only to discover it was for him! So we had the last laugh. For his very precious Yoda legoman, I made a draw string felt bag to keep him in.

  33. Fantastic idea! (as usual) I bought my son a bookshelf with the 9 individual squares in white – then added red and blue bins to sort the legos – similar to the way you did. Although I like your way better!

    PS – Stepping on legos could be used as a torture method. I have tiny, painful bruises on my feet from stepping on so many sharp points! :)

  34. I love this! I grew up with 3 lego loving brothers and those suckers were everywhere all the time!! I’m sure I’ll be making one of these when my 1 year old moves up from mega blocks and duplo to lego in a few years. ;) Did you know they make girl legos now? I would have LOVED them when I was little! I kind of want to play with them now…

  35. I am inspired! I will add that to the ‘IKEA List’. We have to travel at least 5 hours to get to one but it’s worth it every time! Thanks for sharing ;o)

  36. Wow, this is great! I’m sure your son (and daughter) love it! The boys I nanny are crazyyyyy about Legos (although they’ve recently been somewhat replaced by Skylanders), but their parents store all the Legos in two rolling bins under their bunk beds, and I think they forget to play with them. After they get a new one and build it, it sits around for a while, then it’s disassembled and put under the bed, never to be seen again. They would LOVE something like this!

  37. Kate. You are a genius. And IKEA saves the day yet again. :) Seems like most boys these days go through a Lego addiction at some point. I have a girl now, but may have a boy one day, and if I do, I shall remember your solution!

  38. Ding,ding,ding…we have a winner! Kate the genius wins again. We so need this at our house. My 9yr old grandson has a bazillion Legos that he keeps here. I’m especially excited that Ikea offers the Lack table by mail. The nearest Ikea is almost 200 miles away. Can I trade one of our MANY Target stores for just one Ikea in my area? lol.
    Love the blog Kate…you are the best.

    • Aw too kind Viki, enjoy, it’s an easy table to put together and it’s perfect for those plates and bins. :)

  39. How awesome is it that the tiles fit the table perfectly?! I love when things just fall into place like that. My kids used to be the same way about toys. They noticed them when you reorganized them or were getting ready to donate them. Sadly, my boys stopped playing with toys even though my youngest ones are 5 and 7. I offered to buy my youngest any toy he wanted at Target and he called them boring. Ahhh!

  40. We don’t have a lot of Lego around here (yet) but even I can see the genius in your solution. Bravo Kate! Hope you enjoy stepping around fearlessly at night now without the threat of tiny Legos stabbing your foot.

  41. My girls are teens now, but still play with their Lego. Much of their Lego was mine and my husband’s when we were kids, but probably just as much has been gifted to them over the many years of Christmases and birthdays.

    We have always kept it all in wide flat “under bed” style plastic containers with lids so that it is all spread out and easy to find the pieces that they are looking for. The containers it is currently stored in (the old ones eventually broke) are from IKEA: http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/80206318/#/00130129

    We have also kept all of the instructions plus the old ones from when we were kids, along with a much loved Legoland story/idea book I had when I was a kid: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6000_LEGOLAND_Idea_Book We keep the instructions and book in a separate container.

  42. For any parents whose kids might enjoy the Legoland book, I found another site that has scans of the entire book (out of print, so probably not a copyright issue anymore).

    It is super fun to look at, there are no words but tons of instructions for building various things plus lots of ideas for the items that don’t have instructions:

    http://www.peeron.com/cgi-bin/invcgis/scans/6000-1/?ct=1

  43. Just so you know….you wont have to think of another Birthday or Christmas gift for at least ten years (or more). My “boys” are now 27 and 30 and still LOVE to play with Lego’s with their cousins kids, especially when the holidays roll around, and the little ones have new sets, and need “help”. Another generation of Lego lovers! We spent an entire summer sorting thousands of Lego’s, (by size) all for naught, they are now in Rubbermaid tubs. …I wont get rid of them, because some day, there will be grandkids, and I am prepared!

  44. This post brings back many happy memories. My son is now 31yo but his stash of Lego is still in his old room in our house for the next generation (hopefully….). When he was still little, I resorted to enlisting Grandad’s skills in a bespoke chest for all the pieces. This sounds a lot fancier than it actually is – 3 drawer trays for all the types of pieces and one lift-up lid that held the instructions. I could never bring myself to get rid of these – too many happy moments come sweeping back and memories of my dear old dad.

