This closet used to give me nightmares. It’s in our hallway and because the doors are always open most everyone who walks into our living room gets a good look at the mess that it is. I walk by and shut the doors multiple times a day, but it is the most popular spot in the house with my younger kids and they always have them open grabbing toys and games.

A year ago, I saw someone organize their games in matching boxes so they would stack better. Genius! I love buying containers anyway so this was the perfect solution. (These are sterilite containers from Target)

There are games that have large boards, so they stayed in their original boxes. But you wouldn’t believe how much space you save when you get rid of the oversized packaging. (This was also a good opportunity to purge the games that we liked, but never played and the ones that were missing pieces.) And now instead of being a complete disaster, it’s only a mild disaster that is easy to recover from. Inevitably a game is played and pieces don’t make it back in the box. I find them in the house and put them on the shelf, figuring eventually it will make its way back into the box. And then pretty soon I have a shelf covered with mismatched pieces and one of the kids ends up with the Saturday chore of straightening the closet.

But we’ve managed to keep it this way for over a year which I’m going to classify as a win. And I’m still using the paper storage I built years ago and I still love it. Double win. I’ve been slowly chewing the elephant that is the kitchen remodel, it’s nice to have a little win in the game closet!

Organized Game Closet