How to Sort Legos

If you got here by google search, I may have lured you under false pretences because the full title of this post is actually, “How to sort legos (and lose your sanity in the process).”

I have an indifference-hate relationship with Legos. When they are directly in the path of my vacuum cleaner, they are sure to be sucked up without regards to whether they are a car axle, a lego man head, a filler 3-bit piece, or a bunch of bananas. They can hang with the dust and spiders until it’s time to empty the vacuum cleaner.

That’s the indifference part.

The hate part comes when I am sequestered into sorting them by axles, and heads, and bananas, and 2-bit/ 3-bit/ 4-bit/ 6-bit/ 8-bit/ 10-bit/ 12-bit — and then raised 2-bit/ 3-bit/ 4-bit/ 6-bit …

You get the picture.

Legos are gooood for them, says husband.

They’ll still be using them when they’re teenagers, says husband.

The pieces need to be organised so the kids can find what they need when they’re ready to build, says husband.

Then he sits down, and gleefully pulls open a mini drawer that contains only the 6-bits that have three extra holes in the middle. He extracts a red one.

Can we please stop, Mom? pleads Gabriel (the most industrious of the three kids).

We have each scooped an overflowing handful to put on the rug and sort so that we can chip away at the masses that still sit in the plastic tray just waiting to be brought home. But of course we can’t even manage to make our way through the handful because these pieces are weird and we don’t know where they’re supposed to go.

Didn’t you know that you can unmount these, honey? says husband.

Husband, of course, has to go to work and is not blessed with all the delightful hours we have to sort legos. I urge the kids to continue for five more minutes until we can at least sort what’s on the floor and clear a space to walk. Fifteen minutes later, there is no apparent dent made in the piles on the floor and I accidentally step on a tiny plastic drawer, flinging its contents across the floor.

It’s the one with all the itty, bitty, bitty, bitty, bitty, bitty pieces.

We put the larger boards and circle shapes in recycled plastic flowerpots.

The best of all is that it’s free!!! says husband.

We put the axles and wheels and wings in longer plastic drawers.

We are leaving for Switzerland tomorrow. I have packing to do. I don’t have time for this business of trawling the clanking lego pieces, searching for the L-shaped boards (in 8-bit and 4-bit) so that I can put them in the appropriate plastic flowerpot.

krwsh, krwsh, krwsh, krwsh, krwsh

Although, between you and me, it is a little soothing.

That is, until I see the floor and remember that I had planned on vacuuming all the rooms before we left so we could come back to a clean house. And then I just want to KonMari the heck out of those legos. (chews lip)

Oh look! A 6-bit L-shape piece!

* * * * * 

I’ll be Instagramming from the Alps next week but won’t be on the blog. We’re volunteering at the camp for 50 pre-teen kids so I’m not even going to fool myself into thinking there will be free time. Wish me luck!

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