  45. With 3 boys our house is overflowing with Legos. We’ve managed to keep the pieces organized thru the years with a couple of stacking carts with drawers for the different colors. It isn’t very pretty but it is functional. We keep all of the instruction manuals in clear plastic sleeves in 3 ring binders. Each kid has his own book and they are organized by set, Harry Potter grouped together, Star Wars together, and so on. Our biggest storage issue is that after the boys put the sets together, they don’t want to take them apart. We have room for a few sets to be displayed at a time but when one son wants to set up the entire Harry Potter Universe, and another wants to set up the Marvel Universe, problems arise. For now, they keep them in plastic bins stacked in the closet so they can rotate them out. It isn’t a perfect system but it works and I know that all too soon they won’t be interested in these things any more and while that makes me a little happy it also makes me sad. Enjoy it while you can, right?

  46. This is a pricier alternative, considering the cost of the Lego’s, it may be worth it. It is stacking “sifter” boxes, that “automatically” sorts the bricks, much like a coin sorter.

    BOX4BLOX The Original Lego Toy Storage and Sorter Box Award Winning BOX4BLOX Lego Organizer Makes it Easy to Sort and Store Lego

    $68.72 (Sears website)

    Description

    Special Offers

    Introducing BOX4BLOX, the award winning toy storage solution for organizing and storing Lego. BOX4BLOX was voted Best New Home Organizing Product of the Year by National Association of Professional OrganizersBOX4BLOX eliminates all the hassles of keeping Legos organized in the home and actually makes clean up time fun. BOX4BLOX works like a coin sorter, grading the Legos through a series of different sized grids, so the Lego bricks end up in a tray with similar sized blocks, with all those hard to find tiny bits and pieces ending up in the bottom tray. No need to tip the Legos all over the FloorBOX4BLOX is an attractive ten and a quarter inch cube manufactured from ABS plastic, the same high quality plastic used to manufacture Lego. BOX4BLOX holds approximately 1500 – 1700 Lego bricks.BOX4BLOX is not only for the kids as Moms love the BOX4BLOX, making it a practical gift idea for every boy and girl who loves Lego. BOX4BLOX is made in the USA and available exclusively online

  47. That is a brilliant idea! My boys are grown but I did keep their Legos because of the bazillion dollars we invested in them over time. I would like to see a photo of those bins in six months. If your kids keep them separated like that I will be envious and amazed!

  48. We recently tackled our Legos, too! My son is big into the sets- we do have a small tub of loose pieces, but our storage solution revolves more around keeping the pieces of each set together, finding a manageable way to display the favorites, and a place to keep the “builds-in-progress” from taking over the house. Feel free to check out what we did. Oh, and over a month later, we’ve maintained the organization. So far so good! http://thedrumgoolefamily.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/oh-the-legos-oh-the-chaos/

  49. No Lego here yet, but I know it will be on its way! This is a great solution and I’m sending it on to friends!

  50. Erin, your display cabinet is so great! I think that request is coming next – where to display all the completed creations. Lego bookshelf styling or mantel party anyone? :)

  51. I don’t know if you knew it, but there are apps for Lego instructions. Very detailed for those that do not understand the original ones or lost them, or instructions to make completely new things too. I wish I had these when my boys were little. I was never so happy when I finally gave all of the Legos away!

    • Ha Jackie! You sound just like my SIL she has a huge tub of them in her garage and my 13 year old nephew as declared he’s finally done with Legos… she’s looking to do the same thing. :)

  52. OMG! It’s like you read my mind. Our five year old has just gotten hooked on LEGOs and we need to start rounding them up before the two year old eats them or drops them in the toilet. THANKS!!!

  53. My baby isn’t quite old enough for legos yet but my nephews and niece have a gazillion. We mostly try to contain the legos – your organization takes it to the next level! Filing this one away for future use!

    *** Fun Fact *** Lego means “To Play” in Danish (and they are a Danish toy :)

  54. We just tackled this project a few months ago as well. I have two small boys and both are really into Lego City and Ninjago. We ended up purchasing a clear plastic tackle box to keep all of the tiny, individual lego guys in. All the other stray pieces went color coded into three tool organizers (like this one: http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/100375899?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051&N=5yc1vZc28p&R=100375899). So far they work great and the boys can take the organizers with them and build anywhere in the house!

