Different Ways of Doing a Jigsaw Puzzle

The Jigthings system of nested boxes keeps up to 1,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces constantly within reach and managed so as to make puzzling more enjoyable. There are numerous advantages associated with Jigsafe and you can read about them at our jigsaw safes overview page but we thought you might be interested to learn of the diverse ways that people choose to do their puzzles.

Not Everyone is Like Us!

It is all too easy to assume that everyone does jigsaw puzzles the same way that we do. For most of us our first experience of doing a puzzle is with our parents and we inevitably copy the way they showed us. Seldom do we see people from outside our own circle of family and friends arranging and managing a puzzle so we are not likely to be introduced to other methods. If you think there is only one way to do a jigsaw then prepare to be amazed!

For starters, some people insist on completing the perimeter of the puzzle before allowing themselves to start on any of the internal areas. Others complete miscellaneous areas that have a limited number of pieces all the same colour (lets call them the easy-first brigade) and yet others get the hardest job out of the way first by completing those huge areas of grass, sea and sky (let’s call them masochists!).

Some people abhor the idea of any type of method to arrange the pieces systematically. You will find these individuals happily sifting through the original box of pieces until they come across a piece that they think might fit with another piece they saw a minute or two ago but by then they often can’t remember where they put that piece a minute or two ago.

One step up from this are the people who recognise that the job becomes a lot easier if all the loose pieces are the right way up albeit often covered by other pieces the right way up. All the pieces still in the original box will be turned ‘colour-side up’ but several layers deep. The search then begins for any two visible pieces that might fit together.

The next step up in our search for perfect puzzle methodology is the set of people who recognise that it is easier to match pieces together if twice as many pieces are visible and so they enlist the use of the lid as well as the original box. You will easily pick out this category because they frequently need to lift the lid above their head to remind them of the picture and what the puzzle is all about.

Next comes the ‘organised do-it-yourselfer’. Typically these are male and they often have odd shaped pieces of wood in their garage that have been rigorously protected from harm for the last 30 years ‘in case I ever have a need for it’. Already owning a tool for every purpose, you will find these individuals surrounded by frying pans, baking trays, banana boxes, plastic folders and mouse mats all displaying loose jigsaw pieces but note that ALL of the pieces are the right way up.

Then you have the ‘middle-of-the-roaders’ who use some sort of organised system – it might be a Jigsort, a Jigsafe or some other product from manufacturers that we prefer not to mention! The key thing here is that all the pieces will be the right way up and usually within easy reach but the pieces will not have been pre-sorted.

Lastly you have ‘Pre-sorters’. These devotees will spend time from the onset planning a different strategy for each individual puzzle. Usually pieces will be segregated into different sections (different boxes if using a Jigsafe) of either colour or shape and a concerted effort will be made to remember the positions of as many loose pieces as possible. Not content with just making a puzzle, these individuals will want to make it FAST.

Wherever you fit in the above hierarchy, there is little to compare with the instant gratification you get when you try a piece and say to yourself ‘Well, who would have believed that would fit there’!