If only I could go back in time. A time when there wasn’t a block of Lego in my house. I’ll never forget my son’s teacher in his first year of school saying how wonderful it would be for him to have Lego. Uggghhhh! I wished I’d never listened to her. I had to come up with a DIY Lego & toy storage solution asap.

Sure, it’s great stuff and he loves it, not as much as I would like him to but he has created some amazing things from it and some amazing messes! It doesn’t matter how much you tell him to pick it up, there’s always one little piece, just waiting to be stood on by Mumma when she goes in to check on him at night. Ouchie! That and his other toys were really getting to me so while I was making over his room just recently I decided to organise everything with this very easy DIY Lego and Toy Storage unit.

This is the before shot. My husband was given this metal trolley and it was perfect for my son to wheel around a working surface for him to create his Lego on but with the mesh top, the small pieces just fell through. He also has a collection of plastic army men, Matchbox cars and other bits and pieces. I did have a few of those plastic baskets but same thing. The small pieces always fell through. I was on the hunt for absolute ages for suitable baskets or containers for all those bits and pieces and I mean for ages! I always tried my local op shops and second hand outlets but with no luck. The discount department and dollar stores never really had anything I wanted either only if you wanted to part with big bucks.

I did however find these! Can you believe it? Cat litter trays. I was at the dollar store looking for something else one day and I saw these for $2 each! They were perfect. The perfect size and no holes for small pieces to fall through. The cream tray was to put on top of the trolley so any creations my son had made could be put on there. (The OCD side of me would’ve preferred this to be black also but no such luck. I was just excited to have something suitable so I grabbed it.)

There are four separate trays. One for WIP Lego projects (he also has a 3 drawer storage unit just for Lego), a tray for his miscellaneous toys, a tray for his army paraphernalia and a tray for his Matchbox cars and they fit the trolley perfectly.

I think these are Lego Bionicles, from memory, but I’m so pleased we’ve got an organised space for him to work in, it’s mobile and all for the low price of $10, the cost of the plastic trays. Sometimes it pays to think outside the box, literally, and look for storage boxes in other sections of your store. Let’s see how long he can keep it this organised and how long it is before I don’t need to visit the ER to remove a piece of Lego from the sole of my foot! (Just kidding.)