If you have children that are into Legos you know what a daunting task it can be to contain the Legos in an organized manner.

You look at the bricks used to build a space station, Ninjago lair, pirate ship, etc. covering the floor and think: “Ok.  We’ll sort these by Lego set.  Find the directions and match them to the accompanying bricks for each set.  Place them in a bin.  Label the bin.  Tuck them away in the closet.  When you play with them, you can find the set that you’re looking for, take it out, and when you’re done, you return it to the properly labeled bin.  Ok?”

I mean, to me, this seems very reasonable. Logical even.  Preschool 101.  Shouldn’t be too hard.

You confidently walk into Target and purchase bins. Some with lids.  Maybe a few sets of drawers.  These will work well for the teeny, tiny Lego people you tell yourself.  All those miniscule heads and interchangeable hair pieces.  Yea, we got this.

Spend an ENTIRE Sunday sorting. Get distracted every 15 minutes by the cool Lego thing you’re building.  Eventually you can see the actual rug of your child’s room.  You give your child a high five.  We did it.

And then somehow, despite your well thought out plan and herculean efforts, the next weekend you find yourself faced with a familiar rainbow colored disaster.

The problem exists when you attempt to maintain the previously described schema. The chaotic rhythm of our lives works against establishing any organization method that takes longer than two minutes to think about and implement.  In short, you will continue to fail.  Over and over again.  You will continue to murder the soles of your feet when you walk around your house or bust your ass hopping around trying to avoid them.

So. As is often helpful when faced with a dilemma, I’ve decided to look at this issue through a different lens.

Here’s how we’ve decided to handle the problem in our house: Dump that shit in the biggest bins you own and call it a day.

I read a few articles related to the concept of Lego sets (Legos packaged and sold together and include step by step instructions to build something specific) and how they actually stifle the creativity of the user. Although building a superhero’s car step by step is quite awesome, it inadvertently fosters the notion that there is a right and wrong way to play with Legos which is the opposite of what the toy should be promoting.  By not storing the bricks with their specific sets you eliminate pigeon holing your child to only building the “right” thing.  Instead, they are encouraged to use their imagination and think outside of the Lego kit instructions.

So there you go. Two birds one stone.  Sounds like my solution is progressive and borderline genius.  Try it in your house and perhaps you will agree.