Organizing Board Games

With all their small pieces and often numerous pieces of paper, board games can easy become disorganized. Family game night just isn't the same if you can't find all the parts to your favorite game. This is a guide to organizing board games.

Solutions: Organizing Board Games

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Preserving Game Boards and Pieces

When my family purchases new games with game boards, before they play the first game, I use wide, clear packing tape and reinforce corners of both the bottom and top of the game box, and any inserts inside the box. I also place a strip of tape down the back side of the folded gameboard to give it extra strength - no more broken boards or untidy, ruined boxes! I then place as many as needed ziplock bags into the box to store games pieces after use. This really extends the life of the game for many generations! Games are expensive these days - try it!

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Keep Game Instructions In Binder

As a grad student, I find myself taking pieces out of miscellaneous children's games to use in therapy. At the end of the day, I have small plastic bags of pieces, some with instructions and original containers, some without. After a while, it becomes confusing.

I decided to make a copy of the instructions for all the games and put them in a centrally located loose leaf notebook binder. If need be, I can make copies from this binder to include in the small bags. The miscellaneous pieces may not make it back to their original containers, but at least I have the instructions and the title of the games for reference and future clean up.

By Holly from Dallas, TX

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Store Board Games in Ziplock Bags

My daughter has lots of board games. Eventually, the boxes get torn and pieces get lost. I purchased a large plastic container with a lid to hold the boards, and put all the game pieces and instructions into individual ziplock bags and into the container. Now all the board games are stored together with no missing pieces. You can also do this with puzzles. Just cut the picture off the puzzle box and store it in a container with a bag of the puzzle pieces.

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Sort Out Board Games Pieces At Once

To organize your board games, gather appropriate materials: snack bags, sandwich-size bags with a zipper, a marking pen, Scotch Brand Invisible Tape, and the right shelf space in the closet, or cupboard.

Spread all of the games on the floor or large dining room table. Deal with one game in front of you at a time. (Notice the playing card humor)? Examine the box and all of the toys, game pieces, letters (for Scrabble), play money, cards, board, or other accessories.

Place each group of items into one matching-sized bag. For the example of Monopoly, all houses and hotels go in one bag; all money goes in denominational order in another bag; both kinds of cards go in a stack in its bag; and the game pieces go in another bag. (Remember that the use of rubber bands to bind stacks of cards has drawbacks, ie. bending the cards or leaving dents, possible staining, drying out and hardening or crumbling, etc.)

Then, examine the board itself. Tape any tears of the graphics on the board surface. For taping larger tears of the fold in the cardboard, use a stronger tape, or fabric tape, and tape the board from behind, in a folded or closed position. This allows for the game board to open and close easily.

After that, check out the box. Tape all torn side seams, from the inside. Tape all tears of the picture and instructions (the graphics) on the surface. Fold the tape over along the edges the way you'd use bias tape.

Finally, place the game board in the box, first. Place each bag in the box, with sealed zipper, flattened down gently with most of the air squeezed out. Make certain all them are side by side, not stacked in layers, so that the box lid closes easily. Use the marker for naming the game on a new box if the original game box is not available, or if the name has been worn off. Rewrite the instructions or write up House Rules for those which have been altered.

When you are finished, stack them, flat, in the prepared space. Don't forget to file away your puzzles the same way. Ta-Daaaa! You are ready for fun.

By Miss Bonnie from Denver, CO

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Store Twister Game in Old Blanket Zipper Bag

I love these old plastic cases that blankets come in. I have found they store a Twister game quite nicely! It is our favorite birthday party game!

Blessings.

By Robyn

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