Is there a trick to storing puzzles?

[Belia]

You know- those wooden ones with the chunky pieces? How do you keep them accessible to your child but not lose the pieces? What am I missing?

[kittykat2481]

I just have them side by side on a shelf in his room. He has a tall book shelf. The top couple of shelves hold books and his cd player. The next shelf down has a puzzle, a picture in a frame, and another quiet toy, and the next 2 shelves have 3 wooden puzzles each, side by side. I have a basket on the floor next to the shelf where I rotate books for him to reach, about 7 or so at a time. They make puzzle stands so they don't take up as much room, but I find that for young children, it makes it harder to see and choose a puzzle, and to put it away.

ETA: He takes out one at a time and puts it away when he's finished, so we don't have too hard of a time keeping up with the pieces. Also, we have a playroom, but we keep the puzzles in his bedroom for a quiet before bed activity, so he tends to be a bit more calm during that time.

[naturechicplus1]

a friend of mine used the larger size ziploc bags with slider closures...i'm not sure if the child could open it by themselves, but they could certainly keep the puzzle contained and they could bring you the whole bag to open when they were ready to play with it.

[StrawberryFields]

I keep our puzzles up on a high shelf and bring them down when my kids want to play with them. When they are done we clean them up and put them back.

[tbone_kneegrabber]

We have a puzzle rack
Actually I think we have this one specifically

The rack is on a book shelf (more of a cubby shelf)
We try to put all the pieces in the puzzles and put them away when they aren't being played with (or after bed whichever is easier)

[abharrington]

we have a plastic tub with a lid. the puzzles easily stack inside. she has to finish all puzzles before putting them away. usually she just gets out one or two at a time. if we are tired/late, we can just throw all the pieces into the box and do them later. it works well for us. :grin

we also have 1 that stays out on her little table...i rotate it every few days.

[Murph12334]

i love the puzzle racks - we don;t have any but they have those in the library

[_betsy_]

Ours are out of reach as well. I'm too OCD to have puzzle pieces on the floor and potentially go missing.

[sf333]

We keep all of our puzzles in either fabric or plastic bags. Those then go in storage bins (that are within reach of our DS). He needs assistance getting them out, but we are always with him when he plays with them anyway. : )

[Artichokie]

ours are just stacked in a pile on the shelf with the pieces in their spaces.

[Paeta16]

We keep ours in a basket. It is large enough to store a number of puzzles both large and small. It is under a dresser so sometimes if she forgets about them I pull them out for her and let her discover them again on her own.

[Belia]

I had no idea puzzle racks existed! Hmmmmm....


I'll have to think about it.....

Thanks Mamas!

[Down2Earth]

I just bought this one. I don't think my DD is ready for it yet. But I'm dreading when I do have to give it to her. Within minutes I had 63 puzzle pieces all over my house! I guess I could only give her one puzzle at a time, right? Ugh, how does anyone else handle this much mess?

[kittykat2481]

Originally Posted by Down2Earth

I just bought this one. I don't think my DD is ready for it yet. But I'm dreading when I do have to give it to her. Within minutes I had 63 puzzle pieces all over my house! I guess I could only give her one puzzle at a time, right? Ugh, how does anyone else handle this much mess?

Definitely just give her 1 at a time until she gets the hang of it. Always model finishing the puzzle and putting it away before taking another one out. Before you know it, you won't have anything to worry about!

[PatchChild]

I'm wishing for a puzzle rack. We use the big ziplocks with the slide openings becasse DS can do them himself.