If you have kids, then you’ve probably asked yourself how the heck you can store all their junk more efficiently! Although I can’t help with every junk drawer and mountain of toys (I’m just one woman, after all), I can certainly show you how to store puzzles with a simple puzzle caddy.
This little mom hack is a GAME CHANGER!
And the best part?
It only costs a buck! As in, one dollar. Un dólar. A hundred pennies.
Yeah, that’s right.
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WHY STORE PUZZLES IN A PUZZLE CADDY
Puzzles are soooo good for kids!
My two-year old is a legit problem solver and he can solve 24-piece puzzles in under a minute. It’s insane! My four-year old can do 48-piece puzzles and will work at them patiently until they’re done, which I love.
However…
Since my kids are such huge puzzle lovers, we also face an oversupply of big puzzle boxes!
If you’ve ever purchased a wooden kid’s puzzle, you know how massive these storage boxes can be! Once your puzzle stash gets into the double digits, you’ll be a bit overwhelmed by the clutter.
This is where your puzzle caddy will come in handy!
WHERE TO BUY A PUZZLE CADDY
The good news is you can find a puzzle caddy at most stationary stores, department stores, and dollar stores.
If you’re on a budget, the Dollar Store puzzle caddy works just as good as any other! Dollar Tree also delivers, so you don’t even have to leave the house to get yours.
Here’s the one I got for our puzzles:
If you want something with a little more style, you can grab cute wire bins with fabric like these.
We have so many puzzles, that we actually use BOTH (a plastic puzzle caddy in the kid’s room and a wire basket for our preschool learning station).
Essentially, you just want your puzzle caddy to be a decent size so that you can fit a good amount of puzzles in there!
HOW TO FIT ALL YOUR PUZZLES INTO A PUZZLE CADDY
If you clicked that link to the puzzle caddy and asked yourself how the heck we fit dozens of puzzles into a little hand-held bin like that, you’re very observant … and I like that about you 😉
Here’s what we do:
We put all of our puzzles into separate mesh zipper pouches like these.
We love these mesh zipper pouches because they have so many uses!
They are super affordable, waterproof, and STURDY! We haven’t broken a single zipper yet, and my little hulk baby loves to break stuff, so that is saying something.
Putting our puzzles into zippered pouches keeps them organized, kicks the bulky box clutter, and gives the kids easy access to them!
When our puzzle boxes were stacked up on the shelf, the kids couldn’t play with them as freely. But when we store them like this in the puzzle caddy, the kids can grab a pouch and play with puzzles whenever they please … which is something we encourage around here!
PUZZLE ORGANIZATION BONUS TIP
If your kids are young, find wooden puzzles like these.
They are easy for kids to assemble because they are sturdy. And on the back of each puzzle piece, there is a small image that will help you keep the pieces of each puzzle together.
This is a life saver when the kids are breaking out multiple puzzles!
When it’s time to put them all back into their individual bags, have the kids flip them all over and help you organize the shapes into piles. Then put all of the matching pieces into their own pouch.
BOOM-BABY.
You’re the puzzle organization master!
OTHER USES FOR THE PUZZLE CADDY
If you don’t already have a puzzle caddy, grab a few from the Dollar Store here (they’ll deliver to your house or your local store for pickup).
They have a ton of great uses!
Although puzzle organization is the highlight for me, you can also use them to organize stationary, school supplies, art supplies, toys, snacks, books, road trip snacks, and more.
Here’s another dollar store caddy that we use for our preschool station:
So many options for just a few bucks!
When you get that puzzle caddy organized, be sure to share on social and use the hashtag #makingmomlifeeasy so we can see your setup!
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?
I love this idea for puzzle storage. You could probably use them for Legos too which would make clean up a snap!
I love this system! My son is still in the age of wooden puzzles that slide onto rack, so this will definitely come in handy as his collection grows. Why is it that everything has a million parts as they get older?! I’m already seeing things can get out of hand without a system in place. 🙂
I was hoping you were going to add the hint about marking something on the back of each piece so you knew which puzzle it went to. I do this with games for my classroom all the time!
Such a neat idea! My sister uses a plastic shoe caddy that goes over the door to store crayons, markers, cards, etc.
I love these caddies, for $1- crazy! It’s a great idea and I have one more suggestion. As a professional organizer, here’s what I tell all my moms when organizing puzzle pieces. Pieces can and do get lost but not if you do this:
Give each puzzle a number starting with 1. Then on the back of each puzzle piece that belongs to that puzzle, also write a 1. With a marker. The second puzzle and it’s pieces get a number 2, etc. This way, if a piece is missing you’ll quickly be able to identify which puzzle it belongs to.
Yes! The kid puzzles that I buy all have a little mark on the back that matches with the other pieces from that puzzle. Makes it super easy to match which pieces go where!