Elizabeth got several puzzles for Christmas, and she LOVES them. The boxes were always out, and the pieces were always scattered about the floor. And since then, the boxes have long been demolished. So, I needed to find something (for my sanity) to organize the pieces by puzzle again.
I bought several of these wire baskets at the Dollar Tree for her birthday party in July, and man, I wish I had bought every one they had, because I’ve used them for so many things since then.
I grabbed an empty one and a couple of ziplock bags. Then, I managed to find a picture of the puzzle from the broken boxes and cut it out.
Then just sort the pieces, throw in the picture, and rejoice before they’re all dumped out and mixed together again!
I have been on an organizing binge lately. Last year, I focused on getting rid of everything, and now that the house is almost completely cleared out, and the balance seems so much better, I’m trying to make things flow a little better with organizing! Truth be told, I have always been way OCD and organized, so be prepared for much more!
In the meantime check out these posts I think you’ll like:
When we had lots of tray puzzles I took each puzzle and removed the pieces and the first puzzle I wrote a ” 1″ in the tray. Then on the back of each pc. Pick up the next and use “2″ etc. makes it easier if you have visiting children that dump them all out.
You could also try to put a dot on the back of each puzzle piece in a group–every puzzle having a unique color. That way if they all get dumped out together it would be much easier to sort back into their right bags.
Try putting a colored dot on the back of each puzzle piece that way if a piece gets mixed up you know which puzzle it goes to.
Don’t know if you know this trick or not, but if you mark the back of each puzzle with a shape, then if the pieces get mixed up you can quickly sort them. This is especially helpful when you get a little older and get to those 50-100 piece puzzles. Just put a triangle on all the pieces of one puzzle, a square on another, a circle on another. We used some small stamps I had and varied the color since we had a *lot* of puzzles. 5 minutes of effort saved hours in puzzle sorting!
Tip. Mark the back of the pieces with a different color x for each puzzle. Then you can sort them simply. This saves lots of time in my classroom
At the daycare I use to work at we would write the initials of the puzzle name on The back if the pieces.
Pingback: naturally removing rust from stainless steel | Ring Around the Rosies