After the photograph and the amazement of the tower of puzzles that I have, it was time to sort. I found the early parts of sorting easiest, and after making a dozen decisions or so, it got harder and more and more puzzles ended up on the 'maybe' pile.
My puzzle sorting doesn't fit in with most 'organiser' recommendations. Its unique to me and my puzzle scenario.
First were puzzles I'd finished, and had no attachment to. The 'get rid of' pile.
Then the puzzles that I either hadn't done or thought I might like to do again. A subset of this was the 2000 plus pieces and the less than 750 pieces groups separated out.
Last were the puzzles I knew I absolutely wanted to keep. There were about 6 of these from that whole tower. Scenes I like, special memories, particularly fun ones.
Now I am pretty overwhelmed at the responsibility of taking ACTION! Very grown up this sorting and deciding business. While getting children to bed, I remembered a recent article about the way cluttered people make decisions, and its true! I felt very uncomfortable making snap decisions after the first few. Towards the end, all the decisions I made had very little connection to how I felt about the puzzle, and a hell of a lot to do with how uncomfortable I felt.
Bearing all this in mind, what I plan to do is to start doing puzzles, and see if in 3 months, or 6 months I still have the same attachment to the 'maybe' puzzles. After the time passes it might seem pointless to keep them for the 'one day' when children are bigger.
In the meantime I've made offers to loan them out to friends, and I've chosen a better home for the ones I'm keeping - instead of in what was the conveniently new and empty hutch in the entry, they'll be making their way upstairs to the toy /craft area and stored in a large cupboard up there that needs a good cleanout but is otherwise unused.
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