"What a piece of junk!"

(I'm way behind on the posting, please allow me to catch up.)

We scored big (BIG!) at this year's AUMC PDO yard sale. Held the first weekend in March, the sale is the school's big fundraiser. We, the parents, spend all week sorting, pricing, talking and keeping an eye out for the things we want. It's a lot of work but for a great cause — our kids! Given that I've been helping since Will attended, this was at least my fifth year, maybe even sixth, to participate.

I came home with some nice goodies — a green purse, a huge square basket, odds and ends for the kitchen. But the find of the day went to Will — the Millennium Falcon Lego set #4504. It's rare. It's retired. At 985 pieces, it's the biggest lego set we've ever bought. Priced at $10, I doubled it because I knew what a steal it was and hey, all the money is for the kids.

Here's the best part — the box was open but all the pieces were there! Even the minifigs! Double wow! It took forever to build (mostly because we had to work when Joseph was not around) and is a little fragile so not really for play, but so, so cool.

*Psst ... headline comes from the movie. Not a comment on the set.

We heart Legos

We're all about the Legos here. I don't think that's a big secret. What is a big secret is the best way to store Legos. Type lego storage ideas into Google and you get 8 million hits. Whoa!

I think I finally found a system that works for us. What we had — one 34 qt. storage box that fit under Will's bed— was not working. With everything jumbled together, it was hard to find the pieces we wanted when we wanted. Especially the small pieces.

Way back I had organized the bathroom closet with plastic shoe boxes. But they were left empty when we added shelving with baskets above the toilet. Then I had an aha! moment. Three of the shoe boxes fit perfectly into the 34 qt. storage box. So I got another latched-lid box and a few more shoe boxes and set to sorting. Small pieces got lumped together, then bricks, plates, car parts and "weird" pieces. I guess it would be more PC to call them speciality pieces. But weird they are.

The new system has been in place about two months. So far, so good. The builders (Will and Chris) report it is much easier to find pieces. I've only had to do one major resort since. Joseph thought it was great fun to pour the minifig box into the small pieces box. Groan! We may have to get another storage box after Christmas ... there are going to be a lot of legos under the tree and the boxes are at capacity right now as it is. 

Now I was all happy with our system until the November issue of "Family Fun" arrived on newsstands. It got all us lego mommas talking. While I wanted to run out and make it right away, this momma actually did. Awesome!

Got tips on storing legos or other toys? Please share!

Happy Lego-ween!