  55. In our adult household, we just keep our legos in one big bin (and I’m actually using legos today, in a ziploc, to help teach a new concept to my students). But we did do something for my 6 year old nephew. He’s got a 4 year old sister and a brand new baby sister, so the whole family did a lot of talking with him about the need to keep his lego pieces away from little sister because she’s too little. To help with this, I bought him a toolbox for Christmas. It’s a fairly large toolbox with a removable tray on top but otherwise one big box. It had a neat feature on top: two little snap in boxes with sorters for sorting stuff like screws. Guess where his minifigs are now? We also got another see-through sorter box thing for inside the toolbox for corralling all those tiny parts.

    I am happy to report that, two months later, grandma says he is still using the system and keeping his legos clean! Maybe it helps that I bought a similar toolbox to the one his grandpa has ;-)

  56. This is genius! Even though we have our Legos pretty organized, I can’t tell you how many times I have stepped on pieces in the dark during the night going to the bathroom. This *@$# hurts badly!
    Did you ever see the yellow carrying/collectors cases for the little figurines? Me and my son love them.

  57. Someday you will actually miss all the random Legos around the house. Mine are just a little too old now (although I still find little ones sometimes). I took the Lack side table and added one plate, which took up almost no space and made a great little spot with a chair to sit and create. Perfect for a toddler.

  58. Thank you for such a great idea! I just ordered the plates and will make a trip to Ikea by the weekend. My son is super excited about having this table in his room and I’m ecstatic to get all the legos out of my basement!

  59. Our boys share a room, and we don’t have the floor space for a table. I have three, three-drawer Sterilite carts. We roughly sorted by color with a few drawers for Minifigs and other special items. We have shelving to go above the carts; my dear husband just needs to hang it. ;) As for the instruction booklets, we have three of the Staples-brand binders with page protectors. They are arranged in alphabetical order, with one booklet per page protector (sometimes two or three, depending on how small they are).

  60. Oh.My.Gosh! Kate – you have literally just made me the happiest Mom ever! I can’t wait to do this with the Lego madness that currently resides in our living room!! Now if only they made those plates in solid colors (without the airport/racetrack) then I will be set. Thank you so so much for sharing this amazing idea!!!

    • They do make them in solids Christine, I’ve seen them in blue and green. Check online!

  61. We got the same table Christmas before last and used 6 green plates for the top. Best thing we ever did to fix the lego problem in our house. Glad others have thought to do the same thing. Love inexpensive fixes from Ikea.

    • Awesome Katie, someone else was just asking about the colored plates too – yesterday my kids lined up an entire marching “army” of Lego characters on the plates, I have to go take a picture of that now, it’s a funny one.

  62. Awesome! Just to let you know that you are not off track with describing your son’s play as building a “future engineer/slash architect”…my 27 year old engineer son was also obsessed with Legos and his are still stashed in the closet in bins. He is passing them on to his daughter who ALSO loves to play with them. He had a coffee table work area, too…but not as cool as yours! Good for you for encouraging imaginative play and organization!!

    • Thanks Dee! My son is the super obsessed one but yes it’s true his sister plays with them too – they build villages and play for hours but she’ll bring her Calico Critters to Legoland – it’s hilarious to eavesdrop on their playtime.

  63. Kate – that is pure genius! I love it. An Ikea trip is on my list. Amazing idea as our Legos is in a dark bin that they forgot about. This will get my 6-year old twins playing with them again as my husband wants to buy them more Legos!

  64. OMG! My husband and I were just talking about how one of the worst things ever (#firstworldproblems) is stepping on a Lego. They are so lethal around the house. This is a great solution! Let’s hope they can keep it that organized!

  65. Do you read Chez Larsson in Sweden? She just organised her 16/17 yr. old son’s Legos. So it will be an ongoing dilemma for you!

  66. Thanks again for more inspiration- my 6 yr olds Lego Star Wars, Ninjago and all the others are now organized in bins under his old train table. The train table has made a great lego table!

  67. Kate you made me LMAO and eat my own words!!!!
    I’m a nanny and I wrote (not too long ago) on my blog about a woman who was interviewing me over the phone and having a meltdown because she was trying to colour coordinate all her sons Lego’s she sounded like an ‘obsessive, compulsive, organizing nut job’ and I turned the job down. Here’s the link if you want to read it http://textiletrolley.blogspot.com/2013/01/interviewing-for-nanny-position.html
    But looking at your fantastic Lego table and seeing them so beautifully converted I EAT MY WORDS!
    Well done….I’m passing it on to all my ‘Mum friends’

    Louise

    • Ha Louise, funny story! I admit it is a little obsessive to organize by color but it makes sense because the books all show “this red four piece goes here and this gray six piece goes here” so if you try to reconstruct it makes it that much easier but I’ll give you this, I predict they don’t stay organized that way forever which is why I didn’t label the bins. I think what’s more important is that they have a place to be stored and not necessarily by color. :) Thanks for sharing!

