Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Works For Me Wednesday...Puzzle Storage

Around here we like to do lots of puzzles. My seven year old and five year old love to take out a puzzle and work on if for a few days. We really like the big 300 or more pieces puzzles, which come in good size boxes usually. Like many, we are a little short of storage space for all of our kiddos games, toys, etc. So I am in the process of scanning on my printer (or you could photocopy) the picture on the front box of each puzzle. Then I'm putting all the puzzle pieces in a large Ziploc bag along with the picture of the puzzle. Next, I'm going to store them in a plastic storage container so they are kept all together. Not only is this saving space and it helping us not to loose our puzzle pieces!

For more tips head on over to Rocks In My Dryer!

4 comments:

Sharon said...

What a cool idea to scan the photo. We have some puzzles, but we have tons of board games. I have alway thought of storing the boards together and zipbagging the tokens/pieces, but I didnt want to lose the picture. I think we are going to scan them.....But I wonder if they are too big....hmmm.

Anonymous said...

They have the extra large plastic bags now that I think would hold large board games. And that might be an idea that you could sell to Ziploc or Glad--to produce an extra durable bag sized for children's games, toy pieces and puzzles. The puzzle idea is a GREAT one! Thanks.

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine does something similar. She also numbers each of the puzzles and writes the number on the backs of all the pieces for each puzzle. That way if a lone piece is found say, in the couch, she knows exactly which puzzle it belongs to!

Angela S said...

lazyorganizer.com is one of my favorite sites. Anyway she has these canvas zipper bags in all sizes with vinyl fronts so you can see through, and handles so they can hang. I got a few a while back and love them for puzzles and games and such. Anyway I've got a button on my blog to look at them or just go over to hers. You'll find a ton of great ideas for doing this.

We actually have started putting all our games in bags too, storing is much easier that way. What I'd recommend to do as well is first make sure the bags are extra big so there is room to spare and for kids to get everything in on their own, second, get more durable bags either ziplocs or glad because they are a little thicker than walmart brand and will last longer. Finally, it sounds like you've thought of this, either have them in a bigger container or label an extra bag missing pieces. That way when you find random pieces around the house, you can just put them in that extra bag and sort them/find their homes later.

Good luck!