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Valerie Putman: Assigning Prime Shelf Real Estate
I recently purchased some new shelving from Ikea with the idea of turning one of the small rooms in my house into a library. When I tell non-gamers about the new library, they assume it’s for books, of course. Silly muggles. But the truth is, I do own a few books. And a few DVDs. And some CDs, Wii games, Xbox games, magazines, and other shelf worthy items. Like many homes, I also have quite a few shelves throughout the house. There are large wall to wall shelves and small shelves in corners. There are decorative shelves on full display when you walk in the door and hidden shelves in the closets. There are deep 22 inch wardrobe shelves (the new shelving from Ikea) and narrow 3 inch shelves that seem useless for anything but knick knacks (which I generally consider to be dust collectors and little more). So, which media deserves which shelving?
I think the answer is different for every household. Most likely, the items that are enjoyed by the most members of the household are going to get the best space. If you’re a gamer in a household of movie buffs (including yourself), it’s not surprising if the games are stored in a basement closet while the DVDs get front row in the family room. Sometimes the built in shelves that come with the house don’t quite suit your preferences and you end up with CDs where you’d rather keep some games. Finally, there’s the question of whether items are meant to be admired or used. High value collector items are likely to be stored differently than a deck of cards that you use every day.
In the last few years we’ve opened up a little more real estate by storing the CDs in the basement in tubs. Now that we have all of our music downloaded to our computers we found that we just didn’t need easy access to them. We also used the new Ikea wardrobes (with doors) to store some of the really big (and in my opinion, less attractive) game boxes in the collection. Sorry, Ameritrashers, Fortress America is now behind closed doors. We still find, though, that assigning shelf real estate is a task that we must constantly reevaluate—every time something new comes through the door.
Oasis of Fun
This week I’m in Georgia visiting my game group from my grad school days. I’ll go to my old game night on Tuesday (which I understand has grown quite a bit). Then on Wednesday I’ll be heading to Atlanta for Stven Carlberg’s gaming event, Oasis of Fun. My number one goal is to play all the Spiel des Jahres nominees so that I finally have something to say about them. As of right now, I’m embarrassed to say that Stone Age is the only one I’ve tried.
I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman
Posted by Valerie Putman on Jun 15, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Valerie Putman / 1162
Comments:
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With the right IKEA bookshelves the big games looks like a standard boxes. I got IKEA “Journalist” shelves (40 cm deep and the corner shelves are slightly deeper than World of Warcraft the boardgame). WoW:tBG seems to be as big as Starfarers of Catan. Perfect!
Of course the games have the front place in the living room and cover one of the walls (about 260 games today and still place for over 100 more or so). The 5 book shelves are elsewhere :-)
But its always fun to hear the reaction from non-gamers who come visiting us for the first time.
Posted by Carl Samuelsson on Jun 15, 2008 at 02:53 AM | #
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I recently decided to throw out an old entertainment center (which didn’t make effective use of the space it was taking up) and replace it with a couple of bookshelves for my games. Sounds simple...but then the old tv won’t fit on the shelves...new TV stand...nope, one more set of shelves and a new LCD TV. The project went from $80 to $500 amazingly fast. But it looks better and is a vast improvement over the duffle bags that used to hold all my games! Posted by Erin Sparks on Jun 15, 2008 at 08:26 AM | #
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Oh-and the one trip I made to our new, local IKEA was a nightmare for me. I cannot stand the way the store is laid out and I felt like a rat in a day-glo-colored maze. I didn’t feel like I left, I felt like I escaped! Posted by Erin Sparks on Jun 15, 2008 at 08:29 AM | #
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Erin, which new local Ikea is yours?
Posted by Dale Yu on Jun 15, 2008 at 10:03 PM | #
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Canton, Michigan. I really honestly felt...not claustrophobic...but it bothered me that it wasn’t clear where the exits were and that you couldn’t just go straight through. Even the “shortcuts” were of little value. I actually wrote a short piece about it and got it in my local Mensa newsletter lol. Posted by Erin Sparks on Jun 16, 2008 at 07:36 AM | #
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Erin: That’s our local Ikea, too. I totally agree about the rat-in-a-maze feeling, and I’m pretty sure it’s designed that way—you’re not getting out of there without walking past yet another rack of things you might buy on impulse! :) Posted by Derek Jung on Jun 16, 2008 at 11:34 AM | #
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I’m very much a run-in-and-get-what-I’m-looking-for kind of guy and I felt very frustrated at being in there and having to ride through “It’s a Small World After All” to get to what i was looking for. I had a physical reaction to it lol. Posted by Erin Sparks on Jun 16, 2008 at 11:53 AM | #
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I’ve been to our local (Plymouth Meeting PA, in the suburbs of Philly) IKEA many, many times and I still can’t find anything. Luckily my son (who is seven) has some spontaneous mutation in the sense of direction gene (because his Mom is just as bad as me) and guides me to where I need to go. He is a fan of IKEA meatballs and drags us there frequently. In fact the rest of the family is there now, while I am at work. As for shelf real estate, I find that if I ignore it, frequently used games just naturally gravitate towards more accessible spots and less used games get shoved to the back. Or possibly I just play whatever’s on top of the pile. Posted by S. Deniz Bucak on Jun 16, 2008 at 03:02 PM | #
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Ah, the difference between a man and woman shopping: If a man goes shopping and doesn’t find what he wants in the first place he looks, he is mad. If a woman finds what she wants in the first place she looks, she is mad. Hi, Erin. Long time, no play. Check out ROBA in Yahoo groups. We meet once a month and game all day. Posted by John Daniels on Jun 17, 2008 at 08:48 AM | #
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I joined ROBA but haven’t been to anything yet! Maybe I’ll see you there. Posted by Erin Sparks on Jun 17, 2008 at 08:50 AM | #
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