When we have finished a puzzle, we ask our neighbors first if they want it. And if not, it gets donated to a charity thrift shop.
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Ah yes, doing puzzles with cats - always a challenge! I have a big piece of foam core (30"x40") that I plop on top of it when I walk away.
I used to love to do puzzles. I still do, but my eyesight is not what it was. Our house’s lighting doesn’t help much either. I have a hard time telling the difference between subtle shades - like a blue sky. I had one puzzle that frustrated me so much, I just stopped and was depressed. But a year or so ago, the kids gave me a puzzle of all the national park posters. I could do that one!
I’m also an edge person and then start with the more obvious sections. The blue skies are usually last.
I have a mat like this so we can do a puzzle on the dining room table then fold it up when we need the table for meals
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I love puzzles and I do several a week. All kinds and counts. I usually take them apart afterwards and put them back in the box. I keep around my favorites but mostly I donate them to good will, the library fundraising sale and or the library “free” bin. I get a lot of my puzzles used as well. I try my best not to hoard them at home. I rarely frame puzzles. It has to be a really exceptional puzzle to care if a piece is missing. In that case I try to see if I can buy a new puzzle or a used on from eBay. If it is a brand new puzzle and a piece is missing I would email the company but it never happened to me. I recently bought a puzzle from Korea and it has explicit instructions on how to ask for a missing piece but that is unusual. For surface I have wood planks of various sizes (made them myself) that I use on top of an ottoman or a coffee table and for trays I use the tops of paper boxes. There is a huge variety of puzzles out there both in cuts and picture concept. New and vintage at all price levels. Good luck and I hope you enjoy your new hobby. Oh, there are tons of youtube videos with strategies on how to do a puzzle if you care to get sucked in the youtube world of puzzles ha ha ha.
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We are Ravensburger puzzle fans. We like both the sizes of the pieces and the thickness. All of our neighbors agree.
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That’s a good one! But 5K phew….
I put up a puzzle table right after the holidays and it stays up and in use until late spring. My favorite puzzles are the wooden ones (Wentworth and Liberty). Expensive, but so satisfying to put together. We trade them within the family when done. My puzzle partner and I have different strategies - I sort into trays by color; he sorts by shape. I keep the pieces in the trays until used; he scatters a bunch out on the table. Conflict abounds. We simply cannot work on a puzzle at the same time.
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That seems cheap to me. My younger son has been lusting after a Wyrmwood table forever! The Modular Gaming Table - Wyrmwood
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So glad I posted. I knew this group would have a sub-group of puzzlers! :).
So interesting to read.
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I think that the other response got this right.
Let’s suppose that we have put together a 1,000 piece puzzle, and it is finished. I will break it into 6 or 8 roughly equally sized rectangles, and put the rectangles away in a zip loc bag in the original box.
That way if you want to do the puzzle again three or four years later, you can see that all of the pieces are there before you break it into 1,000 pieces to solve again.
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I’ve done jigsaw puzzles off and on all my life. My husband and I “dated” by working a puzzle while watching a movie. Now, we each have an end of the dining room table for our current puzzles, which range from 1000 to 3000 pieces. We’re fortunate to have a puzzle exchange little library a couple of blocks away, which encourages me to let puzzles go.
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Ravensburger has a line that is called “puzzle moment”. Those are smaller puzzles (100-200-300ps) and I mention it in case some non puzzlers get inspired by this thread and want to solve a puzzle. The pieces are the same size as their regular puzzles so they will take a lot less room and of course time. Ravensburger also has a line with large size pieces (500ps). There are new companies as well and new concepts. And of course “influencers” that you can follow ha ha.
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S3 and I are big puzzlers. He is also my adult Lego guy. A few years back, I picked up this puzzle board and love it. We can sort pieces and move the whole thing to a different table/spot as necessary.
Bits and Pieces Puzzle Board with Drawers – 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Table Organizer Premium Wooden Puzzle Board for Adults 22.25"x 30" Smooth Non-Slip Surface Portable Puzzle Table with Sorting Trays https://a.co/d/1PEjT56
The last two years, we have been doing an advent holiday puzzle. It’s perfect for such a busy time of year and gives you a little puzzle fix each day without monopolizing your time. They had 1008 pieces that came in 24 little numbered boxes.
Has anyone tried the puzzles with unique shaped pieces? I received one as a gift and it was a different experience!
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I have something similar, with 6 drawers. I was told ravenstburger was best. As a novice, the large pieces are easier.
Unfortunately, I lost my puzzle partner.
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What’s the brand of the puzzle with the unique shaped pieces you received?
Here’s a fun one - pups with pieces shaped like pups!
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Wentworth and Liberty puzzles have very cool unique pieces.
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My oldest is a huge puzzle person. For her 30th birthday, I splurged and bought her one of these puzzles. They are works of art and the price reflects that.
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The one I was gifted was from Bewilderness but it says the shop is temporarily closed. I have recently ordered Crafthub, including a Harry Potter themed one. There are a lot on Amazon. I search “adult shaped puzzles”.
I haven’t done a bewilderness puzzle yet. I looked at them on line and they look very pretty and interesting. A little different than other wooden puzzles because of the geometric shapes reminiscent of Tetris.
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