Game On

When we started looking more seriously at houses last year, one of the things that was a "nice to have" in my mind was a place to store all our games. When we decided not to move, getting the game situation under control was big on my to-do list. Then lockdown hit and we were more focused on establishing our new routine and getting homeschool under control.

With a few weeks of lockdown under our belts, it was time to finally tackle the game situation. Especially since Quinn really wanted to play Uno ... and Uno was ... [insert your best guess]. Also - we were getting desperate for new things to do!

You guys, I spent approximately 20 more hours thinking about organizing the games than it actually took me to organize them. I was on pinterest, I was on Amazon, Target, and Wayfair. I was back on pinterest. I had out a tape measure and was measuring the game boxes. There may have been shades of ridiculousness in the amount of thought that went into this project. When it came down to it, I ended up ordering a 4x4 cube organizer from Target. All that thought for such a simple solution.

We were able to do a contactless drive up to get it at Target, made a swing by the storage unit where a critical mass of games were living [fun fact: when we actually thought we were moving and just decluttering the house, we put a lot of things we actually use in storage - not thinking they would live there for months. We are slowly but surely retrieving said items.], and set up a construction crew in the basement.

Once Mike, Q, and D had built the shelf, I gathered all the games from seven (yep, you read the right. SEVEN) different spots in our house. It was clear why we didn't play games as often as I would have expected. If you managed to find the game you wanted to play, it was hard work to get it out. And heaven forbid you want to put it away - as that often required a PhD in engineering.

Quinn was so excited to help. There's not much that Quinn likes more than organizing things. I was told in no uncertain terms to wait for her! Once we got everything staged, Q and I probably had everything put away in under two hours. We ordered a few cubes for the smaller dice and card games, cleaned out some games that we've outgrown, and even have space to grow!

Fun fact #2: when you can find the games, you actually play them! We've been enjoying many rounds of Old Maid, Go Fish, Memory, and Phase 10 dice.

Fun fact #3: when you don't need an engineering degree, even five-year-olds can put their own games away!!