Updated on 10/01/2025
Perfect for a rainy day or a cosy weekend at home, puzzles are a household essential for many alongside board games.
In fact, ‘UK adults spend an estimated average of 169 hours a year doing puzzles’, emphasising just how popular they are.
When you have an extensive puzzle collection, keeping your puzzles organised can be a challenge, particularly if you’re limited in terms of space.
If you’re wondering how to store puzzles, you will need to:
- Organise your puzzles
- Clean the puzzle boxes
- Find a storage solution that works for you
- Choose the right location to store your puzzles
- Regularly check on your puzzle collection
Let’s dive in!
1. Organise Your Puzzles
The first step in our how to store puzzles guide is to organise. You’ll need to do this before you start putting your puzzles away.
Decluttering is cathartic and will aid the storage process significantly. Sort through your puzzles to determine which puzzles you’d like to keep, and which puzzles you can give away to friends or charity.
Perhaps you have lots of old puzzles that your family has outgrown, or maybe you need to make room for some new puzzles you’ve recently bought.
If you are donating some of your puzzles, it’s a good idea to place the pieces into a ziplock bag beforehand. Indicate if the puzzle is missing any pieces by writing on the bag, so the new recipient is aware.
UK adults ‘spend an estimated average of 169 hours a year doing puzzles’, emphasising their popularity.
2. Clean The Puzzle Boxes
Once you’ve organised the puzzles you want to keep, it’s important to clean the puzzle boxes.
If your puzzle collection has been left to gather dust, then it’s likely that you’ll have a fair bit of cleaning to do. Use a lint-free cloth to remove any dust from the surface of the puzzle boxes.
If you use a damp cloth to remove anything stubborn, be sure to dry the boxes straight away with a clean tea towel. This will help to prevent your puzzle boxes from becoming susceptible to mould and mildew growth in storage.
3. Find A Storage Solution That Works For You
Once your puzzle collection is clean, it’s time to find a storage solution that works for you.
For instance, you might decide to colour-coordinate your puzzles with labels or store them alphabetically for ease.
The storage solution you opt for will depend on the space that you have available. There are a range of ways to store puzzles, from storage boxes to large zipper pouches to shelves if you want to keep your puzzle collection out on display.
If you don’t have enough space to keep your puzzles in their original boxes, there are a range of smart storage solutions, including stackable jigsaw puzzle containers.
These containers allow you to stack multiple puzzle pieces on top of each other but also keep them organised and in their own section to prevent any stress or confusion.
If you don’t have enough space to keep your puzzles in their original boxes, there are a range of smart storage solutions, including stackable jigsaw puzzle containers.
4. Choose The Right Location To Store Your Puzzles
Next, you’ll need to choose the right location to store your puzzles. While you might think storing your puzzles in a shed or garage is a good idea to save space in the house, this could do more damage than good in the long run.
Humidity can damage your puzzle pieces as they are often made from porous materials, like cardboard, wood, or chipboard. This leaves them susceptible to damage if they’re stored in a humid environment, as the moisture can break them down.
Another essential tip is to ensure your puzzles are kept away from direct sunlight. UV rays break down chemical bonds in colourful objects, which can cause a puzzle’s colours to fade over time. Store your puzzles in a cool, dry room away from direct sunlight.
5. Regularly Check On Your Puzzle Collection
Our last step in our how to store puzzles guide is to make sure that you’re regularly checking on your puzzle collection.
Sorting through your collection and organising it is one thing, but if you’re storing your puzzles in the wrong place, then all of your hard work will be wasted.
Regularly checking on your puzzle collection will help you to establish if the environment is right, or needs to be changed in order to keep your puzzles in the best possible condition.
This will help you with long-term storage, so you can preserve your puzzles for years to come.
Humidity can damage your puzzle pieces as they are porous, and thus susceptible to damage if they’re stored in a humid environment.
We hope that this article has given you a better idea of how to store puzzles at home!
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Written by Jemima Thomas for Falconer Removals & Storage.
