My son is now at that age that he is totally into all things LEGO®.   At the age of five, he’s graduated from his pre-school Duplos (which he has kindly given to his little three-year-old sis) and has moved into full-on building mode with his Hero Factory robots, villains and monsters and more recently, building his very own far, far away galaxy with LEGO® Star Wars.

I love the creativity that LEGO® inspires in my boy, but I had never found a good way to store all those tiny interlocking pieces.   Some of them are way smaller that I remember from my childhood.  I tried Ziploc bags, old shoe boxes and even plastic bins, but no matter what I did to collect all the pieces when he was done, there was always that one renegade piece that would go AWOL until it was re-located when I would inevitably step on it barefoot and howl out in pain!  A friend once told me that stepping on a LEGO® or even one of those little plastic Army men as a parent is karmic payback for not picking up your own toys when you were a kid – and I have to say I’m starting to believe it.

So not only did I need to find a creative way to make sure my boy picked up all his toy bricks, but also a great way to store them.

Enter Neat-Oh! and their LEGO® Star Wars™ ZipBin® Toy Box & Playmat.

What I really like about this product is that it’s not only a cool storage bin, but also a playmat that features a colorful intergalactic scene, including pictures of actual Star Wars characters including Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, C-3PO and my personal favorite, R2-D2.

All of my son’s LEGO® Star Wars toys stay nice and tidy in the durable bin which measures to 13.5 x 12 x 8 inches, so it’s a good size to fit lots of pieces in there. When my boy is ready to play, he unzips the four corners (they have sturdy, heavy-duty zippers) and he’s got the playmat to play on.   The playmat also helps to keep him contained to play in one area, so I don’t find LEGO pieces scattered all around the house!  When in playmat mode, it can be easily wiped clean if your child spills any food or drinks on it (you know creating a universe is hard work and you get hungry!).   When he’s all done playing, he zips up the four corners and puts the lid back on.  He can even easily take his bin on playdates or trips to Nana & Pop Pop’s house!

Neat-Oh! makes their Zip Bin in several themes for both boys and girls  – such as Hot Wheels (which includes a built-in ramp to race the cars down) and Barbie (a great way to store not only dolls, but clothes and all those tiny high-heeled shoes she wears!).  With the holidays coming up, I think they make for a great gift – one that both kids and parents appreciate!

The LEGO® Star Wars™ ZipBin® Toy Box & Playmat is reasonably priced at $19.99 and is available from Neat-Oh! or Amazon.com.

My son loves playing with his LEGO® Star Wars™ ZipBin® Toy Box & Playmat and my feet are thankful for no longer having LEGO Boba Fett literally on my heels!

Now it’s your turn to share.  What are some of your best ideas for storing your kids’ toys?

For full disclosure:  I was sent a complimentary sample of the LEGO® Star Wars™ ZipBin® Toy Box & Playmat from Neat-Oh! in order to try and review for this blog.  As always, the opinions expressed in this post and on The Harried Mom are all my very own and are not influenced in any way.  Please do your own research before purchasing products, your opinion may differ.

The Kid Toy Storage Solutions – LEGO® Star Wars™ ZipBin® Toy Box & Playmat Review by The Harried Mom, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.