Lost in Lego?

It is no secret we love Lego at my house. Keeping it under control, easily accessible, easy to play and build with and out from under foot, is a work in progress.  I thought I'd share our Lego corner with you - it has been working for us for awhile.

Since that's where all the Lego building action is, we will be starting at the ground for our tour.   (Just FYI I'm going to note my resources for supplies, but I don't have any sponsors for the post) My sister Joanna sent us the labels for the shoe bins (from the Container Store ~20 bins for $35, I really love these boxes, with clear lids they are super durable and stack really well).  We have our Lego sorted by colour and then a few sets are in bins by themselves and a few by theme - Star Wars, Lego Agents, Harry Potter, Atlantis or whatever.  These bins are labeled with stickers and pictures from Lego.com.  The blue bin (other colours too and comes with a base plate) is available at Amazon.com (which we actually found at a thrift store) is for any mini-figures and accessories, often a built police car or certain small specialty pieces.

Next above the storage bins are the tables and shelving (thanks Ikea $10 LACK tables and EKBY BJÄRNUM Shelves).  I learned it is pretty important to have lots of display and play area for creations.  It helps keep things off the floor and they love to show what they are working on to everyone who comes over.  The creations tend to move around a lot on the shelves and are changed often.  Bigger sets like the Atlantis fortress are more fun to play with and I do less repairs when they are off the ground.  The tables are also great because they are mobile and can be moved to the middle of the room or another wall (two was kind of important to have once for each boy, one just didn't have enough elbow room).

I actually put up the shelves completely by myself and I'm not very handy. I liked this system because of the 1) Style is industrial/boyish 2) Price 3) Custom - You decide the length of shelves (I got 3 smaller shelves from one board purchased) and there are two depths to choose from 4) No painting, the ends are covered by the bracket.

The sorted by colour system seems to work for us.  Once a project has been disassembled the pieces can be found in their matching colour, we've been able to rebuild sets easily from the instructions. It can take a little work to re-sort after a massive building session, but it is worth it and the boys are getting speedier.  I promise it doesn't always look like this...maybe one of these posts I'll show you and action shot :)

Oh not pictured we have a binder 3-ring binder with plastic sleeves to store the instructions for the sets, it makes them easy to find and flip through and keeps them from losing pages.

I'd love to know what works for you to organize toys - Lego or otherwise, Any thoughts?

Happy Building!

Which White Towel is Mine?

So I have a love/hate relationship with white towels. I love that they look clean and crisp, that you can bleach them if necessary and they match with everything. The problem is they are hard to tell apart. I don't believe in washing towels after each use.  You should be clean stepping out of the shower and it's better for the environment.  However I don't believe in sharing towels with your whole family either.  I like to know which towel is mine. I promise I do wash them sometimes :) 

So here is our nifty solution and I think it subtle and a little cute. I sewed different coloured ribbon loops, like tags onto the towels. Everyone knows their colour, but I still have a stack of nice white towels in the linen cabinet.

Clipboard Makeover

Already, after only 2 days of school we have a lot of papers to keep track off. I hope all this stuff goes online soon. Anyway, what better way to keep the important things together than a clipboard for each of the boys.(Plus a good sort into the recycle bin that are not important). A free garage sale item - two legal size clipboards. Rather plain though.I let the boys pick from my scrapbooking paper stash. E choose a space theme, C choose sports (and was too grouchy to be featured and did NOT want a pic of his clipboard either). I Mod Podged it on, spreading out the bubbles with a ruler.
As a finishing touch E drew on some aliens before the final Mod Podge coat.We also Mod Podged cutouts of their names at the bottoms of the board. I'm crossing my fingers it will help my keep all this paperwork straight.

Magnet Toy Organization

Anyone else have some of these? I think they are super for travel, church and waiting rooms except for one thing - keeping track of the little @#! magnets.

I found a great solution I thought I should share - Altoids' Tins. A plain label and doodles to keep them sorted. Pretty easy, they stack nicely and fit in your purse.

St. Luke's Hospital for Broken Toys

So our toy hospital (box with a red cross sign on it) was filling up and it was time to address our patients' needs. Basically the drill is, when I or the boys notice a toy in distress (broken) it goes in the box. **Note: if it is very beloved it might get priority service. I assess the repairability and some are thrown away. Those that can be saved go on a waiting list for surgery. What can I say, our funding is limited feel free to donate...

Today we set up the hospital in the dining room and got to work.

First up: simple dinosaur stitches...

The interns did very well after the instructions - they are sewing! I am such a proud mother!!!

We did some wood glueing together, but I kept the superglue to myself. That's all I need is the boys' glued to each other or some plastic and a real trip to the emergency room.