Comments on: Some Thoughts on Jigsaw Puzzles

By: Emma

Emma — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:01:32 +0000

For years I coordinated international home-stay programs that would bring groups of young people from all over the world to my homogeneous little community. One of the suggestions I always made to the host families was to have a jigsaw puzzle started, so that the new “family member” would have a way to interact that didn’t require anyone to have fluency in a foreign language. It’s surprising how people’s personalities play out in their puzzle strategies, and also how the shared goal of solving helps people bond. After a few years, one of the reps from a college in Japan started sending the students with beautiful jigsaw puzzles as “hostess gifts.” Now we have an international collection of puzzles along with our good memories of the people who solved them with us. I pull one out at Thanksgiving and hope to have it solved by the end of the holiday season. Everyone who visits helps.

By: Brittany

Brittany — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 02:00:53 +0000

Eww… I hate jigsaw puzzles. Give me different mental stimulation and frugal activities any day.

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:55:18 +0000

Totally agree about learning about art! I’ve found a lot of really cool paintings that I’d never otherwise see just from doing jigsaw puzzles. My other favorites are pictures of food for whatever reason.

Jigsaw Puzzles can be a form a therapy, too. I get so focused on finding pieces and working through them that I forget about other things that may be stressing me out. It’s nice.

@Carrie: Springbok are the best! And my sister and I joke about getting “puzzle lung” when we’re older, on account of all the puzzle dust. (We probably do too many puzzles.)

I find 90% of mine at Goodwill for about 2-3 bucks each. And, based on the last few years of doing literally hundreds of puzzles I’ve found that about 75% of them are complete. Not bad. But yeah, it’s a bummer when there are pieces missing (which is why I like to write on the back of the box to warn the next person).

By: Alice

Alice — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:49:35 +0000

Trent, thanks so much for reminding me about jugsaw puzzles. I have 2 on a shelf in the closet that I can work on right away. This brings back so many memories of when the children were still all at home and we had some time on our hands during the winter.

A good way to wind down in the evening before going to bed is to put a few pieces into place. It relaxes us after a hard day at work or an evening at the computer. It takes us away from so much of the high tech of todays world.

I’m now looking for a round jigsaw puzzle to work on before the end of the winter. It is a new challenge for me. I worked on one a few years ago, at my father in law’s house and I’d like to have one of my own.

I sometimes glue and frame a puzzle that is interesting on that compliments a room in my house. I then hang it in that room for a while and it gets replaced by a newer one I like too. Then if one of my children like it I can give it to them right off the wall still framed.

By: the duchess

the duchess — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:24:37 +0000

This post is SO timely – It’s been a very long and harsh winter here in SW Ontario – we went down to minus 22 the other day!!! – so I have been recently doing crosswords, cards and other such games in the evenings when it’s too cold to venture out. I had just been thinking about getting out some puzzles that I bought years ago – some still unopened! I am trying find alternatives to just watching the TV in the evenings. Trent, I would be very interested in more posts on card games etc., and other forms of old-fashioned entertainment (anyone out there remember ‘charades’?) especially ones you can do solitaire or with just one other person.

By: Priswell

Priswell — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:39:32 +0000

>>Surprisingly (or not surprisingly….) jigsaw puzzles were a mainstay in the early parts of my marriage, when we didn’t have money for cable, going out to eat<<

The same for us, many years ago. We didn't even have a TV back then, and we'd find cheap, interesting puzzles to do and just let it live on the kitchen table. Visitors to our small apartment would always be drawn to the puzzle-of-the-moment enough to spend some time contributing a few pieces (fresh eyes always helped). Then when they were done, we'd use some découpage to glue it together, and when dry, we'd hang it on our walls for art.

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:29:14 +0000

When my kids were young and off for Christmas break they would often get bored after a few days. I started buying a large puzzle for us to work on as a family. It was a lot of fun. As the kids got bigger I sort of let that slide. This year during Christmas break my son (20 years old) was home from college and my daughter, a high school senior (18 years old), must have both been getting bored. I came home from work one evening to find my son working on a puzzle we had. The next day my daughter bought a new puzzle to work on. It gave me warm fuzzies to know that the tradition might live on. Funny what things they end up liking and doing on their own.

By: Tungane Bishop

Tungane Bishop — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:00:53 +0000

Thankyou for sharing. Very informative. I am going to try it on my family as they are always watching TV. This is something which will benefit the whole family like spending time together.

