If you are an avid board game player, you probably have tons of board games lying around the house. When it comes to knowing how to store board games, it can be a bit tricky. We all know that board games come in boxes. Boxes take up space. It may be time to learn how to organize board games in order to live a less cluttered life, and be able to have nice display of your board game collection.
In this article, I will share with you some of my favorite board game organization tips.
How to Organize Board Games
Storing board games can be a bit tricky. When organizing board games, most people keep them in their boxes and stack them on a gaming shelf (either horizontally or vertically). Other ways for board game organization includes storing them in storage containers, drawers, or taking out the contents (such as game pieces and meeples) and storing them in baggies. I have found that the best way to store board games include stacking them tetris style on multiple shelves, mostly vertically, but some horizontally. This provides optimal space saving, while also looking awesome.
When it comes to knowing how to organize board games, there are a few things I like to keep in mind:
- Are all my board games together? Wait, weren’t there some in the basement closet?
- Which board games I want to be easily accessible. Ticket to Ride MUST be front and center.
- The size of each board game (big or small boxes). So many boxes!
- Can I get rid of any board games? Sad, but sometimes necessary.
How to Store Board Games
When it comes to knowing how to store board games, there are a few things I like to keep in mind:
- The amount of space I have. Will they be on shelves or will I use containers?
- Should I stack them horizontally or vertically?
- How should I store my smaller board games / card games? I’m looking at you Exploding Kittens.
How to Organize Board Games
Now that you have asked yourself some of the important questions when it comes to your board game collection and organizing board games, we can now begin talking about the best way to store board games!
1. Gather all your board games
When growing my board game collection, I had board games thrown all over the house. Some of them were in my basement closet and some were in my bedroom. They were everywhere! As my board game collection grew, I started thinking more about, “how can I organize my board games?”
I wanted all of my board games to be in the same spot, easily accessible, and looking great. Therefore, I went through my whole house and started collecting all of my board game stacks. I put them all in a central location and moved on to deciding how I should organize my board games in my living space.
Once you have all of your board games together, you need to create a dedicated space to store your board games. Let’s move on to tip #2!
2. Creating the Space for Your Board Games
After walking through my house thinking about where I should put my board games, I noticed that I had some shelves in my living room that were barely being used. I cleaned them off and decided that this would be my new board game shelf.
When deciding whether to store your board games on a shelf or in dedicated containers, it really depends on the space you have and the resources you have. Try to ask yourself these questions:
- Do you have shelves?
- Do you have containers?
- Do you want your board games to be displayed?
- Would you rather have your board games tucked away out of site?
If you want to show off your board games and put them on display, then shelves are the way to go. If you are more of a “better unseen” person, then storing them in containers or drawers can be better for you.
It all really depends on your interests and the resources you have within your home. Of course you can go out and buy some shelves to put up or containers to store.
Some people like to even go as far as removing all the boxes from the equation and storing all game components in baggies. They then store these baggies in containers or even a file system. I don’t really recommend this because I love keeping my game all together in the original box.
Once you decide where to put your board games, you can move on to how you would like to organize/display your board games.
3. Which Board Games Should Be Easily Accessible
I decided to store my games on shelves I had in my living room. I made sure my favorite games are easily accessible by placing them on the middle shelves. These are my “main” shelves that are usually at eye level or hand level.
You want to be sure that your go-to games are front and center. Some shelves are deeper than others. Deep Shelves are great because they allow you more storage space behind the front and center games. These games won’t be visible or accessed as easily, but they are still there and kept together with the rest of your collection.
If you are storing your board games in containers or bags, make sure your favorite games are in the front or on top of the container so that you can easily grab them. Additionally, if you have multiple storage containers, we recommend making one container the “favorites” container and putting this one towards the front or on top of the others.
4. Sorting By Size of Board Games
When using shelves, I then like to sort them by box size. Bigger boxes will go next to each other and smaller boxes will follow the same pattern.
If you are storing in a container, you may have to whip out your tetris skills and see which layout will fit the most boxes in one container.
Alphabetical order? If you want to go crazy, you can sort your board games in alphabetical order, by genre, publisher, game type, or even color. It’s all based on how you feel the best way to sort your board games are, go with what speaks to you and in the wise words of Marie Kondo, sparks joy!
5. Should You Stack Your Board Games Horizontally or Vertically?
My favorite way to organize my board games is to display them on a gaming shelf and stack them vertically. I feel like this is the most aesthetically pleasing way to store my board games. In my opinion, vertical storage is more visually pleasing to the eye.
Placing board games vertically on my shelf creates more space and allows me to easily remove a game from a shelf without having to adjust or pull out other games. I can then easily place the game back in it’s spot after playing. Vertical storage also acts as a “place keeper” for the game, making it that much easier to see where the game was stored so you can put it back in its place.
The downside to vertical storage? When placing games vertically on my shelf, I noticed that some of the game boxes were a little flimsy and were starting to open up. This causes some of the components of the box to start falling out. I was however able to come up with a solution. My trusty rubber bands (made specifically for board games) ensure that they wouldn’t open up and the game pieces wouldn’t spill out.
Because all board games aren’t the same size, you may need to tetris style your shelves here as well. Mix and match by storing your board games vertically AND horizontally. This can create a really cool display and provide the maximum amount of room when storing your board games.
Make sure the spines are visible. You want to be able to know which game is being displayed and also see the artwork when displaying your board games.
How to Store Board Games
We went over a few ideas on organizing board games, so let’s get into ways on how to store board games of different sizes.
6. Storing Smaller Board Games & Card Games
When it comes to storing smaller board games or card games, I have a few different storing ideas. I either stack them all up on my shelf if they are similar sizes, store them in one big box or even place them in a decorative basket that I place either on top of or on my shelf next to my bigger games.
This bigger box (like a shoe box, decorative cardboard box/basket, or plastic storage container) allows me to keep all of my smaller board games and is very easy to slide out from my shelf and choose a game.
7. Can I Get Rid of Any Board Games?
Get rid of bad boxes. I know it may be hard to part ways with your beloved board game, but if the box is ripped or damaged, it is no longer effective or efficient and let’s be honest, it’s downright ugly.
You can get rid of the box and store the game components in a bag. Put these types of bags in a bigger box or in their own section on your shelf or container.
If your collection is growing, create more space and get rid of those bad boxes. It’s ok, your board game will not hate you if you get rid of the original box and placing the board game components in a bag has no effect whatsoever on gameplay.
Also, you may find that it is time to donate old board games. You may decide to get rid of board games that either don’t get played often or you just don’t like, and that’s ok! Giving a board game away to charity or to someone who deserves it may be the best option for you to make room for newer board games.
Final Thoughts
I hope this article helped you gain more insight on how to store and organize your board games. If you have any questions or suggestions, be sure to message us on the contact page or comment on social media!
If you are looking for more ideas, check out this page on Pinterest for more board game organization ideas!