Column: Why recycling my LEGO boxes has made me a happier person
For whoever needs to hear it: recycle your LEGO boxes. Recycle your LEGO instructions. It’s going to make you a happier person.
Once upon a time, I had a garage piled high with empty LEGO boxes. Then I moved to a house without a garage and rented a storage unit for them instead. (With some actual LEGO in there too, to be fair.) Why? Because I was a victim of the collector’s mindset. I’m collecting these sets; their bricks, their minifigures, their instructions and even their boxes.
Throwing any one piece of that puzzle away was tantamount to sacrilege – not least because, one day, I might want to sell them. In effect, I was treating LEGO like a commodity. And in hindsight, that was a poisonous mindset to be in – so I’ve since shifted my outlook on LEGO. I’ve recycled every single empty LEGO box in my possession. I do the same as soon as I crack the seals on a new set. And it’s made me a happier person.
The line between that action and reaction is simple: I’ve disassociated collecting LEGO from capitalism. Back when I was hoarding boxes and instructions, I placed an intrinsic value on each and every one of my LEGO sets, and reasoned that all that associated paraphernalia would surely add value when the time came to sell up. Emphasis on when.
But there’s only so long you can kid yourself you’re going to sell your LEGO without actually selling any LEGO, and so ‘when’ became ‘if’, and ‘if’ eventually became ‘hypothetically speaking, were I ever to sell’, which is a long-winded way of saying ‘I’m never selling this LEGO, am I?’
Instructions ready for recycling. 
Straight down the tip with these lads.
The tipping point was renting that storage unit, and effectively paying to own LEGO I’ve already paid for. And it was then that I realised I’d been approaching this hobby all wrong.
I don’t buy games consoles, clothes, board games, technology or whatever else while thinking, “One day I’ll be able to get my money back for this.” Why should I? To achieve a 100% return on any product implies that my own enjoyment has had no part in the transaction. I’m buying that PS5 game to play it and enjoy it, and then maybe I’ll sell it on for half the price once I’m done, but I’ve got £30 of value out of it, so fair enough.
So it is with LEGO. I’ve built that copy of 76139 1989 Batmobile, and if I choose to sell it now – with box, instructions and so on – I could probably recoup at least what I paid. If I ditch the box and instructions? Probably less. Maybe it will have cost me £30 to build and admire on my shelf for two years. Fair enough.
In essence, I’ve stopped treating LEGO like a commodity. And it’s made me way happier – not just in removing myself of endless clutter through LEGO boxes and instructions, but in my day-to-day experience of building and enjoying the hobby, too.
Bon voyage, boxes. 
You love to see it.
I’m not bothered if a guest comes round, fawns over 71043 Hogwarts Castle on display, knocks a piece off and somehow loses it forever. I’m not bothered if one of my cats makes a beeline for a brand new box of LEGO and tears the packaging to shreds. I’m not bothered if I spill whisky on my instructions (okay, that’s a waste of whisky, so maybe ignore that one), or accidentally tear a page. These things happen – they’ve genuinely all happened to me – but where once I might have been incredibly anal about them, I just don’t care anymore.
It’s such a relief, and it all started with getting rid of my boxes. The instructions followed not long after – they take up even more space to an extent, and they’re all available online anyway. (I don’t remember the last time I actually fished out a physical manual, rather than turning to LEGO.com or, now, BrickSearch.) That shift in mindset has effectively released me from being too precious about anything in my life, whether LEGO or otherwise, because I’m no longer treating things like commodities.
I’ve placed my own enjoyment back into the value equation, and it’s liberating. Many of you probably already take this approach to LEGO, but if you don’t, you should genuinely give it a go. Recycle that box. Wave goodbye to those instructions. Mix up your minifigures, let your friends and family play with them, dismantle your models and get creative. (That’s kind of the point.)
In essence: free yourself from the shackles of late-stage capitalism and just enjoy LEGO again. Making an extra £30 a decade and a half from now isn’t going to be worth it.
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- I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.
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I keep everything Lego Technic. Anything less is heresy and sacrilegious.
I keep everything Lego Technic. Anything less is heresy and sacrilege.
I can’t agree on the instructions though… It’s sometimes better to flip the actual pages rather than digital (Easier and faster)
I still kept my boxes though, but only thing different is, all of them are flatten.
Furthermore, because my country receives tape boxes rather than thumbtabs, I don’t have to destroy the box while opening. (E.g sets like 10295, etc all thumbtabs in US but for me we got them tape up instead).
I throw all those that are thumbtabs.
This is the sentece that matters the most here: ” Making an extra £30 a decade and a half from now isn’t going to be worth it.”
I use my manual when building the set, but after that, neither box nor manual stays. I also agree with the “mix the minifigures” part. LEGO is meant to be unique for each and every one of us and to let us create our own thing. If all we do is follow the instructions, we’re doing it a disservice.
I recycled all of my Hundreds(over 450!) of Lego boxes 2 years ago and it felt great! Very liberating! Plus it freed up a lot of attic space for FULL Lego Boxes! It really gets to the point of “Why am I holding on to these?” Yes they can be beautiful to look at and appreciate, but I have the actual set for that.
I can’t agree with getting rid of the instructions though. That’d be like throwing away all my comic books because I can read them online!
I’ve never once thought of using an online instruction manual. If I need instructions in the future, I have them.
When my son told me his Lego Mario sets DON’T EVEN COME with instructions, I was flabbergasted! That’s an abomination!
And letting people touch my legos?
Are you crazy?
I carefully unpick the glued edges, fold them flat and store them in a pile which must take up less than 5% of the original space. Those sets I’ve resold I just reform and reglue. The box faces stay nice and flat too. I don’t even open the instructions, just use the online ones.
Let’s agree to disagree. I do respect your decision tho.
Or rather than throw them away you could sell them on eBay or Bricklink? Solves the problem of holding onto them and would help someone else who wants it to prop the value on their set they’re selling. Also as a buyer of 2nd hand LEGO for me it feels more new when the box and manual are included, and a better buy.
I was with you right up to “mix up your minifigures”! ??
Love this. Need to make a shift towards this myself.
Great article! i feel the same way. Enjoying the hobby in the present. Thank you!
Instructions can sell on ebay as well, especially for older sets. Personally I dislike building from a screen.
I keep boxes and instructions because I dismantle everything back into bags once I’ve built it (usually after a few weeks on display). Then it goes into the loft, boxed up. The sets I really like, I rebuild again a year or so later. Sets I don’t feel like building again, I sell.
Definitely depends how you enjoy Lego though. Your choice sounds a healthy one. Enjoy!
This article relates to me on a spiritual level. Was about to go get rid of my boxes before then I came running down and recovering them just before the trash guy came in. Now I’m more convinced that they have close to no value and happiness and decluttering is more important.
For manuals, you can consider donating, like to shopgoodwill.com — they actually do get picked up!!
??????????
It’s taken me a while, but I’m coming around to this mindset as well. I used to keep all the boxes. Then it was only ones for “special” sets. But after a recent flooding incident destroyed even my “special” boxes? I’ve realised I can live without them.
I do have to disagree, at least for now, on throwing away the instructions. While most are available online, I’ve noticed a lot of them (particularly around the late 2000’s and early 2010’s) have utterly awful image quality and colour grading, to the point where they’re basically unusable. One day when I’ve got enough free time, I plan to replicate as many models as I can in Stud.io and use it to generate new, usable digital instructions, but that hasn’t happened yet…