We are big fans of Lego here on the farm. Over the cold months, barely a week goes by without the kids getting it out to play with. We have a large collection, comprising of vintage stuff that Country Boy and I had when we were kids, together with a host of sets the kids have either received as presents or saved up their money to buy
I’ve tried to keep all the instruction booklets in a folder for the last couple of years. Pinterest gave me the idea, and the thought of having them all together, and having easy access when the kids needed them sounded great…. in theory.
In practice, the kids rarely (if ever) wanted to look at the instructions once they have made the model, the sleeves of the folder were not strong enough to hold the booklets and tore – particularly if they were thick booklets, and the booklets fell out every time the folder was turned upside down (which happened surprisingly often).
Over the weekend, I was going through the kids bookshelf, and I pulled the folder off the shelf, and of course, the booklets fell out everywhere. In a burst of energy I decided then and there, to do something about the folder. (Unrelated but look at the price of my old ice cream cart – I can still remember saving up the money for that one and buying it while we were on holidays in Port Macquarie!)
I had some plastic envelopes, and larger plastic storage box in my stationary supplies cupboard (purchased from Costco, but I imagine most variety stores, or newsagents would have them), so I grabbed them out, and pulled all of the instruction booklets out of the folder. .
I sorted the instruction booklets according to who owned them (with the kids help – some I had no idea who owned what). My thinking was that our kids rarely if ever look at the booklets now, but in years to come might want the sets for their own families (yep – I cannot believe I am thinking that far ahead!), so knowing who had which set could be useful. I then popped each pile into their own plastic envelope, and wrote their name on the envelope with a sharpie. I then put all of the plastic envelopes into the larger box. If they do want to use the instructions, it shouldn’t be too hard to find them.
If you don’t want to sort the booklets by owner, you could do it by Lego type (friends, star wars, creator etc). The idea probably isn’t ‘pin worthy’ but after several years of ongoing frustrations, I think I have found a solution. Yay for simple, easy fixes.
Do you keep Lego (or other toy) instruction booklets? How do you store them?
This is a great idea, i hadn't even thought of it. Ours are all currently stored in a toy luggage case, but your suggestion is far better!
I have kept the instructions but they are just chucked in with all the lego. They are starting to look a bit ratty now so maybe I should follow your lead. #weekendrewind
When my kids were smaller, I used to spread a big sheet out on the floor where they were playing duplo, then all I had to do was pick up the sheet, and it all came together. These days we have small lego on a board, but my kids are better able to pick it up.
I found that my kids are similar. The sets form a good starting point, but they love to be creative. I just need to store the instructions in case they want them later.
Every time I pack the lego {duplo} away, my toddler gets the box and tips it out over the floor again. I am so over lego at the moment! {It may or may not end up at the top of the wardrobe by the end of the week}.
Yeah! We use those plastic envelopes as well – but now it's bulging so I have to update. Lego drives me crazy, but nothing keeps them occupied longer. I tried snap lock bags, but it lasted two minutes – at the end of the day, they want to make their own stuff, not just the prescribed sets over and over.
I have a friend who has all the old Harry Potter stuff, and does something similar. My girls both like to keep the majority of their models made up – they each have one small shelf for their lego, so the instruction books are loose. As to where our vintage sets, are??? All the pieces are probably there, but it would be a huge job to put them all back together. I would love to get a good lego sieve. I have seen one on the internet, but they didn't ship to Australia.
Hey Jo. We put the instructions into a snap lock bag and then once the children have finished playing with the model they break it up and put it into the snap lock bag. Than all the pieces are there when they go to build it again. If for some reason pieces are lost, the left over bits go into the big box of 'shared' lego fro when thei build with the instruction book of their imagination. Sometimes I keep the box and the snap lock bag goes back inside for easy identification of the model they want to build.