  68. I have my 30 yr. old son’s Legos (5 boxes) in my closet. I suggested that he donate them to a school or DAV and he looked at me as if I had lost my mind or grown another head. (At least I don’t have to worry about stepping on them in the middle of the night!) So, sweet Kate, you are going to have them for a LONG TIME. It’s good to corral them early………….both the boys and the Legos! LOL!

  69. I love the creativity that legos bring, but they are a parents worst nightmare for stepping on and organizing. Love this idea, it looks terrific and I like the way you got the kids in on the organizing so they can work on keeping it clean as well.

  70. I no longer have children or Legos in my home, but I’m still very impressed with the way you organized them. I love your blog.

  71. I want to crawl through this screen and personally shake your hand. Thank you so very much! I’m going to get on this very soon. It’s just what I’ve been looking to do to reign in the Lego chaos.

  72. I could use you in my house! Reorganize, revamp everything I have…smiles. That was a fabulous idea. Glad you thought of it before he gets too old to enjoy it…like my son now.

  73. Genius! We have a bunch of the “girl” Lego Friends and I’ve almost impaled my foot on some of them in the dark. I love this solution…wish I could find a space for a Lack table!

  74. Absolutely brilliant. I believe I’m going to share this with my oldest son, a former Lego lover now living in a house his own. Someday (hopefully soon!) he’ll have children and realize just how wonderful an idea this is.

  75. My almost 5 year old is getting into Legos now (good bye trains, star wars) and although he only has a few sets they pieces are every where. I’m hoping the organization will come as he gets older because nothing seems to work right now. I have 2 large Snapware containers to hold his Legos and insytuction booklets. it’s quite frustrating to enter his room and see hunderds of tiny Legos strewn about his carpet and equally frustrating for him because it takes him a bit to find the part he needs. We did finally sit down and sort them into smaller dividers by color, but that only lasted a few days and they were a total mess again. It doesn’t seem to bother him much so for now I’ll let it be.

  76. We did something very similar when our kids were young–and have set it up again for when the nearby grandkids come to play. Our bins are smaller which might be a help when “scrabbling” through for the right size. That’s a sound that you’ll never forget! It was deja vu when I heard it again from the grandkids. Perfect table from Ikea!

  77. This post could not have come at a better time! We have 3 boys (9, 12, 13) and have collected loads of Lego over the years. After a few moves it all ended up together in a huge tub. Just as we got it all organised (took about a year) and each in it’s individual box, work requires us to move to Hong Kong, this time I’ve put it all in plastic bags for shipping. The boys want to play with it more and with cupboard space being an issue – this is a brilliant idea! It’s already on my Ikea shopping list! Everybody will be happy!

  78. You are so funny Kate. I love your blog and I’m always excited to read it and usually
    don’t comment however today I need to.
    I couldn’t stop laughing when you mentioned “I prefer to live in a bubble and label his many hours spent building them as “future engineer slash architect”.
    I constantly tell my sister-in-law exactly the same. It’s not playing, he’s studying for his future!

  79. My oldest son was salivating over this table…looks like I’ve got a little diy project in my future :) Great job!

    ~Jen

  80. Your son may very well become an ‘engineer slash architect’! My husband LOVED his Legos as a child and today he is a registered architect. He now collects the Lego Architecture Series.

    Btw, this is a great way to organize! I will have to keep it in mind for the future mini-architects in our family. :-)

    • Thanks Arlene! My son built for me the Empire State Building, I’m waiting for the series to release a Golden Gate Bridge !
      Kate

  81. This is a beautiful set up! I used to try to keep the sets together because it made it easier to find the specialized parts for each set, but the set was never really reproduced after the first time. Eventually I sorted according to function, which turned out to be the most useful:

    Large flat pieces, regular “bricks,” parts specific for vehicles, parts specific for houses, specialized parts, and very small pieces, including people and their props. These categories made it relatively easy to sort the pieces post deconstruction. I also used relatively shallow containers and left enough room so that it was easy to look for a piece without dumping anything out.

