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I have a number of games that come in large boxes that do not have sectioned compartments for individual pieces. Whenever I take them over to people's houses everything rattles around and gets mixed up, and the first thing I have to do is sort them out.

Does anyone have any recommendation on any cases you can use inside of game boxes to keep the pieces sorted? Obviously different games have somewhat different requirements, but I am looking for broad suggestions.

A few of my friends have suggested trays from tackle boxes might be a good solution, though most of the ones I have looked at do not have any sections large enough for decks of cards, which are a pretty common kind of game piece for many boardgames.

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I use small plastic baggies for almost every game I buy. When I open a game, I expect to need a few snack sized, sandwich sized, and tiny hobby-sized baggies. These satisfy my needs for most games.

The exception is BattleLore for which I purchased a couple of small-parts boxes (intended for crafting, I think) from my local Hobby Lobby. They have worked out great. Here's a link to the same (or very similar) item on Amazon.

BGG has many storage solution suggestions, including individual tuckboxes customized on a per-game basis. For example, here's one for Agricola

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    Bah! Way to post the same answer, but better phrased, 30 seconds before me. GG
    – tryaria
    Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 22:16
  • 3
    Another suggestion for small compartmentalized boxes is a fishing tackle box.
    – Tycho
    Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 22:28
  • I had never seen tuckboxes before, they seem like a really nice idea. If you have used them, does normal paper actually hold up, or do you recommend heavier stock?
    – Louis Gerbarg
    Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 23:09
  • I have never used tuckboxes - I keep thinking I'll dedicate a weekend to tuckboxing my games, but I never do! And my craft-type skills leave a lot to be desired in any case. But everything I've read says you are better off with a stiff cardstock.
    – gomad
    Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 23:38
  • For some games (in particular Agricola) the small plastic bag approach takes up too much space as they tend to stay inflated when you close them. I have found that small-parts boxes work much better in this case.
    – tttppp
    Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 11:24
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A zip-lock bag can work amazingly well for most situations.

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  • Agreed. I find the snack-sized bags to be the most versatile.
    – Scott Mitchell
    Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 0:01
  • You can get large quantities of the typical small plastic bags for quite cheap: Amazon: small ziploc bags
    – Brad Koch
    Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 20:35
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It depends on the game.

For some games, I use boxes with small spaces to store the contents. For other games, I made some paper internal to divide the open box into several compartments.

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Plastic Battery Cases

For games with lots of little cardboard counters, like Arkham Horror, I bought a bunch of AAA- and AA-battery cases from e-bay. They ship world-wide for about 1-2 USD, and can easily store a lot of counters.

My favorite thing about them is that they also act as trays, so players can take their components for themselves.

This helped a lot with reducing setup time for Arkham Horror. Instead of one person (me) handing out lots of tiny tokens, I just toss the cases on the table and tell everyone to take what they need, while I'm doing the rest of the setup.

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I use compartment boxes which are mostly used for organizing small hobby materials. They come with 5 to 25 compartments and are usually very effective for lots of small pieces.

There are also boxes where you can remove some spacers or move the spacers to make your own sizes of compartments.

box

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From a comment (and from my personal experience with "Arkham Horror"...)

Fishing tackle boxes.

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