How-to... organize the game cabinet

Before reorganizing

We have a small-ish wooden cabinet we got at Ikea, years ago.  it sits at the bottom of the stairs and serves as our catch-all for games.
 

We got several new games for Christmas, so I figured it was a good time to clean out the cabinet.
 

First, I took everything out and grouped like things (by size or style) together to better asses my storage needs. Then I purged the things that were lost, broken, out grown or not played with. There was nothing in our not-played-with pile (part of why we have space issues).

I set aside the giant-piece puzzles that Owen can put together in 3 minutes...I set aside Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.

I realized that we had  a lot of small games and cards...so I got 2 plastic shoe boxes out of my stash, labeled them, and made one for cards and card games and one for small games. Then I played around with the boxes until almost everything fit.

I ended up taking Perfection out of it's box — the small pieces store in a compartment underneath, and the game fit perfectly without its giant box. I also set a small tin with a "missing pieces and instructions" label on it inside the cabinet. When I find a piece, it goes in there until the next time we play the game.

What's an area of your house that needs organizing?

Hillary Chybinski is a crafty mom of 2 boys living the American Dream with her husband in the Philly burbs.  This post was adapted from her blog, My Scraps.