Kids’ puzzles and games can be tricky to keep tidy, with all their small, separate pieces. These puzzle organizing ideas will help you get your puzzles in order – you’ll never have to search for lost pieces again!
Creative ways to organize puzzles and board games!
Any parent will probably have the same love-hate relationship with their kids’ puzzles and board games. They’re a great educational toy, and it’s great to see a child really focusing on a tricky puzzle. The best bit is when they persevere until they manage to complete it, then feel super proud afterwards. It’s so amazing to watch.
But, wow… the mess!
Puzzles and board games always come in the most enormous cardboard boxes! They take up heaps of storage space, and they often end up just being piled up in the corner instead. Worse still are those wooden board puzzles that don’t even come in a box at all! The pieces stay together for all of five minutes before being spread across the floor, getting lost under furniture. And there’s nothing more frustrating than a puzzle or game that doesn’t have all the right pieces.
Luckily, there are ways you can organize your kids’ puzzles!
10 Creative Puzzle Organization Ideas
Here are my top tips and tricks for sorting out your puzzles once and for all. These creative organization ideas will help your puzzles to fit in even the smallest closet. They’ll also help you keep all the pieces together, so you’ll never lose a piece again. Whatever issue you have with your kids’ puzzles and games, there’s sure to be a solution here!
1. Swap bulky boxes for zip-top bags
First of all, you’ll want to get rid of all those bulky cardboard boxes. They’re always unnecessarily huge, and just take up so much space in the closet.
Instead, use zippered pouches, like in this photo from Blue i Style! They’re much narrower, so you can fit heaps of puzzles or games in the same space as one big box.
Since the bags are clear, you can easily see what’s inside, and they can be neatly stacked in a box.
2. Cut the front of the box to display inside the bag
There’s no use having tons of bags of puzzles if you don’t know what’s inside each bag. Your kids will never be inspired to put together a puzzle if they don’t know what the picture looks like!
So make sure you label each bag with the name of the game or puzzle inside. Even better, cut the front off the box, and tuck it inside the bag, like this example from Real Creative Real Organized.
Now you can see exactly what’s inside the bag, how many pieces there are, and any other details you need.
3. Keep sets of cards inside smaller pouches
Board games can get pretty complicated! You probably don’t want to just dump various types of cards, playing pieces, etc. into the same large pouch.
So if your board games contain lots of smaller sets within the game (like a stack of Chance cards in Monopoly) you can use smaller ziplock pouches inside the main pouch, to keep everything together. Here’s a great example from Homegrown Traditions.
It doesn’t even matter if you end up with 3 smaller ziplocks inside the main pouch. You’ll still feel much more in control, and will be saving heaps of storage space! Do what you’ve got to do to get each game properly organized.
4. Keep an inventory of pieces
As well as keeping different types of game pieces within smaller bags, you also need a game inventory. This tells you how many of each thing there should be – 10 green cards, 20 blue cards, 6 game pieces, etc.
This way, you can count up each item when you tidy the game away. You won’t risk finding a runaway card under the coffee table a week later!
The Kim Six Fix points out that this information is often listed in the instruction booklet, in case you’re not sure what should be included!
5. Store like things together, and label categories clearly
Now, you need to find somewhere tidy to store your newly organized puzzles and games. Storage boxes and baskets work well, and you should be able to fit plenty of bags of puzzles in each box.
If you have lots of puzzles and games, try to organize them by type – so jigsaw puzzles in one box, card games in another box, board games in another, etc.
Don’t forget to label your boxes clearly, like JaMonkey did. This will make it really easy for your kids to find exactly what they’re looking for, and they’ll be much more likely to play!
6. Label each puzzle piece with a number, letter or color
If your kids are likely to tip multiple puzzles out of their bags at the same time, it’s a great idea to label each piece, like here on The Autism Helper. A huge heap of mixed up puzzle pieces isn’t a sight any parent ever wants to see, but at least if you know they’re all labeled, it will be much easier to separate them again!
When you transfer your puzzles from their bulky cardboard box to their ziplock bag, just write a number or letter on the back of each piece. Make sure you also label the ziplock bag itself.
This way, it’s easy to separate mixed up puzzles, and if you find a single piece lost under the sofa, you’ll immediately know exactly which puzzle it belongs to!
7. Decorate plastic boxes for puzzle pieces
If you’re not sold on the idea of storing your puzzles and games in ziplock bags, don’t worry! There are plenty of other options available to you.
Ask Anna stores her puzzles in matching plastic tubs, which stack neatly in a cupboard. This method doesn’t save quite as much space as using bags, but you’re still replacing all those different sized boxes with something much more uniform. If all your puzzles are stored in the same type of box, they’ll stack beautifully. No more higgledy piggledy piles of cardboard boxes like you probably had before!
Plus, they look a lot more attractive this way too!
Don’t forget that all the other puzzle organizing tips in this post still apply, even if you don’t choose to use ziplock baggies. You’ll still want to make sure you label each puzzle piece on the back, and include the picture from the front of the puzzle in the box.
8. Use a puzzle rack
If your kids are younger, and most of their puzzles are the kind with a thick wooden board, they may not fit in plastic bags in the same way that jigsaw puzzles do.
Plus, there’s no point hiding a toddler’s puzzle in a bag that they won’t be able to open on their own!
Instead, try a puzzle rack, as seen here on Between Carpools. They’re perfect for keeping board-backed puzzles tidy, while still allowing easy access for a younger kid. They can easily see all their puzzles, and take whichever one they like from the rack, without tipping the entire pile all over the place!
9. Use Tupperware tubs for wooden puzzle pieces
If you’re keeping your puzzle boards on a rack, you can choose to leave the puzzles assembled, with the pieces stored inside the puzzle board itself.
Or, if you’d prefer to leave the puzzles unassembled (perhaps to tempt your child to complete them!), you can store the puzzle pieces separately.
Counting Coconuts uses Tupperware pots to store wooden puzzle pieces, and labels the tub and the corresponding puzzle board with a sticker. The child can easily see which pieces go with which board.
10. Teach your kids the system!
Whatever organization system you go for, it’s super important that you teach your kids how the system works, so they can help you maintain it! There’s no point in you spending an hour sorting puzzles, if your kids are never going to put them back in the right place anyway.
Make sure you choose a system that’s age-appropriate for your children. I wouldn’t expect a 1 year old to open ziplock bags on their own, for example! Then just teach them how to use it, and how to maintain it.
Kelly from Smart School House taught her kids to tidy their puzzles into open baskets. She made sure to draw a colored dot on the back of each puzzle piece, to help them keep track of which piece belonged to which puzzle.
Whichever method you decide to go for, you’re sure to have much tidier cupboards from now on!
Don’t forget to PIN these puzzle organization ideas for later:
