I always see pictures of people’s collections with boxes stored vertically on their edge. Looks nice, but when I do this the pieces inside tend to get jumbled around.
What’s the general consensus on the best way to arrange boxes on the shelf?
It’s fairly trivial to clean up the game in a way so the components don’t spill around. First, ditch any vac-formed insert or at least don’t rely on it to ‘hold’ anything. Then basically just pick whichever edge will become the ‘bottom’ on the shelf and stack all the components against it. Start with the heavier things like decks of cards on bottom and lighter bags of tokens on top. A full shelf allows games to hold their neighbors closed. When taking a game from the shelf you can rotate a neighbor on its Y-axis fill the gap and press against the other boxes (if needed). For particularly troublesome games, silicone x-bands are a good option. (edit) Perhaps I should clarify that we store all components in small ziplocs or food storage containers.
My main grip with horizontal storage are the hassle getting games in and out of the stack. There’s also the issue of dishing and split corners from the weight of the boxes on top pressing on the boxes below. And, if they’re stacked ziggurat style, then it’s not efficiently using all the storage space available.
The problem with horizontal is that the cardboard of the boxes on the bottom of the piles will eventually bend and tear over time. Permanent damage is worse than jumbled components so I think the concensus is vertical is best.
Horizontal of course, we are not savages!
Horizontal keeps the games better organized, but vertical keeps the shelf better organized.
I have a bit more of a fancy solution to this problem. I usually design and 3D print organizers for my games that should keep all the components nicely in position even if put vertically.
I would love to put them horizontally but it is much harder to find a good shelving solution for this. I also enjoy 3D designing solutions that are not super common.
