Downsizing Board Game Collection - Post Kids

[try2bfrugal]

We have three closet shelves of board games collected over the years from when our kids were little. Our teens just want to play Xbox and PC games these days. I was just curious for those of you who do not have kids or are empty nesters do you have a collection of board games? Which ones did you keep and which ones did you get rid off? Any tips on how you decided which ones to keep? I think boards games are something we ideally should set aside more time for as cheap fun, but the reality is we usually do not get around to playing them and most of them have not been touched in years.

[Gardenarian]

Scrabble and Yahtzee are the ones that we seem to keep on playing. We're playing cards more now (and they take up less space, too.)

[happystuff]

Sequence!!! Yahtzee, Scrabble and 2 decks of cards. Every now and then we will pull out Clue, also.

[Tussiemussies]

Do agree with scrabble. Pictionary too is played as a whole family at get-togethers...

[goldensmom]

We had a lot of board games but have culled down to Scrabble, Monopoly and Clue. I'll also mention the card games that we play with non-traditional decks - Uno, Phase 10 and Dutch Blitz.

[try2bfrugal]

Thanks. These are great ideas so far. Keep them coming! My end goal is to reclaim at least two shelves of closet space.

[ToomuchStuff]

My mom went through the "family" board games a few years ago. It had been around 18 years since anyone played, Chinese checkers. Probably more then 20 for Monopoly. Most were got rid of. (Cribbage was the only one that they kept that springs to mind) and a few were sent home with family members (sisters kids took scrabble) What she did then was find new ones to try at garage sales, and rotate them out accordingly. The ones that last, typically are the card games, and as always, no one can agree on what is good or not. No different then the computer games my brother, b-i-l and myself used to play. (I haven't played those with them in some time, they got into some online games that bore me to tears, better then 10 years ago)

[try2bfrugal]

I took two shelves worth of board games to the animal rescue thrift shop today along with some other items on my decluttering quest. Thanks for all the suggestions. I kept the classics mentioned here and a few others like a chess board and Life. They took the games but the lady at the thrift store told me they had a surplus of board games lately. There are probably other parents out there like me cleaning out the games stash with the last kid having graduated from high school in June.

If we need more games again in the future I can always go back there and buy a bunch.

[Mrs-M]

We still have ALL of ours! Board-games are classic, and we still (winter months) pull out a board game or two and play. Always have a ball! Monopoly and Life, are still my two favourites.

[Mer05]

Games specifically for children (Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Mousetrap) seem like very good candidates for decluttering. I've never missed them, and they've never turned up at game nights I've been to as an adult.

The classics are good, because everyone more or less knows the rules. That and party games like Pictionary and Apples to Apples. Apart from that, my friends and I tend to play either strategy games, or something totally random. So, maybe let your kids claim a few for nostalgia/future use.

I have one game from an outfit called "Cheapass Games", which sells only boards, customized cards, and rules - because everyone's got dice and player tokens already. I like that theory, and my plan is to eventually just have a stack of boards, a box of card sets, and a jar of dice and the small pieces (decorative!).