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:47:39 +0000

Very timely post Trent, I am in the beginnings of a small 500 pce. puzzle, that is driving me crazy. I usually have a jigsaw puzzle going, low cost, keeps your brain ticking over, what’s not to love. I second the “Springbok” brand, must try the other one. I also recycle my puzzles when they are finished.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:32:12 +0000

There are puzzlers and non-puzzlers in my family. My dad and I loved them and would work on them for HOURS. No one else in my family would do them. Now, all grown up, my husband and son and I love them. My daughter is not interested. My son always has a puzzle going at his house and keeps it on the back of an old bulletin board. Can put it under his bed when not working on it. I just put ours on the dining room table and eat on tv trays in the living room. :) I love puzzles!!!

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:21:43 +0000

I work in the library at a large high school in California. We keep a jigsaw puzzle going all the time. Many teens really like to work on it and it is a nice break from all the technology teens are surrounded with. Right now we have a 1000 piece dragon themed puzzle going which is actually in the shape of a dragon.

By: nancy

nancy — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:11:41 +0000

Jigsaw puzzles are torture.

By: MARY

MARY — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:18:57 +0000

Re#23
When my motherinlaw was in an assisted-living facility, they always had 1 or 2 puzzles going. My son who was about 5 or 6 at the time loved to help her with a puzzle and it got her out of her room to socialize a bit more. We donated a few puzzle there.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:56:32 +0000

Trent,
I have only been a subscriber for about a year; I’m surprised you haven’t written about this subject before because it is an extremely frugal form of entertainment.
I used to have a card table set up in my bedroom when I was a child/teenager. I would often wake up “too early” and it gave me something quiet to do that made time fly! Not to mention the brain benefit!
I bought a “puzzle tote” years ago…it is made of cardboard and has a handle…I found that the pieces would fall out, however. The roll-up type described by other readers seems to be a better option.
Great comments on this post!

By: GayleRN

GayleRN — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:37:59 +0000

We keep puzzles in our waiting room at the hospital. They are constantly being worked on by all sorts of people who find it a great stress reliever in difficult circumstances. They always seem to be different ones, so I am guessing that they are donated in some way that I am not privy to. They may be a great thing to donate to nursing homes too.

By: diane

diane — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:34:26 +0000

My Mom would put together puzzles that I bought for her at thrift shops, garage sales, etc. Once together, she would put on a coat of modge podge. Then my Dad would make a backing and a frame in his wood working shop. I now have many lovely “pictures” as a remembrance of both of them. Before my Mom passed away, she was in a nursing home. When she found out there was a puzzle to put together in the activity room, she was right out there but was terribly disappointed when the puzzle was put back in the box after completion. She was envisioning another picture in a frame.

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:05:54 +0000

I used to sit with my grandmother for hours and work on jigsaw puzzles, I loved it! The only reason I don’t do it any more is because she got a cat and I can’t stay at her house very long (I have an allergy to cats – after about 20 minutes I start itching and wheezing).

Great idea for all ages!

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:01:22 +0000

As Dorothy said, you can make your own storage mat. Get a large piece of felt and a large mailing tube. Put the puzzle together on the mat. Start rolling the mat around the tube and then around the puzzle. Secure the roll with a couple straps of velcro.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:20:00 +0000

Another “plus” to doing puzzles is that it gives people who might not be otherwise inclined to sociability an opportunity to be part of the group without having to talk all the time. We had a friend of my father’s (going through a bad divorce) one year for Christmas, and he only said about three things all day, but he was right there with us, enjoying the puzzle.

Kestra: my DH started out not ‘getting’ the point of puzzles (“you just take them apart after!”) but we (kids, grandparents, aunts and uncles) kept working on them and he has come around nicely. :)

We do find that there is a great deal of pleasure in the “Springbok” and “Ravensburg” brands; the pieces fit together beautifully and stay together, so I look particularly hard for those on sale/clearance/at thrift stores. (No cardboard dust!) We give a lot of our puzzles as gifts, too – there isn’t the same stigma with giving a used puzzle as there would be in giving something else used.

By: KarenB

KarenB — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:15:52 +0000

Great idea! My husband and I have been missing our walks lately since we have had so much snow in New England and it is getting dangerous to walk on the side of the road. Plus, it has been very cold lately – we hit -9 the other night. A puzzle is a great idea for the winter when you can’t get outside as much. It’s been years since we did a puzzle together. Thanks for the idea.