I have a lot of games. That is to say, “lots” of games (plural). Games of all kinds, sizes, ages, themes, etc. And they’re all on shelves…more or less.
Are they sorted by any of these aspects? It seems reasonable that they should be—or perhaps alphabetical by name? Or publisher? Or primary mechanics? Well…nope. Every couple of years I try to reorganize so I can find what I’m after in there. But it never lasts.
Here’s my sad tale:
I have one shelf piled high with Word Games, a pair of shelves that are all Star Trek games, and one shelf dedicated to 3M Bookshelf Games. (Seems appropriate, doesn’t it.)
There’s a tall bookshelf plus several other (low) shelves of kid’s games.
There are a few shelves dedicated to party-style games, and those “stacking things until they fall over” games. Next to that is a shelf that mostly has race games, and another of trivia games.
Shelves that are modern games that get played fairly often, and shelves of not-so-great games that are quite dusty. A couple of shelves are just versions of Monopoly and Clue, and a plethora of chess sets.
I have several bins of card games, and bins of games in bags, and another bin that contains games without containers.
There are fantasy games, strategy games, and CCGs on another shelf, plus the “shelf of shame” games (still in shrink wrap). There are a couple of shelves which are conflict-centered games (mostly multi-player). There are also segregated stacks of railroad games, wild west games, and spy-themed games, too.
I have five or six shelves of antique games (don’t touch these, kids) and a handful of dexterity games (I’m not so good at dexterity games).
There are shelves for my original designs, prototypes, and the Peg Pastimes games (of course). These are near several shelves full of books about games.
Organized? Sort of.
How do you sort your collection? Is there a “Dewey Decimal System” for table-top games? Intriguing idea. Maybe I should get working on that.