Saturday, December 31, 2011

Keep Your Games Forever

We can't even close it anymore so now it sits way on top of the bookcase placing it out of the kids' reach

DOES: Protects the shape and outer layer of the boxes that hold your games
INVEST: $3.99 per roll (less if you buy more)
TOOLS: Family Fix-it, Fertilize Responsibility and Courtesy

Do the boxes that hold your most beloved games take a beating?

Have you used the everyday invisible to keep those boxes together only to retape that same area because your last taping job cracked open?  

We got this game as a hand-me-down and we played this a lot but I figured out the tape remedy a little too late for this one.

I see this happen all the time and yet, while we buy empty bins with labels for our legos and train tracks, for some reason, our beloved games continue to go back in the same box, stacked on top of each other in a bookcase somewhere.  

The trouble is, these boxes are made of thin cardboard so if your game is going to be a family hit then this box will be the first to deteriorate.  This of course will eventually lead to losing pieces and sometimes that makes a game go straight to the garbage.  

Not good.

So why not do what I see done in children's libraries all the time?  Sometimes when I see a torn page, it is pieced back together not by the everyday invisible tape but rather, some sleek but strong storage or shipping tape. 

It's a simple but excellent and cost-effective solution that promotes organization, visibility, access as well as keeping all your pieces together so you can play the game over and over again.

My boys love this game and I actually need to now line with some very thin but stiff paper since it's losing its shape.

Look above at my box containing my Wok-n-Roll game.  Wok-n-Roll comes with a wok, four bowls, four chopsticks and a bunch of tiny pieces that you are supposed to pick up.  Guess what happened to those pieces...   And I called the company to see if it was possible to purchase the pieces separately and the bad news: nope, you have to buy the whole game again.  

While I do keep the pieces in plastic baggies, still, the box is so messed up, you can barely keep the wok in the box, let alone little baggies full of little pieces.  

Great game but box is THIN so the tape really helps here.

So one day, I just took out some packing tape and taped up a bunch of my games.  Then I started taping up some other games that I got as soon as I bought them.

And I am a little embarrassed about this picture below of a previously reviewed game but I will show it anyway.  Basically, I didn't want the contents of this matching game to swish around the box.  Additionally, there are a lot of pairs in this box and sometimes I do not want to use them all.

What is this piece of cardboard doing here?

So I decided to make an insert that would basically keep all the pieces in the box lying flat in the same place.  If I flipped the box upside down, they would still say in the same place.  I would also put them back in as matched pairs so that I wouldn't have to look for the pairs before laying them out.  This makes it much easier to just lay out only some of the cards and do it quickly because sometimes kids are just plain impatient.

Can you spell C-O-N-T-R-O-L -- F-R-E-A-K?

Even if you are not planning on reselling or giving your games away, packing tape helps hold up the shape of the box and so you can store it on top of each other in bookcases or closets where many families store their games.  It is probably one of the most cost-effective ways of organizing games because you don't have to buy a separate clear plastic box to keep your game intact but rather, since many of them are in a square or rectangular shape, you can stack them on top of each other and not only will they be within easy reach for finding and clean-up (by kids), you will be able to keep them in good shape for a long time.  I like showing Numbers 1 and 2 that this is important.  I think this is why Number 2 asked me to tape up his paper trains way before they started to lose it shape and become a little torn.  

Happy New Year Everyone!  Wishing you excellent toy, game, and gadget purchases this year that will build skills, expand natural talents, and strengthen friend and family relationships. 


Disclosure statement: Toys are Tools has not been compensated in any fashion 
by the manufacturer or retailer of any of the mentioned or displayed products for the publication of this post.  

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