Gaining Control of the Game Cabinet

Our family loves spending time together playing games which means we have a lot of them. Storing all our games has been a challenge for years. Stacking board games on top of each other with card games tossed in usually leads to a crashing pile of games on the floor every time someone wants to pull a game out of the cabinet.

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My obsession with organization just couldn’t stand it any longer! A few years ago I tackled our game cabinet and we’ve been pleased with the result ever since. I discovered a way to store our board games and card games that allows for easy access to each game. No more falling games. No more missing pieces. No more hassle trying to get our favorite games from the cabinet!

First, I put rubber bands around many of our board games (and other games stored in boxes). Many of these games had been played so many times that the lids had a difficult time staying attached to the bottom of the game boxes. Rubber bands were a great solution to keep everything secured together.

Next, I gathered all of our card games and made sure all the cards were accounted for in each game. If the card box was ruined I either put a rubber band around the stack of cards or placed the cards and the game instructions into a ziplock bag. Card games with intact boxes also got a rubber band wrapped around the opening of the box to ensure no cards fell out.

Then came the real challenge of trying to figure out a better way to store all of our games. I decided to place the card games in plastic tubs that could easily be pulled out and rummaged through and then returned to its dedicated storage spot.

Board games are now stored vertically, lined up like books, so that you can quickly pull out a game and then easily return it to its original spot in the cabinet.

I purposely moved our game cabinet from the lower cabinets to the ones up high. I was tired of cleaning up after clever toddlers who mastered the safety locks and pulled all of our organized games on to the floor. Storing the games up high means that a few of my children need to use a stool or ask for assistance when getting a game but it also prevents the toddler from creating a mess.

We have more games than storage space in our cabinets so several of our games, like Ticket to Ride, Catan and Dominion, are stored in another room. What can I say? We love playing games as a family!

If you liked this creative solution to storing games then you might enjoy this post on how we store our puzzles.