  82. I don’t have a single lego or child in my home now. I did once upon a time and I was constantly trying to make her keep her room neat and clean. I would pick up and put away and within hours it was a mess again. THEN I REALIZED…she’s 5 years old…she doesn’t know how to organize or have the tools to do it. I congratulate you on your wonderful idea for teaching your children how to keep their legos neat and giving them the tools to do it. You will probably be surprised at how they keep it up.
    May I suggest that you make a game about keeping them neat. Maybe a reward…a new lego set?…if they do it for a month. Good habits form that way. I speak from years of experience.

    By the way…she’s now 37 and is still very organized.

    Love your blog.

  83. Amazing organization and it’s simplicity and also looks good…seriously my son is just 9 and I have stood on that many little gray bits of lego and went ouch……it drives me batty. Love your work! Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia

  84. Awesome work! My boy is 4.5 and has been a fan of Legos for 2 years. Regular Legos, not Duplos! And like your boy my son spends HOURS building various ‘sets’. I have sterilite drawer containers from Target that I organize them in. They are not color/function coded at this time, just in the drawers. I like the drawers because they are not too deep which would make it harder for him to find things. Not sure I will organize it too specifically at this time because of his age.

    But now my 8 year old is into Lego Friends and I think the baby will get some Legos (the cupcake set) for her 2nd birthday next week!

    amy

  85. My son just turned 10 and I have the heel pain of many a night stepping into his room to kiss his head and saying a few choice words instead as I was impaled by BoBoFet or Jack Sparrow. He’s over his giant castle (any ideas for a diy on that? House for the Easter bunny, plant stand) so I have the room for a Ikea hack but wonder if he’ll be over Lego’s soon. When are they over Lego’s. Can’t ask his Dad as he was a erector set child (read old). I always had to help with the lego’s. Think I’ll pin it and show him in the morning to see if he’s into it. I know he won’t be into the organizing part.

  86. In a galaxy far, far away ( and many, many years ago), I had a young son who was a Lego freak There was no Ikea, but I labeled bins for organizing the painful hidden midnight pieces. Nothing caught on with him. I even once told him I couldn’t kiss him goodnight because it would cripple me to walk to his bed. Well, now he’s grown and I guess I had some influence, because he’ s very neat and organized. BTW, he grew up to be a computer geek and works for Microsoft.

    Your idea is great.

  87. This looks great! We are 4 hours from an IKEA, but may have to take a trip down there soon. We have TONS of Legos from my husband’s childhood, plus all he has bought for our 9 year old. When sets are done being played with I put the whole set in a zip lock bag with the picture on the front. All the instructions are kept in an accordion file. We still have lots of extras and guys that we organize like you do. My husband has even been so meticulous as to sort like pieces into sectioned off tool/screw organizers.
    The one thing I may do different to a recreate of your table is to add a little lip around the edge to prevent legos from sliding onto the floor.

  88. I just bought the grey coloured expedit lay it on its side and the grey road plates fit right along the top. I will be looking for smaller bins and sorting out the colours now. I did put the instructions in plastic sleeves in a folder so our boys and their Dad can find and recreate lots of sets.

  89. Oh, I just love your blog! Yes, I have two future engineer/architects! My son (now 12) still plays with his Lego although he now makes scenes based on his history lessons. My daughter (7) has just discovered the Friends series.

    The older they get, the smaller the pieces! We have discovered that a fishing tackle box makes a grea “bits box” to sort out the heads, bodies, and detail pieces.

    Love your table idea and getting them off the floor, and hopefully correlling the pieces!

  90. My eight year old started playing with lego at age 3 and still adores it. After years of standing on lego and picking up lego, our lego storage solution is a 900mm square shallow wooden tray. It holds a whole lot of lego in one layer so it is easy to see all the pieces. The tray is on castor wheels so my sons can roll it out from under the bed and start construction. No more lego on the floor! Love your blog.

  91. I love this. I had gotten as far as the bins in my house but this is great. I think I might put the whole thing on a piece of ply wood with wheels on the bottom. Thanks for the idea.

  92. Wow! Thank you! LOVE your idea of organizing the pieces! I have tried all kinds of things for him to corral the pieces off the floor and a larger table was all I could think of. If he was in the middle of a project, how fair would it be to ask him to put it away. I ran across the same table in IKEAs catalog last week, but sadly, we do not live close to one (many, many tears!), so I had to do the next best thing. I went to Goodwill and found a small coffee table for $15! It’s big enough for 2 Lego plates and low enough for him to use his little lego stool. I was going to glue the plates down, but I really like your idea of securing the edges so he can change them out. Mine is 5 and we have just started getting into the Legos, so I know I will be copying your bin system! Thank you!!

