Roadschool Organization: Puzzles

Roadschool organization is a daily chore in our rig. Our preschooler loves puzzles. Whether your are in a house or in an RV, toys with pieces are hard to keep track of. When we were packing up this last time to go on the road, we knew we would be gone several months. Puzzles weren’t a question mark on our pre-schoolers list of things to take with us. Puzzles are part of her daily life.

To keep my sanity, I limited the number of puzzles to eight. That may seem like a lot but in her tiny world, she has a favorite every day. There are seven days in a week. I always allow for at least one disaster, accident, or just plain changing of the mind. 7 + 1 = 8. Eight puzzles live in a drawer in our roadschool supplies in two boxes. Each box is divided into four sections. Each section houses a puzzle. Each puzzle piece for each puzzle has a different shape stamped to the back. This way, if she is putting together her favorite Doc McStuffin’s puzzle, she knows to find the star pieces from that box.

Violà this piece of the roadschool organization puzzle is solved.

Here’s one final note, Road Moms. Don’t get hung up on “my system”! You don’t have to embark on an online mission to find these nifty divided boxes. I’ll admit, they work out perfectly for this particular organizational challenge. I already had one of these storage containers. I fashioned one after the first.

The trick I want to convey with this solution is the idea, not my exact system. Divide your puzzles up, put some sort of code on the back, and store them (preferably in something you already have that is easily accessible). You can use stamps and divided boxes. Or, you can use different colors of a Sharpie markers with numbers on the back of the pieces stored in plastic bags. Implement something simple. Don’t make it complicated or put it off until you find the perfect storage container.

Remember, the key to roadschool organization is to keep like-kind items together and always in a place that your roadschoolers can easily access it and return it when finished.