Lego Organization and Storage

Do you feel like you always have Legos strewn all over the house? That was us too! Having four boys, we have accumulated lots of Legos over the years. We researched many different options and decided this is the best solution for Lego organization and storage.

Legos are probably the best and worst toy ever, amiright!? Anyone who has ever stepped on a Lego will probably agree with me on that one. Ha! However, being that they are some of the best toys meant that we have A LOT of them. We needed a way to get them under control. This Lego organization and storage system is great for doing that.

We originally used a bunch of big tubs for storing Legos which was easy for cleanup but it was impractical for organization. Our boys would never want to free play with the Legos because it was too hard to find the piece they wanted or needed. The storage side of it was not great either. Who wants to look at tubs full of Legos sitting on the floor?

How to organize Legos

So we were looking for the best way to store Legos that was also not an eyesore. At the same time we wanted to find the best way how to organize Legos. Did such a system even exist that could accomplish both things at once? Well, the answer to that is… yes! We figured it out!

Mr. Wonderful built a Lego storage cabinet for us that is nice looking and it organizes the Legos mostly by color and some by type. In our research, we really liked the IKEA Trofast system but we wanted something bigger and also wanted it made out of wood to match the other wood furniture in our house. I see now that they do have an unfinished wood version, but at the time they only had the white particle board one. Plus we knew we could DIY one for much cheaper than what they sell.

We built this cabinet before I started blogging. Due to that fact, this post is not going to be a full tutorial on how to build the Lego storage cabinet. But I will give you some instructions and dimensions in case you want to build one for yourself.  We did end up ordering the Trofast bins to use as containers for Legos. We ordered a mix of sizes to accommodate the different sized Lego pieces.

Supplies you need for this Lego organization and storage cabinet

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use. If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase. I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.

• Trofast Storage box, white 16½ x 11¾ x 14¼ (2)
• Trofast Storage box, white 16½ x 11¾ x 9 (6)
• Trofast Storage box, white 16½ x 11¾ x 4 (14)
• 4′ x 8′ x ¼” plywood (1) – for back
• 1″ x 12″ x 6′ (2) – for top and bottom
• 1″ x 12″ x 4′ (5) – for outside and inside vertical panels
• 1″ x 6″ x 6′ (1) – for 3/4″ strips
• 1″ x 2″ x 8′ (7) – for “drawer” slats
• 1″ x 3″ x 6′ (3) – for trim on top and bottom and for board underneath to stabilize
• 1″ x 3″ x 4′ (1) – for trim on sides both top and bottom
• Wood glue
• Stain – we used Minwax Gunstock
• Minwax Polycrylic

Tools needed for this project

• Kreg jig and screws
• Table saw
• Miter saw
• Lots of clamps
• Power drill
• Router and round over bit
• Orbital sander
• Finishing nailer and brads
• Critter sprayer (optional)

How to build a DIY Lego storage cabinet

The overall dimensions of our DIY Lego storage cabinet, including the trim on the top and bottom edges are: 

• Height = 41½ inches
• Length = 72 inches
• Depth = 12⅝ inches

We went back and measured all the parts of this cabinet since we did not do that as Mr. Wonderful built it. You will want to cut your pieces to these measurements but it may not be a bad idea to cut them to a rough length just a tad longer first before dry fitting your pieces since these measurements were taken after the fact. You can always cut more off, but you can’t add it back!

Lego Organization Cabinet Cut List

Lego Organization Cabinet Assembly Instructions

Here is a picture of the construction of the Lego cabinet without the trim pieces added. Mr. W made this cabinet to fit around the Trofast containers specifically. They are 11¾” deep so that is what our interior dimension had to be. As most of you may know, lumber sizes are a little off from what they claim to be. Realistically 1″ x 12″ boards should have worked perfectly for the top, bottom, outside and inside vertical panels of the cabinet. However the actual dimensions of a 1″ x 12″ are ¾” x 11½”. Ugh!!