  93. This sounds ingenious, my grandsons are all the time getting their legos stored away because they are left around. I think I’m going to get together with their mom, (my daughter) and put this together for them. It’s like getting new toys when we find ways to organize them and my grandsons get to play with them more since we can find all the pieces. Thanks

  94. LOVE this idea! I am purchasing this table today to do something similar. So thankful for great minds like yours for sharing ideas!

  95. So…. how did you store the “put together” sets? That is where I struggle the most – all of the nice sets that are put together & he plays with like they are regular toys….?

    • I have a few up on shelves Heather, the more expensive or time consuming ones, but the smaller ones get broken up to be played with or rebuilt.

  96. I was wanting to make a LACK into a LEGO table, but haven’t yet. I love the idea of the putty to allow the plates to shift. I have the additional problem of having my older boys be very interested in LEGOs but need to keep them away from little hands (that still put everything in their mouth) and four year old hands that are oh, so very interested in his older brothers LEGO sets, and doesn’t mean to break their creations, but usually does… *sigh*

    For now, I sewed a knock off swoop bag. (I keep thinking I should take a picture and blog about it, but I haven’t made it that far yet. I’m not a very regular blogger.) I love it. I spread it out and it’s a playmat, and they can play and create and it is so easy to clean up, and easy to decide to play in another room. So, that’s our solution for the time, but I LOVE what you’ve done.

  97. My GIRLS are all grown (24, 21, 18) and were Lego fans. Hours of fun w/ the cousins and friends over the years. Love the Lego/Lack table idea. Maybe someday for the grands? For now, when we have littles over to play, I use a king size flat sheet on the floor. They can have a huge mess and clean up is a breeze! We just fold it up and dump it back into the giant Rubbermaids.

  98. You are a genius! What a great idea :) we are getting ready to build a new house, and this is exactly what I need to keep my little mans Legos organized. Thank you for sharing! Is it possible for you to share the dimensions of the bins? I’m not getting the table for a little while but wanted my little guy to start organizing the blocks. Thanks again!!!!!!

  99. My husband found the lego manuals online. Now, we never have to keep those things around. :)
    I’m sure you can find any lego manual with a simple google search.

  100. I love this idea and want to do it for my son for Christmas….just wondering what size bins you used that fit in that table so perfectly?? I know you said you got them at Target, but just wondering what size!
    Thanks!

  101. We just made this with the lack rectangular for my son & he loves it. Thank you for sharing such a wonderfully simple idea.

  102. Greetings. I LOVE this table! Please tell me what target buckets you used that fit so nicely. Also, did you consider something with an raised edge? That’s my one debate before jumping into this one ASAP. No idea if my kids (4 & 8) will keep it neat but we just more than doubled our collection this year at holidays and need a solution fast. Thanks. Can’t wait to check out more of your blog. Happy New Year!

  103. You are a genius! This is the best Idea I have ever seen. Been searching for something to get a hold of the lego mayhem at my house. I have twin 5 year old boys & a 3 year old boy who are all obsessed with legos. Hubby & I have been searching what to do because the only hard surface we have in our house is our kitchen (of course bathrooms won’t work!). So we are always kicking & stepping on legos. You have now solved our problem! Thank you soooooo soooooo much!!!!

  104. UPDATE: It’s been almost a year and my son and daughter still both play with this table for hours, it’s well worth setting it up, takes up not a lot of space, and it’s paid for itself in dividends. Happy organizing!

  105. It appears Ikea no longer sells this sized lack?! WAHHHHH! I was so inspired and then so let down.

  106. Hi! I just found this idea after struggling to keep Lego contained. I had a train table that we used for Lego but it never worked. When I saw this post I went out that night, literally, and bought 3 of the lack tables. I arranged them into a U shape and got some storage dividers, and my playroom has never been so clean! Thank you! Love this blog. ?

  107. Hi Kate!

    Love your blog pre child for home decor and inspiration and now love your blog with the addition of our child. Do you know if IKEA still makes that Lack table? What are the full dimensions? On their website now, years later, Lack seems be to Just rectangular and you have to buy much more expensive Hemnes to get square shape. I really would love to make this table for my son for trains and legos. Rectangular shape will cramp husband tracks and road racing abilities, I think. Thanks!

  108. What sized bins did you use? I’m notoriously bad at measuring and guesstimating 🤦🏻‍♀️
    Someone else posted they used 16qt 7” x12”. Is that what you used? Thanks for the brilliant solution!

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