Hey there! It’s time for another small organized space post. This time I’m sharing our organized family board games cabinet. We love playing board games and we have quite a collection of them. My youngest (15) especially loves playing board games and often gets them as birthday and Christmas presents. As for me, I have a love, hate relationship with the board game. Some I love and some I hate, ha! Listen there is no way you are going to get me to play Monopoly with you. Nope not gonna happen, unless of course it’s Golden Girls Monopoly and then I make an exception. And yes this is an actual game I own and it is awesome!
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The problem with regular Monopoly is that it NEVER ENDS. Seriously why? And my kid would play for 10 hours straight if I let him. Not happening! Also The Game of Life, uggh. And the worst one of all time? Candyland. Just when you see the end in sight, you are sent right back to the beginning. Brutal! That game I refused to even donate to the thrift store in order to save another mom from the sheer torture of it all. Instead the one we owned quietly disappeared in the night never to be found again. Shhhh, no one say a word.
However lest you think I’m the worst mom EVER, I am not above a compromise. So since Monopoly really is my son’s favorite, we found Electronic Monopoly and all is right in the world. Not only do you not have to count money in this version, but it takes one hundred less hours to play than the original. Thank you Jesus.
Now that I’ve gotten all that off my chest it’s time to get into how we organize all our family board games. But this too might be a little controversial because some organizers will not be happy with me when they see this. You see right now there is a trend going around to toss the board games boxes and instead organize your games into pretty little containers or baggies (not as cute but still quite effective). And yes you save boat loads of space! It don’t hate it, I just don’t do it. But I do have a very good reason.
Occasionally we need to cycle through our games to make room for new ones and to donate the ones no longer played with. And herein lies the dilemma. I just don’t feel right donating a game without it’s original box. There I said it. I do think it would be totally fine to do and I don’t judge others that do however I just can’t. And if you go back to the very first picture in this post, you’ll find the reason why.
That Golden Girl’s Monopoly Game? It was a gift from my bestie and she bought it used at the thrift store for me. It was in immaculate condition and completely intact. And it made my heart so happy to receive it because I love the Golden Girls and I also love thrifted gifts. It was a total win-win! So I guess deep down inside I want my donated games to bring the same amount of joy to someone else especially if they get it as a gift.
However if you are limited on space and don’t have space for a games cabinet (I totally understand!), than tossing the boxes might be the best option for you. To see how to do it, please visit this great post from my blog friend Mique at Thirty Homemade Days.
Okay for real now I’m back on topic. Focus Laura. Our games cabinet lives in our basement beside a retro games tables. The cabinet wasn’t terribly messy but I was looking to make room for some new games we’ve gotten recently.
I pulled everything out and had my son go through it all with me. He’s usually pretty good about purging but not when it comes to board games. He let go of ONE game that he no longer plays with. Bye Creationary. Whoa, wait! I just checked this game on Amazon and it’s selling for $140! Maybe I should try and sell it on Ebay instead, wow! 🙂
I thought maybe we could let go of more, but nope he didn’t want to. And thankfully I was able to make it work and fit everything back inside with a little creative organizing. If I couldn’t have made the space work, we would have gone back in and purged until it fit. You know my rule! However we didn’t have to this time around thanks to some dollar store supplies, yay!
Organized Family Board Games:
Here is the before.
And here is the after.
The main changes I made are on the middle shelf. To create space, I added a shelf riser with some clear plastic bins to the top of it and two large white bins underneath. The three small bins help contain the smaller card games. It also means less digging to find the one you want. All containers are from Dollarama.
The white bins are one of my favorites from the dollar store because the lower front makes it easier to see what’s inside.
You might remember I also use them in my fridge.
So that’s it. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make the biggest difference. Whether you keep the boxes or not, what’s most important is having a system of some kind to keep them in check. A system sets boundaries (like my cabinet) so you know your limits and can stay within them.
I’ll end today’s post by sharing with you two more of our favorite games with you. In addition to Monopoly, the other game that brings my son great joy is Throw Throw Burrito. Basically this game requires you to throw burritos at one another. What could go wrong? As you can imagine there is a lot of laughter going on with this one.
This next one, Sequence, is more my speed and nobody gets hurt, ha! It’s a pretty easy game to figure out as you work to create sequences of five.
What small space will you be organizing this weekend? Happy organizing y’all!
Please share!
Susan says
I purged most of the long box games and rebought them in versions that fit in the book shelf on their sides,
Donna DeHetre says
I think I’m a lost cause. Your before picture looks like my stuff on my BEST day. Bless you tho. I am thinking twice about fridge!
Laura Wittmann says
No one is ever a lost cause. I agree, the before wasn’t bad at all and if we hadn’t gotten new games, I probably would have left it :). But a freshen up always feels so great!
Laura
Hilda Rodgers says
I completely agree with not getting rid of the boxes Laura. We take good care of our games and when we let them go I want someone else to fully enjoy them too…. box included. I’m so glad I’m not the only one with a whole cabinet full of games though! I always felt like we had too many, but in the end, as long as they fit in the one cupboard and they are played with, I’m OK with it. I have smaller containers with card games as well, but I may add a shelf riser to help create a little more space. Thanks for the tip!
Frances-Agape says
(Blush) I am the game hoarder in our family.
I joked that I had my son so I would have someone to play with ! (Hubby loves sport but hates card/board games)
I have been wondering for months about bins like yours for our frig.
Hubby’s other oddity is that he prefers zip-lock bags for most leftovers.
But, Lordy, they look totally haphazard and are harder to corral than board games!
But I worry that the bins would affect the frig efficiency – air flow, cooling, etc. Spoiled food is worse than clutter.
THANKS for all your wonderful helps and answering this particular issue.
Peace, Love, Blessings, Health and Happiness!