LEGO Friends City Park Cafe $19.50 + Free Store Pick-Up

Quote from DealChasingHigh : I have a question for anyone with Lego "sets". Last year I bought a large 1600 piece Lego box, but no sets. This year we are adding the Lego Friends, the Mine set on SD a couple weeks before, etc. Do you find you need to store the sets separately? I added a pic of the storage options I am looking at. Currently I only have the 21.5 quart storage box on the top left. I like the play mat on the right purely for ease of clean up, however the pieces are altogether. The bottom left (Previous front-page deal) I have heard people say they use to separate colors, but I would really only be interested in it for separating sets. So is keeping the sets separate a necessity? Thanks for your feedback!

Longtime lego person here, and just now starting to buy them for my kids. I also picked up the 1600 set deal from last year along with a few others as well. As a kid, I had a few sets I kept in boxes, but for the most part 90% lived in one big clear storage bin all mixed together. (took forever to find small parts). What has worked well so far is to just use 1 gal zip top storage bags. one bag per color. and then some small baggies for odball pieces, minifigs, etc. you can then toss all the bags into whatever big bin/box you want. already built creations (cars, houses, etc.) can be tossed loose in the bin/box. When you disassemble, just be diligent to put the parts back into the right bags. much cheaper option than something sold specifically for legos and seems to work just as well. That play mat looks cool but I could never see my kids keeping the legos just within the confines of the mat.

Quote from bucknljake : Longtime lego person here, and just now starting to buy them for my kids. I also picked up the 1600 set deal from last year along with a few others as well. As a kid, I had a few sets I kept in boxes, but for the most part 90% lived in one big clear storage bin all mixed together. (took forever to find small parts). What has worked well so far is to just use 1 gal zip top storage bags. one bag per color. and then some small baggies for odball pieces, minifigs, etc. you can then toss all the bags into whatever big bin/box you want. already built creations (cars, houses, etc.) can be tossed loose in the bin/box. When you disassemble, just be diligent to put the parts back into the right bags. much cheaper option than something sold specifically for legos and seems to work just as well. That play mat looks cool but I could never see my kids keeping the legos just within the confines of the mat.

Thanks for the info, Repped! So you find color separation is more important than "set" separation? Like with the Mine set, are some of those pieces necessary to making that set alone be actually playable? Sorry for the newbie questions, I just haven't dealt with sets before.
I like the gallon size ziploc idea! A ton of those would fit in the bins I already own.

In for one! Thank you.

Quote from DealChasingHigh : Thanks for the info, Repped! So you find color separation is more important than "set" separation? Like with the Mine set, are some of those pieces necessary to making that set alone be actually playable? Sorry for the newbie questions, I just haven't dealt with sets before. I like the gallon size ziploc idea! A ton of those would fit in the bins I already own.

I prefer sorting by "type" of piece. For the basic pieces that we have a lot of we use several large storage bins (i.e. basic bricks). For the specialty pieces that we have fewer of and that are typically smaller we picked up a screw organizer at Home Depot that has 40+ small pull out bins. And we've got one smallish bin for all the "weird" pieces that you have just one or two of.

Honestly, the biggest thing is just picking a system and using it. If you find your system isn't working (i.e. takes too long to find pieces, too hard to clean up after kids come over, etc.) try something different.

Quote from swinte : I prefer sorting by "type" of piece. For the basic pieces that we have a lot of we use several large storage bins (i.e. basic bricks). For the specialty pieces that we have fewer of and that are typically smaller we picked up a screw organizer at Home Depot that has 40+ small pull out bins. And we've got one smallish bin for all the "weird" pieces that you have just one or two of. Honestly, the biggest thing is just picking a system and using it. If you find your system isn't working (i.e. takes too long to find pieces, too hard to clean up after kids come over, etc.) try something different.

Thanks and Repped!
Your screw organizer idea made me think of a tackle box I use for jewelry making that has a ton of little dividers in a few drawers. That might work for the specialty pieces as well. Hmmm, more to think about.

Wow, soo rare to see deals on Lego...glad to see this.

Thanks OP, got one on Amazon. Thumbs up!

Looks like Amazon is back to $33

$25.40 at Walmart now.

$19.40 at Amazon.

Whoever said there are no Lego deals, they probably didn't read Slickdeals around Thanksgiving/Christmas. If people don't care about specific sets there may be 50% off deals right after Christmas