Org4life: Puzzles & Games

Do you enjoy puzzles and games?

If so, great! If not so much, allow me to remind you how many different types of puzzles there are!

To name just a few:

  • Logic Puzzles
  • Math Puzzles
  • Word puzzles
  • Riddles
  • Brainteasers
  • Jigsaw puzzles

Here’s a list of related Org4life blog posts, and the current status of my own gaming and puzzling life, for anyone who is curious, including the type of puzzle that frustrates me the most. (I originally drafted this post with National Puzzle Day, January 29, in mind, but have expanded it to include games, which surely outnumber puzzles in variety.)

If you think organizing isn't all fun and games, think again! Click To Tweet

Liberty Jigsaw Puzzles are the best

Liberty Jigsaw Puzzle — expensive and worth every penny!

This proclamation is based on a single recent Liberty puzzling experience. I had no idea how many of my friends were jigsaw puzzlers until they started posting about it on Facebook during the quarantine. Puzzlers from around the world have come out of the woodwork to the point where some puzzle-making companies have sold out and closed for the duration of the pandemic (however long that might be).

Not a puzzler, per se, I did recently borrow a Liberty puzzle from a friend who collects them. I couldn’t understand the attraction…until I worked one myself. I’ve never seen such fine wood-craftsmanship, color, and creativity in a jigsaw puzzle! Also, it was really challenging. Enough so that my esteem for puzzlers has risen, and I am not sure how soon I will tackle another one.

To view my photo album, with commentary on the making of this peacock puzzle, click here.

Playing the Game of Organizing

This post — inspired by the pictured sliding tile puzzle — compares different aspects of organizing to a variety of puzzles and games and encourages readers to enjoy the process of getting organized by thinking of it as a game.

Puzzling Out Your Family History

In this post, I compare genealogy research to working a jigsaw puzzle. You’ll find a list of things to consider and ways in which you will need to get organized if you want to puzzle out your own family history.

15 Ways to Make Chores Fun!

This post suggests ways to put some fun into what many consider to be drudgery.

Org4life: The First 15 Years

In this post, I express gratitude, list highlights of my 15 years in business as a professional organizer, and offer a special Org4life crossword puzzle, which I created for those who enjoy them.

(If you tried this puzzle before and had trouble, please check again, as I have improved the instructions a bit.)

This is the app we like that’s going away. Boo!

I go through phases — you too?

I go through years-long phases where I play (mostly) only one type of game. I’ve been through a crossword puzzle phase (only the LA Times Sunday puzzle, though), and a Sudoko phase (I wonder if I could even remember how?). Scrabble is the only game that I currently play on a daily basis — electronically, and primarily with family members. It serves a dual purpose for us: One, we enjoy playing the game. (A full game could take a week or more at the rate we play.) Two, if enough time elapses without someone playing we start worrying and check in on them. Sadly, the app we were using is being replaced with one we dislike. Only time will tell what will happen in that regard.

What types of puzzles and games do YOU enjoy? (Or find challenging?)

This is the type of puzzle I enjoy the least because I’m rarely successful at solving it.

How do you make organizing, and other types of work, seem like more fun?

Please share with us in the comments below!

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Copyright 2020 by Hazel Thornton, Organized for Life.
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6 Comments

  1. Linda Samuels on May 18, 2020 at 2:13 pm

    I am not a big puzzle doer, but I have some great memories of the group and other puzzling activities. My mother-in-law LOVED doing jigsaw puzzles. She always had one going on a card table in her bedroom. As a little girl, I remember getting snowed in at my grandparents’ house in upstate New York. These were pre-internet and cable TV days. My grandmother brought out a puzzle, and over the next bunch of days, the family worked together on creating it. Our daughters love doing puzzles. During our vacations when they were growing up, we’d often work on a giant puzzle during our week away.

    It’s fascinating to see the different strategies that people have for putting them together. I’m not great at it, but I did enjoy doing it when working as a group activity.

    Scrabble is another thing. I love that game and remember playing it with my parents and siblings growing up and also with our daughters. It’s not one I often play anymore, but when I do, I love it.

    • Hazel Thornton on May 21, 2020 at 10:51 am

      Thanks for sharing your memories! You and your family might enjoy playing electronic Scrabble! And if I don’t infect you with comparisons to Scrabble (EA) y’all might not mind the new Scrabble GO!

  2. Janet Barclay on May 19, 2020 at 4:41 am

    Over the past month or so, my sister and I have been playing Scattergories on our phones. Unlike the board game, where you play 12 rounds, each round is a standalone game that takes only 90 seconds, so you never have to worry about it dragging on for days.

    • Hazel Thornton on May 21, 2020 at 10:49 am

      I think electronic games like Scattergories and Scrabble are a good way have fun while touching base with others!

  3. Seana Turner on May 19, 2020 at 7:21 am

    What a fun post, Hazel! This is a good time for some puzzling activities. Of course, I’m still over here in the ONLY state that hasn’t reopened at all. Sigh. Anyway, I enjoyed clicking through and seeing some of these. I remember a time when my daughter desperately wanted that “15 puzzle.” She became so good at it she could always solve it in a matter of seconds. It was impressive.

    • Hazel Thornton on May 21, 2020 at 10:47 am

      I never had a 15 puzzle, until I became an organizer and started using it as a visual aid, but I did have a map of the U.S.A. sliding tile puzzle that I loved!

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