Organizing Family Games

Everyone is gathering around your kitchen table to engage in your family's favorite game time when you realize you cannot find the game everyone wants to play. After spending twenty minutes going through the number of games scattered in the closet you finally find the game and get it to the family.

Sound familiar? If so, you may appreciate these ideas for organizing your family games:

• Setting a day and time you can devote to gathering all the games you have in your home will be a great first step. Dedicating time to organizing your games will allow you to have your games easily available to keep the family fun alive.
• Putting games into different categories such as adult games, young children games, teenager games, or strategy games will help make the game selection quicker for game night.
• As you go through the many games you are getting ready to organize, you find games for those family members who have grown out of the game age range or have moved out of your home. Place those games in a different pile. A way of keeping your home collection of games "fresh" is to discard the less used or older games. The discarded games can be donated to charity holiday drives, nonprofit organizations, neighbors, or organizations you may already devote your time to help out.
• Keep several small notebooks and several pencils next to scorekeeping games. It avoids having to hunt for paper to write on when you are getting ready to play your games on game day. Investing in an easel and pad of paper for writing-oriented games may make viewing those games clearer for the entire group. Notebooks and easels with paper pads can easily be placed next to your games on top of a shelf or in the closet you maintain your games.
• Keep extra dice, a pack of cards, erasers, pencils, and markers in a small bag next to your games. Game items get lost when they are used a lot. Having extra items inside the game box or game area will keep your games ready to be played at all times.
• Do you have an old chest with drawers you were going to throw away? Why not keep the chest and use it to store your games? You can have fun sanding down and re-staining the chest. Perhaps some bright-colored paint and press-on designs can turn the piece of furniture into a fun unit to store your games. The chest can be left in your family room or living room area where the games can be quickly available.

Organizing your family games can be fun. The memories you will reminisce while playing the games you are organizing may be a treasure in itself.