If your home is overrun with tiny colorful bricks underfoot, you’re not alone. LEGO sets are a fantastic creative outlet for kids and adults alike, but they can quickly become a chaotic mess without a system in place. As a Professional Organizer and a mom, I know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to manage a growing LEGO collection because my kids have a huge one. The good news? With a few simple LEGO organization strategies, you can keep your building area tidy, functional, and fun for everyone.
Here are my top LEGO organization ideas to help you sort, store, and save your LEGO collection—with a little help from my Building Bricks Printable Pack to get your system started the right way.
Step 1: Sort by the Right Category for Your Family
The best way to organize LEGO bricks depends on how your kids play with them. Here are a few common sorting systems:
- By Color: Great for builders who like to freestyle and want quick access to color palettes. This is my son’s favorite way to store his LEGO. We keep all of what refer to as our “Free Build” LEGO that does not belong to a set this way.
- By Set: Ideal for kids who prefer to keep official sets intact. Use zip-top bags or plastic bins to separate sets and include instruction booklets. Our family collects LEGO sets. We try to keep the most valuable ones intact as well as keep the original box. After searching for retired sets on Ebay for my kids I am very aware of how quickly a set can go up in value if it has all the pieces an instruction book and a box once it retires.
- By Type or Shape: This method works well for more advanced builders. Use divided drawers to group by piece type—like flat tiles, wheels, minifigures, or specialty pieces. This is a tedious process to keep up with so it is not for your average child or parent.
- All mixed together: One or two shallow bins of mixed LEGO that your child can dig through may be the easiest way you and your child to maintain. Many parents prefer this method if they don’t care about keeping sets intact and their kids just love to dig for pieces.
PRO TIP: If you’re not sure where to start, begin with a quick purge of broken pieces or non-LEGO items. Then let your child help choose their favorite sorting method to increase buy-in.
Step 2: Choose Smart Storage Solutions
Once sorted, your LEGO bricks need a designated home. Try these container ideas based on space and play habits:
- Stackable Drawer Units: Great for categorized LEGO organization that’s easy to access. I prefer the storage cabinet tray units because the trays come out for easy color sorting, searching and building.
- Rolling Carts: Perfect for mobile builders who like to create in different rooms.
- Under-Bed Storage Bins: An ideal space-saver for smaller homes. When we first started building our collection we used to underbed size Sterlite Bins that were shallow enough to stash out of sight.
- Open Bin Systems: Great for younger kids who want quick dump-and-play access. These open bin toy storage systems are great for small collections and like the TROFAST, you can remove the bins easily for play.
- DIY Labeled Containers: Use plastic tackle boxes or hardware cabinets for small pieces. My personal favorite for set storage are these stackable latched containers. Don’t forget the labels!
Use the labels and inventory sheets in the Building Bricks Printable Pack to create a clear, kid-friendly storage system. The pack includes colorful, printable labels, set labels and a binder system to organize manuals to keep sets and parts organized long-term.
Step 3: Save the Instructions and Track Your Collection
It’s all fun and games until you want to rebuild a retired set and can’t find the instructions! Keep everything together with these ideas:
- Binder Storage: Slip LEGO instructions into clear page protectors and organize them in a 3-ring binder by theme or number.
- Save with Set: If you are saving your sets in containers or plastic zipper bags you may choose to keep the instructions together.
- Digital Backup: LEGO.com offers online PDFs of instructions. Save links or digital copies to Google Drive or Dropbox.
- Inventory Tracking: Use a printable log or spreadsheet to track which sets you own, which ones are missing pieces if you plan on collecting sets into the future.
Step 4: Create a Dedicated LEGO Building Zone
The best way to reduce LEGO mess is to define where the magic happens:
- Set up a small table or desk with a play mat. My kids like to just spread it all out on the playroom floor in front of tour LEGO drawers.
- You can never have enough shelf space for those special builds. Use wall-mounted shelves for vertical storage of finished builds. We have even gone so far as to create an entire city with our collection. We use an old model train table from my husband’s grandfather. It showcases LEGO trains and tracks, modular buildings, city cars and trucks, and all of the creations our children make to go along with the standard sets.
- Take pictures as your kids build. Our son has been an avid builder since he was four. He is twelve now and his builds have only gotten more complex and detailed. We often would come home from an experience like going to a baseball game, going to a fair or just an outing to a grocery store and he would want to come home and rebuild that experience in LEGO. Those pictures of his builds are like a diary of his young life. While we couldn’t save all of the builds, we have been able to keep the memory of most of them.
Encourage creativity while maintaining order. When your kids know exactly where to find pieces and instructions, they spend more time building and less time digging through clutter.
Step 5: Make LEGO Organization and Maintenance a Breeze
The key to lasting LEGO organization is regular upkeep. I am not going to lie. We have had many days in my home where if I stepped on another LEGO or spent another hour helping go through random bins to get them back in order I thought I would scream But the passion my kids have for this toy as well as all of the creative time and pretend play that comes from it is worth it.
Here are some of my tips for keeping it all in order no matter how big your collection grows:
- Set a timer once a week for a quick tidy-up.
- Involve your kids in restocking pieces in the right bins. If you don’t have time, I keep one bin as the sorting bin where we dump all of the random LEGO and wait until we have time to get them all back in their correct color bin.
- Rotate sets in and out of storage if your collection grows too large. I also encourage passing sets and old mixed LEGO down to younger cousins and friends. If you have truly valuable sets begin exploring reselling them on Ebay, Facebook Marketplace or other online marketplaces.
- Locally in Connecticut we have a great shop called Bricks & Minifigs, where you can bring in your bricks and sets to consign, by older sets at a discount and pick your own pieces at more of a discount than the official LEGO store. My kids actually like going there even more than the regular store for the treasure hunt!
TIP: Let your child use the Building Bricks Printable Pack to take ownership of the process. When they can label bins and track their favorite sets, they’re more likely to stay organized.
Final Thoughts: LEGO Organization Can Be Fun and Functional
LEGO doesn’t have to mean clutter! With a little creativity and the right tools, you can create a space where play and order coexist beautifully. Whether you have a master builder or a budding architect, organizing your LEGO collection can actually enhance the play experience to build a lifelong love of collecting.
Ready to transform your LEGO chaos into a streamlined system?
Grab the Building Bricks Printable Pack from Life’s Lists today and make LEGO organization easy, colorful, and kid-approved.
Happy Organizing!
Kristin
About the Author:
Kristin has worked as a professional organizer since 2004. She’s also the owner and designer behind Life’s Lists, a printable planner shop that helps families stay organized. As a mom of two creative kids, she’s always looking for clever ways to simplify home life—especially when it involves stepping on fewer bricks.
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