So Mr. Wonderful had to cut and glue on a ¾” strip onto all of those pieces to give the cabinet the depth we needed. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see that added strip on the front of the vertical panels.

Adding the drawer slats

I am calling them drawer slats for lack of a better term. Essentially the Trofast containers act as drawers and slide into the cabinet, so drawer slats it is. 🙂 The first drawer slat is placed at 2¼” down from the top board. Then they are spaced apart every 3 inches. The top of the last slat is placed at 9″ above the bottom board. This spacing allows for all of the different sized Trofast containers to fit in the cabinet in several different combinations.

Mr. Wonderful glued and nailed all the drawer slats into place. This is where all the clamps come in handy! 😉

Adding the backing to the Lego storage cabinet

The ¼” plywood back was inset into the cabinet. This was done by routering a ¼” rabbet groove (or a recess) into the top, bottom and outside panels. You can also see beneath the bottom of the back of the cabinet, a stabilizer board was added. This board is inset by ¾” and was secured on with the nail gun and brads. 

Next add the trim

After the cabinet was built, Mr. Wonderful added trim to the top and bottom. You can see how the trim was added in the pictures below.

The side trim pieces were added first, then the front trim piece on both the top and bottom. 

Mr. W used his router and a round over bit on the top edges to give a softer look to the trim. He did this to the top front and side trim pieces and the bottom front trim piece. He did not do the bottom side trim pieces.

Staining and finishing the Lego cabinet

The last step was to stain and poly the cabinet. We used Minwax stain in Gunstock for our cabinet as that matched some of the other furniture we had made previously. Then Mr. Wonderful sprayed on some Minwax Polycrilic with our Critter sprayer. This sprayer is amazing for giving a great finish. Check out our Critter sprayer review to see what else we have used it on!

How to organize your Legos

Now all that was left was to organize our Legos. I am not going to sugar coat it, this was a BIG job. I do not have any pictures, we do not want to remember that weekend too vividly. Ha! We chose to organize our Legos by color mainly but also by the type of some Lego bricks. The amount and size of the Legos dictated what size drawer(s) they went into. Our Lego containers are organized by these categories:

• Reds
• Oranges
• Yellows and Golds
• Greens
• Blues and Purples
• Browns
• Tans
• Light Gray
• Dark Gray
• Black
• White
• Clear
• Lego Mini Figures
• Bionicle Legos
• Wheels/tires
• Flat plates
• Specific Sets – for instance, a soccer set where all the pieces needed to stay together

Originally I was going to make up labels for the drawers but decided against it. I thought it looked a little cleaner without labels and you can clearly see what is in each drawer if you pull it out a bit.

Was it worth it?

That is an absolute YES! Although my back may not have agreed that sorting weekend! LOL. However, it was a team effort, we had the whole family helping so it was kind of fun too. We listened to music, ate lots of snacks and the boys reminisced about the Lego sets they had all received over the years. But the most important part was that it changed how they played with the Legos. They actually started to use their imaginations and build the most amazing and creative things. 

Here is the basement at our old house where the kids hung out and we had the Lego storage cabinet next to a big DIY Lego table that we also built. They would have that Lego table filled with castles and all kinds of things. I love how organizing our Legos spurred them to free play with their Legos more. 

Where is the Lego cabinet now?

Unfortunately, as kids do, they grew up! 🙁 Our youngest is 12 already and not playing with Legos as much anymore, although he still does from time to time. We recently made a cross country move and although the Lego table did not make the cut, the Lego storage cabinet did! The Legos were definitely something that all of our boys wanted to keep! We are currently renting a house though that does not have a space for the boys’ “toys”. So the Lego cabinet is being used in the dining room as a sideboard, or buffet table! Although our sideboard is filled with Legos, not dishes! 🙂

Hopefully this post will help someone in their quest to organize Legos! This cabinet helped us tremendously! Since it is currently holding residence in the dining room, I was looking for a way to hide the containers and make it fit in a little better with the rest of the decor. I made some DIY cabinet curtains for the front and they look great. Check them out!