Game Decluttering – Day 3

I love is play games. Anything from a card game, board game, to playing a sport outside. I would say I am a fairly competitive person, yet not to the point that I forget to have fun and enjoy actually playing. I don’t get so worked up over a game that I can’t sleep at night!

What was your favorite game growing up? As a child, I loved Ker-plunk, Battletops, matching games, Life, Scrabble, Sorry, and even good ole Monopoly. Now I would say my favorites are Ticket To Ride, Sequence, and Skip-Bo. In fact, my husband and I have a life-long “tournament” going on with Skip-Bo. It started a few years ago and when we play a round which consists of the best out of 3, and whoever wins, gets a point. We jokingly say that on our graves someday, we want the tournament score etched in because that just describes who we are – just living life and having fun doing it.

In today’s day and age, when you find some spare time, screen time is such a high priority, that the love of board games has been lost. At first thought, maybe board games seem boring, but I suppose when you think about them,  maybe they do sound boring, but once you get into a game, it’s hard to stop.

So in a world of video games, what do you do with all of your board games? What is your desire as a family when it comes to games? Do you ever play games together as a family? Do you know where all of your games are? Are they in disarray? If they were more organized and if you knew what you had, would you play them more often? This is just another item in the home that we could all stand to organize and declutter!

1. Take all of your games out. All of the card games, kids games, board games, and even puzzles.

2. Make two piles – games you play, games you don’t play.

3. Look at the games you don’t play – Is that game worth the space it takes up? If you have no ties to that game, time to donate it.

4. The games you play – do they have all of the pieces? If not, get rid of it (especially puzzles).

5. Do you want to keep them all in one place? Think about making a section for kids’ games and one for adults. Buying storage containers may be helpful in organizing them.

6. Take a game out in the next week and invite your family or spouse to play with you. You would be surprised at how much fun you will have!

Games never get old. People have been playing games for decades and centuries. Maybe today’s games look a little different, but the desire is still there. We have a large schoolhouse-sized chalkboard in our home, that sports record-breaking scores in Ticket To Ride. If you score over 150 in TTR in our home, your name gets put on the board with the date and score. It’s a fun way to reminisce, keep the fun going, and a reason to keep inviting people to play games with us.

What is your favorite game to play?