Get your game boxes in order


family board games
Keeping games organized – a game in its own right.

With more than 350 board games, card games, dice games, and party games on our game shelves, keeping them organized can be a game in itself.

It may not be such a problem if our game collection remained static. But with so many great board games being published each year, that’s just not going to happen. We’ll rotate through our games on a regular basis — as new ones come in, some will have to go.

Since I go through this often, I shared 3 tips on how organize your board games a little while ago.

Another way I love to keep our board games organized is by using custom board game inserts.

A few years ago I built my own foam core game insert for Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd edition so we could hold the base game plus and expansion in the game box. While I enjoyed doing it, one thing I found out during the process is that it takes quite a bit of time.

The great news is that I don’t have to come up with my own concoction for foam core inserts for my games with Insert Here on the scene!

Insert Here game inserts
Insert Here makes fantastic foam core game inserts to keep games organized inside.

Insert Here has foam core game box inserts for almost 200 popular board games!

Our experience with Insert Here game inserts have been fantastic.

One of the things we love the most about them is how light they are. Since they’re made of foam core material, they don’t add any weight to the game itself. And when you’re talking about a game with tons of components, no additional weight is a great thing.

Another element we love across the board with all their inserts is how quick it makes both game set up and take down.

With all pieces contained in their own section, there’s no more need to spread out all the different components into piles on the table around the game board. Instead, players can simply pull directly from the inserts during game play.

And putting a game away is super simple when everything already has a place.

Here are a handful of examples of recent game inserts we’ve received from Insert Here that demonstrate these very points.

 

7 Wonders: Duel

7 Wonders has appeared on many of our lists over the years. It’s on almost all of our favorite board games lists as well as our board game gift guides. Well, 7 Wonders: Duel is just as great a game but for 2 players!

It also comes in a much smaller game box — which is a great thing.

But with a small game box, you may not think a game insert would be a big deal. However, we’ve loved having one.

Just last night we pulled out 7 Wonders: Duel to play and having the insert was wonderful. Each Age deck has its own slot so it was easy to shuffle and have them ready to go. The same holds true for the wonders deck.

The best part however was simply pulling out the coin holder and using it throughout the game to keep the money organized. Since there is plenty of paying the bank and collecting coins, using the insert to keep the coins corralled is wonderful.

Insert Here game insert 7 Wonders Duel
We used baggies for everything before having the Insert Here game insert for 7 Wonders: Duel.
Insert Here game insert 7 Wonders Duel
The removable coin tray is a highlight of the Insert Here game insert.

 

Lanterns

Another small game box we love having a game insert for is Lanterns.

While the included cardboard divider in Lanterns holds the components somewhat in place, the Insert Here game insert keeps them from mixing and sliding around like a charm.

Just having the lake tiles in separate divided sections that are perfectly sized is fantastic.

Insert Here also makes sure that the components are easy to pull from the inserts themselves. Both the tiles section and card sections allow for fingers to easily reach in and remove them to play.

Insert Here game insert Lanterns
The included cardboard insert may be sufficient but is crammed with the expansion.
Insert Here game insert Lanterns
Everything fits perfectly in the Insert Here game insert.
Insert Here game insert Lanterns
There’s even room for the expansion components.

 

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Dead Men Tell No Tales is one of my favorite cooperative games to play.

Unfortunately, the included card board insert isn’t very helpful to keep things organized inside. We still needed to resort to baggies for all the different components. Doing so also creates a trick of its own fitting them back into the box with the included insert.

Thankfully the Insert Here game insert solves both of those problems.

Now the tiles down slide around and all the dice and tokens stay well contained in their own areas. Even the character dials have their own place to stay put.

We can also still store the game upright on our shelf (our preferred method) without anything getting mixed up inside.

Insert Here game insert Dead Men Tell No Tales
Dead Men Tell No Tales comes with a cardboard insert that isn’t very useful. The foam core inserts from Insert Here make a difference.
Insert Here game insert Dead Men Tell No Tales
The Insert Here game insert stows everything like a charm.

 

Roll for the Galaxy

Roll for the Galaxy is a fun dice-rolling, dice-allocating, space empire building game that packs a lot of re-playable fun in a game. It comes with a lot of dice as well as a lot of tiles.

And the Insert Here box organizer for Roll for the Galaxy is out of this world compared to the included folding cardstock in the game box.

There are three trays that are removable in the foam core game insert. The two that include the dice and credits are great to just pull out and set on the table to pull from directly during the game. While the third one with the square tiles is removable, it doesn’t really need to be because all those tiles are tossed in the bag to pull from during the game anyway.

That being said, we still love having three separate areas to keep the world tiles snug in place inside the box.

Another great aspect of the Insert Here game insert is that is also has space to include all the components from the expansion, Roll for the Galaxy: Ambition!

We just recently got a copy of the expansion and are so happy we can consolidate everything into one game box!

Here a a few pictures that show the use of the insert with just the base game as well as a couple photos with the expansion included.

Insert Here game insert Roll for the Galaxy
Everything loose in the box before means I can’t store it upright.
Insert Here game insert Roll for the Galaxy
Now everything fits snuggly in place.
Insert Here game insert Roll for the Galaxy
The removable trays are so useful during game play.
Insert Here game insert Roll for the Galaxy
The expansion, Roll for the Galaxy: Ambition, adds more dice, tiles, and tokens. But they don’t want to stay in their expansion box.
Insert Here game insert Roll for the Galaxy
The expansion components fit well with the base game in the same insert.
Insert Here game insert Roll for the Galaxy
The 20 Objective tiles also fit nicely in the area where the cups are.

 

Scoville

While we haven’t done a full review of Scoville, trust us when we say it’s a great family board game.

It’s all about farming a variety of peppers to concoct recipes using various combinations of those peppers. So the game comes packed with loads of different peppers.

Because of the amount of components in the game, Tasty Minstrel Games includes a lot of baggies in the game. That way players immediately have a good solution for storing the variety of game pieces.

Yet Insert Here has an even better solution — give everything its own space.

Insert Here game insert Scoville
Scoville comes with lots of baggies for the loads of components.
Insert Here game insert Scoville
The Insert Here trays are perfect to hold the variety of peppers and other game tiles, tokens, and cards.
Insert Here game insert Scoville
The player screens and pepper mixing chart also fit nicely on top.

As you can see, Insert Here foam core game inserts are fantastic for game storage, game set up, game play, and game tear down.

If these 5 samples aren’t enough to convince you, you can also check out these other 4 game reviews where we’ve highlighted the Insert Here game inserts that go with them: Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Dead of Winter, Royals, Hit Z Road

We’re also interested to hear what you think of board game inserts.
Do you use them with your games?
Take this quick poll:

Which type of box organizer do you prefer?

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We’d like to thank Insert Here for review copies of these game inserts.

2 thoughts on “Get your game boxes in order

  • While these inserts look great and provide excellent organization, how can you justify a price that is often more than the game you are organizing? Plastic bags are way cheaper.

    Reply
    • Donald – For most games, I can’t justify the cost. But for my favorite games that get played often and the organization helps with set up, clean up, and keeping things organized during the game itself, I find it worth it.

      Reply

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