Kevin and Rachel's Guide to Lego Bliss

Since birthdays and Christmas our very small basement, and house, has been overrun with Lego's. They are everywhere, and Lego castles/cars/etc. were constantly being destroyed. The eldest child enjoys following the instructions and building the designs. The middle child enjoys building his own thing that he can play with wherever. The smallest, a.k.a. the destroyer, likes to play with everything that gets built, but his little hands are too rough. We needed help- too keep it clean and to keep fighting at a minimum. Here are the steps that helped us find Lego Happiness:

1. Find the problems and discuss solutions.
2. Wait. We had found all sorts of "organizational" tools that we wanted to purchase.
3. Use what you have! (Desk organizers, tupperware, cleaned out whip cream containers- these are what we used to organize. Train table and bookshelf turned on its side are our building tables, and an old TV entertainment center is the shelves for the buckets AND a wall.)
4. An obvious one- separate by color. Then builders can still build, follow instructions, and everyone is old enough to put the colors in the right bin.
5. Designate a specific area for lego playing and building, and make this area for boys 4 and up.
6. Make the area fun and accessible-- we talked about putting all the legos up in the bedroom. But our kids like to be by us and tend to play with one thing and then move on to another.
7. No rough housing in the lego area! Yes there was a fall and everything broke.
8. Make sure the older boys don't teach the younger one how to get in! (crawl behind the couch!)
9. Know that some lego will still get out and end up all over the house.
10. HAve a husband who loves to play lego too and will spend hours in there rebuilding broken castles!

By blocking off a corner of the basement, Zeke can't get to the legos- but he can still hear and talk with his brothers. The little window in the entertainment center is PERFECT for him. He can still play with some lego, but he can't get to the big stuff and destroy it. Money spent on this lego corner: $0.00