Game Cartridge Storage Solution

Your child gets a new game system. It isn’t too bad. Just the system itself, two controllers and a game cartridge. Then, he gets another game cartridge from a relative and breaks open his piggy bank to buy a third. The stack of cartridges beside the game system becomes a teetering mass and the inevitable happens. The whole mess collapses. And then it collapses again and again. Sound like your playroom? It used to be mine, but I decided there had to be a good low cost solution that could organize game cartridges, extra controllers and handheld game systems.

Photo: K. Thomas

I found my solution in the crates that you get when you buy clementines. We love them, so I had a lot of the little crates stacked in storage waiting for me to come up with a use. I asked my handy brother to build me a set of shelves from some left over wood, tucked the shelves under the front edge of the table in the craft room and filled it with crates.

The first crate held every single Nintendo cartridge perfectly. (Yes, Nintendo. My brother brought his old system out, along with all of its games, to add to the other game systems in the play area.) Everyone loves to shoot the ducks in Duck Hunt or to take a trip back in time to when Mario first began to hop on mushrooms during his quest.) Another crate held the kids’ DVDs. A third held the handheld game systems. And so on. I love that we’re now super organized without spending a dime.

By the way, I chose the location under the table for the shelves because my brother told me that game cartridges shouldn’t be exposed to direct sunlight to avoid deterioration. Since the Nintendo game cartridges are the same ones we’ve had since the system first came out, I assume he knows what he is talking about.