I don’t know about you, but once Spring rolls around I am always excited to get started on some deep cleaning in the house. There’s just something so refreshing about the changing of the seasons and getting your house in order. It may sound weird to some, but I honestly love decluttering! (Which is difficult because I’m married to someone who doesn’t like to part with anything!)
If you’ve been following us on Instagram you know that at the end of last year we announced we were moving across the country. This sparked the biggest decluttering extravaganza of our lives. It also resulted in the largest culling our board game collection has ever experienced.
It’s not always easy to go through items that you enjoy and decide what to keep and what to rehome, especially when you may have emotional attachment to them. (So many amazing game night memories!) So we wanted to share with you our tips to help, whether you are preparing for a move yourself, wanting to do a deep Spring Cleaning, or are just trying to free up shelf space in your game room.
5 Steps to Cull Your Collection:
Step One: Decide On Your Goal.
The best way to start any project is by having a clear goal. What are you hoping to accomplish?
For us, when we were moving, we knew that we wanted to downsize our collection considerably so that we not only had fewer boxes to move, but so we didn’t take with us games that we truly weren’t going to play again. We didn’t need that extra baggage in our lives!
Whether you’re wanting to downsize a little, a lot, keep your collection under a specific number, or just not touching the ceiling, (yes, this was one of our goals once-upon-a-time!) clearly state what your goal is so you know what you’re working for.
Step Two: Everything Off The Shelves and Organized on a Spreadsheet.
Now that you have your goal, it’s time to figure out where things stand. This is where we recommend taking everything off the shelves and making sure you know exactly what’s going on. If you aren’t already keeping an itemized list of your game collection, now is the time to start! (We recommend making a simple spreadsheet, but paper and pen work too.)
While everything is off the shelves, this is a great time to make a board game throne for yourself or a baby!
Step Three: It’s Time to Cull!
Once you have everything off the shelf you’ll want to consider each game one by one and begin placing them into categories:
Keep
Cull
Contemplate
Some games will be easy and obvious, either you love the game immensely, play it often, and can’t wait to play it again — or you dislike the game immensely, rarely play it (if ever at all,) and don’t see yourself getting it to the table in the future.
The rest of the games are going to be a bit trickier and require some thought.
Here are some of the main questions we ask ourselves when culling through this category of games.
“Do I think I will play this in the next year?”
If you can’t remember the last time you played a game and you don’t think you are going to actively try to get the game to the table in the next year, it is probably time to cull it. We love to track our board game plays which is a great way to see it’s actually been 2 years or more since you last played that “favorite” game of yours. There are obvious exceptions to this question. For instance, we have a newborn and probably won’t be playing any 2-4 hour games any time soon but we’ll still keep our favorites for when we don’t have a newborn. Other games might require high player counts so your likelihood to play them is lower. Just evaluate the season of life you’re in and make exceptions where necessary.
“Do I already have this style of game in a version I like better?”
It’s quite common to have multiple games in the same genre. Some games feel quite similar and we just prefer one over the other. If there are any games that have been replaced by another game in that style, it’s okay to cull it.
“Have I or a member of my family outgrown this game?”
This is a really important questions and often the toughest. Games that we once loved but no longer see ourselves playing are easy to keep and hold onto due to emotional attachment. But our gaming preferences change and evolve over time. Perhaps Catan got you into the gaming hobby, but you now no longer like playing that game because of your experience with games since then. Or perhaps your kids have outgrown their early board games and no longer have need for them.
While you might want to hold on to some games to play either with your kids when they’ve grown up a bit or for younger kids who will grow into their older sibling’s collection, here is where you’ll also have to make some tougher choices in what to cull.
“Does it Spark Joy?” – Marie Kondo
Basically it all boils down to this! You want your collection to be filled with games you want to play! If you don’t want to play a game, if it doesn’t spark joy, don’t hold onto it. Let it go!
Step Four: Rehome
You’ve done the work. You’ve culled your collection and now you have a box (or more) of games that you need to find a new home for.
Here are a few great ways to rehome the games that are leaving your collection.
Gift to a Friend
The gift of a game! Gifting games to friends is one of my favorite things to do and I love knowing that a game I love but don’t play often enough will find a new home and life with my friends or family.
This is also a great place for games that you only play with a specific person or group of people to find a new home. For instance: we have some card games that we only play with certain members of our family because they love them so much. So we just gifted the games to them rather than taking them back and forth.
Donate
If you don’t have a friend to gift the game to, consider donating some games! Here are two ways we love to donate ours.
Teachers
I absolutely love donating games to classrooms. If you have any games that you think might be great in the classroom setting, consider contacting a teacher you know and asking if they would be interested in them. This is such a wonderful way to support a teacher you love and help them provide fun and unique games to the students they’ll teach over the years.
Libraries
More and more libraries are beginning to carry board games on their shelves. Many of these libraries depend on donations to build this collection. Consider calling your local library to see if they are accepting any board games or would be interested in starting a board game collection.
Sell or Trade
Some games still have a bit of value and even if you don’t want to keep them, selling them can be a great way to recoup the cost and build a savings for future games you want to pick up. This is also a way to help make decisions on games you are on the fence for whether you want to keep or cull. When moving, we had some of these that we set a price we were happy with and if they sold, great! If they didn’t that’s fine too! Most of the games however we price to sell. We aren’t looking to make a profit, we’re culling.
We like to sell our games on either Facebook Marketplace or through our local game store. Often your game store will have a Facebook group specific for local board gamers. This is a great place to post your items and sell locally.
If you are not interested in selling the games, you may be interested in trading them for new ones. Trading a game you don’t play for a new one you will is a great way to thoughtfully cull and curate your collection. We have had great success doing this in local Math Trades. Instead of trading your game directly with another person for their game, a math trade arranges trades with a large group of people, increasing the chances that the games you are interested in trading for are available.
Contact your local game store to see if there’s a math trade in your area, you can also search for math trades on Board Game Geek.
Step 5: Maintain
Now that your cull is over, make sure you thoughtfully maintain your collection by evaluating new games as you consider adding them to your collection. (Yes, Adam. I’m talking directly to you.) Also, consider designating a shelf or a space somewhere for games that after you play you think you may not want to keep. There’s no sense keeping a game you aren’t going to play again. If you set those aside and cull them throughout the year your collection will stay curated to your tastes and preferences.
Summary
So let’s recap! Your 5 Steps to culling your collection are:
- Set Your Goal
- Off the Shelf and on a Spreadsheet
- Cull
- Rehome
- Maintain
We honestly believe that having a smaller collection of games you truly love is far better than having a large collection filled with games you rarely play. Curating a game collection takes time and effort but if you work on it consistently — always evaluating the new and old — you’ll end up with a wonderful arrangement, small or large, of games that you truly love and enjoy playing!
