SEATTLE — Let's have a word about LEGOs.Yes, they've helped turn kids into mini-engineers and problem solvers. But who hasn't accidentally stepped on one of those piercing pieces?
With two growing boys, Sarah Kirk once lived in a house overrun with LEGOs. Until she remembered her grandmother's solution 40 years ago.
A bag she made for Kirk's brother. She still has the note that came with it.
“When it is time to put your Legos away you grab the rings with the red bows,” she reads.
There are 83 LEGOs for every person on Earth. Kirk figured a lot of people could use a place to put them all.
Today she sells upgraded and modernized versions of her grandmother's bags, all made in Seattle. Swoop Bags she calls them.
She came up with the name on a walk with a friend.
“I was like ‘OK I have to come up with a name for this and you kind of scoop it up, swoop it up, I don't know’ and she's like ‘Swoop. It's a swoop. A swoop bag!’”
Eight years later, Kirk is sending swoop bags all over the world. They come in all kinds of colors, materials, and sizes, but each one serves the same basic purpose.
“This way you can actually have a bag full of toys,” she explains. “If you need to clean up quickly you just swoop it up and you know tie it, put it on a hook, shove it underneath the bed. You can keep it anywhere really around the house.”
It may be one of the ultimate life hacks for any parent. And it's all thanks to a grandmother in the 1970s and a granddaughter who brought swooping into the 21st century.