LEGO bricks … Tiny LEGO bricks … Everywhere

A couple times each month my living room seems to magically transform into a small version of LEGO Land after having been hit by a small red-headed tornado.  I love that my son likes to create things with LEGO bricks and, as long as they are not on the floor, I typically do not notice that his organized chaos has been left out for days on end.

Last week, however, I did notice that LEGO Land had spread and now covered a large card table and two TV trays.  We have a rather small living room and the LEGO invasion was taking up a pretty large chunk of prime real estate!  I decided that we, and by "we" I realize I mean "I", need to create a dedicated LEGO work and play area with cool storage.

I had attempted to do this in our basement several years ago.  At the time we had a very large salt water tank in the basement and my office was also in the basement, so we spent quite a bit of time downstairs.  When our marriage ended the salt water tank went to a new owner and I moved my office upstairs so I could hear the doorbell and keep an eye on my son and his friends a little easier.  Shortly after I noticed that my son stopped going downstairs alone.  The basement is no longer a suitable LEGO solution for us.

 

I found this idea in this thread eurobricks.com forum

It seems that the living room offers the best space for both storage and play - so I started looking for ideas on Pinterest.  After hours of searching I found an idea I really liked, using plastic food storage containers.  The containers are clear, so you can see what color is in each one and they are stackable so I can make it pretty.  In my head I was already playing Tetris with these containers of LEGO bricks!

I went to the store and stocked up on the 3 for $1.00 containers … then I started sorting LEGO bricks.  If you have never really build with LEGO bricks using LEGO building instructions before, when you start to build it is MUCH easier to have all of your LEGO bricks sorted into color piles first.  After a couple hours I was surrounded by a bunch of LEGO bricks which had been sorted, by color, into the storage containers.  And then it happened … I stood up … forgetting that I had a tote, still half full of LEGO bricks, on my lap.  (No, I don't know how I could forget that I had a tote on my lap … well, I have a theory about it, another story for another day.)  It is hard for me to describe the sound that hundreds of LEGO bricks make when they hit a hardwood floor, but it was a kind of cool sound.  There were tiny LEGO bricks everywhere - LEGO Land had become LEGO Lake!  I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry, so I laughed as I scooped them all back into the tote.

What I thought would be a "two hour" project has turned into a "multiple days" project … and now I'm not sure I still like my original plan.  While the storage containers look cool, the lids are a pain in the a$$ to pry off - and I learned that the lids also crack easily if you try to pry them off wrong.  I wouldn't want to play with my LEGO bricks if I had to fight with these lids every time I wanted to play… and my son was blessed with a lower frustration tolerance level than me … so  Anyone need slightly used food storage containers??

My latest obsession

My current obsession is my bullet journal (BuJo).  The Bullet Journal is, essentially, a highly customizable time management/planning organization system.  I fell in love with the fact that I can create whatever format of a monthly, weekly and/or daily planner and change it around until I figure out what is going to work for me … or when I get bored with it.  I can incorporate both my work and personal meetings and appointments into one place and stand a better chance of remembering those appointments because I am physically writing them down.  I can also dedicate pages for doodling so I am not scribbling all over my planner pages.  I can even dedicate pages to sketching to try to improve my free-hand skills (or not).  OH, and I don’t have to give up sticky notes either!!  (((My work laptop is covered in sticky notes that I should probably go through and make sure I addressed whatever I wrote down … not the best system in the world.)))

As I was trying to find the stencils and colored pencils I knew I had stashed somewhere I started to question my decision to take on another form of artistic expression.  I went through 3 large storage boxes, filled with rubber stamps from when I was into making my own greeting cards, to find the colored pencils.  I went through a storage closet, filled with photographs and scrapbooking materials, to find the stencils.  During this treasure hunt I took mental inventory of the number of random projects (honestly too many to count) that I was utterly obsessed with, spent lots of money on and then lost interest in, so they are at various stages of completion.  Card making, scrapbooking, calligraphy, paper making, beading, sewing, guitar playing, embroidery, cross-stitch, crocheting, knitting (need I continue?)  … will my BuJo eventually go by the wayside as well?  Only time will tell.

I have tried using a multitude of planners and, except for the Franklin Covey daily planner, only used them for a of months before losing interest or deciding that it was just too complicated to use long term.  I’m excited about the bullet journal because I can make changes on the fly, have everything in one book and because I can make it pretty.  AND, it provides the satisfaction of looking back and seeing a bunch of completed tasks.  It also makes me happy to that I can jot down writing prompts when they come to me on a dedicated page and not have to try to remember which stick note or what notebook it is in!  Creativity and happiness between two covers!