I’m usually hesitant about buying a big, expensive LEGO kit because, after my kids put it together once, then what? Sometimes kids keep playing with it, sometimes it ends up dissembled with random bricks I discover all over the house months later. Which is why I’m all a-flutter over Rebrickable, a website that breathes new life into your already-purchased LEGO kits by giving your kids ideas, plans and patterns to build other cool things, all using the bricks they already own.

Well, maybe you buy a few more. But you don’t have to.

Created a few years ago by Nathan Thom, Rebrickable is sort of like a cooking website that lets you enter the ingredients you have on hand to see what recipes you can make with them. Though, instead of food, you’re entering your kids’ LEGO kits.

With both official LEGO sets as well as MOCs (user-submitted My Own Creations) in their database, there are a crazy number of new ideas to keep LEGO builders of all ages happy. Everything from fancy cars and vehicles, to robots with moveable parts, to a modification of the LEGO Friends Butterfly Beauty Shop that turns it into a modular, open-backed dollhouse. We also happen to be partial to smaller designs too, like a Steampunk LEGO carriage.

And, if your kids come up with their own MOC, they can submit it to Rebrickable for other people to discover.

It’s not the most fancy looking site (clearly the creativity is being saved for the actual LEGO building) but it’s not too hard to navigate either. Just go to the main page, and type in the Set IDs for the kits you want to combine; or use the search feature to find kits by their picture or name.

You can combine up to three kits and even indicate if you want color matching to be exact or if it’s not something you’re concerned with at all. The advanced search options are extensive and let you add things like minifig parts or patterned pieces.

When you receive search results, they are sorted by how well your available bricks match what you’ll need for a particular project. Downloadable building instructions for each project (important, right?) are either provided on Rebrickable or at the official LEGO site.

If you have prolific builders, you may even want to purchase instructions for oh, say a 8769-brick working ferris wheel. Or just sign up for a free account which lets you enter all your kits so that everyone can be considered for new building ideas. Members can even enter all their individual bricks so that those can be taken into account too. This might take a while but, hey, weren’t you just looking for something to keep the kids busy on rainy days?

Check out Rebrickable which offers LEGO instructions and patterns for new LEGO projects you and your kids can build from the sets and parts you already own.