We love to play games as a family. They’re well-used, well-loved and most of the boxes have gotten ripped and damaged over time. I taped the edges and corners, only to have them rip again. Can you relate? I finally decided it was time for a better solution. When I saw Hello Happy Home post about organizing games into bags, I knew I had found the solution to my game organization problems.
It took me a few days to collect all the right containers and go through each game, but I’m so happy with the results! It saves a TON of space, keeps the games more protected then they were in broken boxes, and looks amazing.
Have I convinced you yet? Follow these steps to organize your games … you’ll never look back.
First things first, in order to organize your games, you need to pull them all out and put them in one single spot. Gather games from closets, bedrooms, toy rooms, kids rooms and anywhere else they may be hiding.
Let’s go through and clean house while we’re at this organizing business, ok? Have you played all of these games in the last year? Last 2 years? If the answer is no, you should probably donate them.
Also, keep an eye out for missing pieces that make a game impossible to play or ones that are broken beyond repair. Those should probably be thrown out.
You’ll want a couple packages of zipper pouches that come in a variety of sizes. Different games take up different amounts of space and you want them to fit snug in the bag so the contents don’t move around too much.
Pull all the game contents out of the box and find the bag the fits them best. If there are cards or small pieces plus a bigger game board, use one of the smallest zipper pouches for those and put them inside your larger bag.
The biggest game boards, like Monopoly and Candy Land required a larger zipper pouch. These ones were perfect for those large board games.
Plastic photo boxes are also helpful to have for small puzzles and games. I used mostly these 4×6″ photo boxes, but the 5×7″ photo boxes are also helpful for bigger puzzles and games. These Large Hinged Boxes are perfect for cards and card games.
Use sharp scissors to cut out the name of the game from the original board. Attach the name to the outside of the zipper pouch using clear packing tape. Make sure to keep any instructions as well. You could either tape instructions to the back of the bag, or place them inside with the other pieces.
This game organization system works like files in a filing cabinet. They all sit vertically so they’re easy to shuffle through and find what you’re looking for. Nothing is stacked on top of anything else.
These basketweave storage bins from The Container Store work perfectly for my game bags. I got a couple bigger bins and a couple smaller ones. These narrow plastic storage bins work great for cards.
I separated my kid and adult games so that it would be easier for my kids to find what they were looking for. I used chalkboard tags and a white paint marker to label everything. A labeler also came in handy for the card storage bin.
I’ve loved this new method for game organization! It feels like so much less wasted space and everything is uniform. I hope you love it too.
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[…] No more broken, unsightly boxes. I detailed the entire process in a blog post that you can view here. This was such a simple organization project, but it made a huge difference in our game […]
But what do you do with all of the pieces? For example Ticket to Ride…you have 5 different train sets and two different sets of cards…I’m sure you don’t just dump all of them in the big bag together. Do you use individual zip lock bags for each to what? We’re super into this idea because we have tons of games and the game closet is totally a mess. We already bought the zipper bags and photos storage bins and are ready to go…I’m sure we can figure it out but if you’ve already got a solution I’d love to hear it.
I put the smaller pieces and cards into the small zipper pouches and then everything into a large zipper pouch. You can also use elastics to hold cards together.
Loved this and can’t wait to do my kids games! Wondering if you have any suggestions for lego organization?!?!?
We don’t have a ton of legos, so we just keep ours all together in a plastic bin.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Since a lot of us moms probably have very similar games would you mind breaking out which games you out into which size pouches? Since you have already done the work a breakdown would be time saving for those of us who are wanting to do the project…it would be like a little cheat sheet!
I love this idea, my college daughter asked for games, so I’m starting this for her since she has limited storage space. I’m also buying games at garage sales and Goodwill since I don’t need the boxes. How would you store Apples to Apples, it’s only cards, but there are 1008 cards.
Such a great idea to grab games at garage sales or thrift stores! I’d put a game with a bunch of cards into a zipper pouch and just put them into 2 piles side-by-side.
[…] out Brittney’s post on how to organize boards game for more […]