Where to put all these Board Games?!

I'm not sure if any of you have this same problem... but I am acquiring a large amount of board games and only have so much space to put them. At my Wildcat's school it's especially bad- I have one small bookshelf for student to pick off of and one large bookshelf with doors (that I keep all my counseling books, lessons, workbooks, etc.). I have asked for a bigger bookshelf to keep student activities on but have heard nothing... *chirp chirp*.

So I determined if I can't make the bookshelf bigger, I'll make the stuff smaller... Here's how:

I took a second to see where my games are.

Here are the majority of them (the ones students use most)

Here are some more tucked away in my bench seat.

Plus I have ordered four more and have some at my parents' house I was going to bring in. But I am running out of room. So here's what I did during my lunch today... I first assessed which games needed kept in boxes (Don't Break The Ice, Topple, Mancala, etc.) and set them aside. With the remaining games, I took ALL the pieces, boards, and instructions out of the boxes and cut the boxes down. I felt so wrong cutting a game's box :) But I knew it was for a good cause. I kept the top of the box (minus all the sides cut off) and one of the sides. I threw the bottoms and the scraps away.

Here are some of the edge pieces I cut and kept.

I put all the pieces in small Ziploc Bags and put a piece of the edge (from the box) in the Ziploc with it. This way I would know for definite which pieces went with which game.

Chess and Checkers

I only had Snack Sized Ziplocs so some of them had to be separated or clipped together.

The spinner was too big to go in the bag- I'm going to get some bigger Ziplocs to fix that.

Then I put all the Ziplocs in a basket I had sitting around empty in my office.

However, I may need a bigger basket at some point :)

So then I took all the boards and stood them in an empty thirty-one organizer my wife bought me. 

It's a little too narrow so I may look around a see if I can find an empty milk crate or something.

Since some of the boards were black and easily mixed up, I put the top of the original box in front of it. I have a label maker and may label the boards instead of relying on the box's top... not sure yet...

I want to play... um... Chutes and Ladders!

So now I have all my "board games" sitting my my trunk (which is handy, since that is where my kids like to sit anyways)...

Plus it freed up a TON of space on my bookshelf and in my trunk!

Some games stayed but a huge space is empty now!

All the instructions to the games are in the trunk in a file-folder in case we need them!

Useless trash and space I don't need!

So now I'm thinking I may do the same at my Falcons school... and maybe at home! 

Hope this helps some of you clear out a little more space in your offices! Don't be afraid to take games out of the boxes... A lot of them had SOOO much wasted space it was ridiculous. And I need all the space I can get!

Have a great Holiday and a very Merry Christmas!!!!

-JW