Hey Gamers! Ever play a game that’s super awesome but then when you go to store it you realize … ‘this is gonna be impossible‘? Yeah, me too. That’s what brings us here today! Let’s talk about some of the worst boxes/box types, and bond over how much we don’t like them, haha! Let me know what else you’d include!

Happy Gaming, & Good Luck Storing!

10. Boxes Too Big For What’s In Them

What – A game that could take up a small-box game worth of shelf space, but instead takes up a quarter of a single Kallax cube.

Examples – Splendor; Snake Oil; Walking Dead Something to Fear

Why I’m Not a Fan – I get that it’s all about shelf-presence, which is why this is low on the list, but it’s just wasteful! I don’t need such a big box for only some cards, or cards and a handful of other components. I don’t mind small boxes, they make me feel like I can buy more games! haha

9. No Box

Is this kind of a loose choice? Maybe. But I still pick it.

What – Games that don’t come in a box because they are sold in some other way.

Examples – Dice & Ink: A Roll & Write Anthology (Sold as a single book, with no way to store the individual games once they’re ripped out); Wish You Were Here / Miseries of the Night (and other Postcard games)

Why I’m Not a Fan – While I appreciate the idea of minimalism, there’s no good way to store these. Usually they’re games you don’t want to bend, so you have to be extra cautious. And if you do find somewhere to store them flat, they’re usually out of sight, which means they can often be forgotten about in the collection (out of mind).

8. “Big” Boxes

What – Combo boxes, i.e. one larger box that comes with multiple small games inside of it.

Example – AEG Black Box

Why I’m Not a Fan – Again, it seems cool in theory to minimize boxes, but in practice, it’s not super convenient. Instead of being able to pull out just one small game, you need to get out this whole box. Plus, if you end up not liking one or two of the games, you can’t easily trade or give them away because they don’t come in their own box. To me, it’s a little more annoying than helpful.

7. Cubes

What – Square boxes, usually small-ish, that are … cubed…

Examples – Quarriors; SET Dice

Why I’m Not a Fan – These can often be hard to get everything back into as you need to stack the components in very specific ways. And when you use mostly Kallax, or otherwise square/boxed shelves, there are no good places for these. They’re better off as bookends on shelves where games could fall over (even though they probably won’t)

6. Tins

What – Pretty self-expanatory – just metal boxes. Usually rectangular, but I’ve seen a few circular ones as well.

Examples – Curios; Sushi Go!; GUBS; Forbidden Island; Forbidden Desert

Why I’m Not a Fan – They’re difficult to store, almost impossible to stack, and if they happen to get a dent in them, they often refuse to close ever again, which is insanely frustrating. I still have more tins on my shelves than I’d like to see, so can we please agree to stick to cardboard from now on?

5. Bags/Sacks

What – Cloth bags that store the whole game in them. Usually games that are displayed in plastic clamshells in the store. Or that want to provide a portable solution over a box.

Examples – Love Letter; HIVE Pocket; Wonky; Happy Salmon

Why I’m Not a Fan – Again, storage is a big issue here. I ended up storing a lot of my small bagged games in those photo holder boxes, but they’re just on the bottom of my shelf, and get forgotten about often because they’re so small. Bags also aren’t sturdy, so for a lot of these games that are mostly cards, while they’re easy to bring anywhere by just throwing them in your bag, you also run the risk of bending the cards/rules if you’re not careful.

4. “Open” Boxes

What – Boxes for things that have a “toy factor,” so you can play with them in the store before you buy.

Examples – Silly Sausage; Monopoly Cash Grab; UNO Attack

Why I’m Not a Fan – While these are cool in the store so you can fully see the product, and even try it out, they leave you no options for storage. Sure, you can store them on top of a stack of games, but these are also usually odd shapes so don’t even fit on the top of a stack nicely. I don’t see these a ton anymore, but I still see them, and still have some, and I just think they’re ugly.

3. Cones

What – Similar to a triangle box, but more rounded so technically different

Example – Spiky Dastards

Why I’m Not a Fan – While more stable than the triangle, the cone faces many of the same problems. Especially in this example. Fitting everything back into the cone has to be precise so that the bottom closes, and it can take a few tries, which is a nuisance. It doesn’t fit nicely on any shelves, except just on the top, at the end, not in the way of anything, and it isn’t convenient to bring anywhere cause you can’t stack it with anything else in a bag.

2. Cylindrical

What – Cylinders or otherwise rounded containers of any kind – including buckets, tubes, and bullets.

Examples – Bang!; Junk Orbit; Pickle Letter; Wits and Wagers Vegas

Why I’m Not a Fan – We once again see that problem of needing to put everything back in specific ways because things often can’t be stacked nicely when the box has no edges. For games with cards or not a lot of room for rules, they can often end up bent as you try to get them into the container as well. And, of course, where do you store these? I just have a large section one top of one of my shelves that holds these all next to each other, it’s not my prettiest shelf, there’s a lot of dead space…

1. Non-Square Polygons

What – Boxes in various shapes – triangle, hexagon, pentagon…

Examples – Pizza Party Supreme; Triominos; You’ve Been Sentenced; GemBlo

Why I’m Not a Fan – These are often hard to get components into correctly, hard to store, and, I’ll just say it, they’re not attractive. I am personally not more attracted to a game just because it has a non-square box. In fact, I’m more turned off because they’re ugly and kind of a pain (the more sides, the worse in my opinion) to store. They can be super thematic, which is neat, but overall, just give me a square box with some good cover art.

Happy Gaming~