# How Long "After" Do You Wait, Before You Bust The Puzzle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785 "2011-06-08T21:38:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/1 "2011-06-08T21:38:17Z")
I was watching an episode of _the Golden Girls_, and as usual Dorothy is dateless and doing a jigsaw puzzle night after night with Sofia, with typical hilarious results. Anyway after FINALLY putting the last piece of the puzzle in, Dorothy stands up and shouts, “Yes,” and is happy that FINALLY it’s done. A half a second later Sofia says “OK let’s bust it up.” In other words Dorothy was more happy about finishing it, while Sofia’s joy was gonna come from ripping the complete puzzle up again. (See you know I was gonna tell you the whole story didn’t you :D) So my question is how long after finishing a puzzle do you wait to bust it up and put it back in the box? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/2 "2011-06-08T21:43:01Z")
Since I’ve got over 20 puzzles in my to-do box, five minutes is about it,. unless I stayed up too late to finish it, then it stays up until I watch TV again. Exceptions - 3d puzzles, which I sometimes move to some empty space to admire, and the 6,000 piece one which I clear coated and hung up on my basement wall. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/3 "2011-06-09T02:02:51Z")
Over night. Although, not neccessarily. Sometimes they get busted up almost immediately, so we can do another puzzle. We usually work on puzzles a lot between Christmas and New Year’s–sometimes stretching towards Super Bowl Sunday. And then we put them away until the next year. Er, that sounds like we redo the same puzzles–we usually don’t. We usually get new ones each year. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/4 "2011-06-09T02:50:32Z")
Wow…I _totally_ thought “bust the puzzle” was going to be a euphemism. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/5 "2011-06-09T02:58:06Z")
We used to laminate them, or at least put them on something sticky. It took us so long to finish them, we just wanted to keep them. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/6 "2011-06-09T03:30:44Z")
It depends how urgently I need the table on which the puzzle is done. If I don’t need the table, I’ll leave the finished puzzle there for a week or more before putting the pieces back in the box. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/7 "2011-06-09T04:06:28Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Wow…I _totally_ thought “bust the puzzle” was going to be a euphemism. Aye. Although I’m not exactly sure to what part… ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/8 "2011-06-09T05:26:32Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > We used to laminate them, or at least put them on something sticky. It took us so long to finish them, we just wanted to keep them. We plastic wrapped ours for a while. I usually wait at least a few days, or if I’m on a real streak, until I feel like doing another puzzle and need the space. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/9 "2011-06-09T15:26:41Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > We plastic wrapped ours for a while. I usually wait at least a few days, or if I’m on a real streak, until I feel like doing another puzzle and need the space. I’ve known several people who have sealed (or glued) their finished puzzles and hung them as art! They pick puzzles for their “hangability.” It’s been too long since I worked a real life jigsaw puzzle and when I did it was like **Electric Warrior** says. However, these days I go [Daily Jigsaw - Free Online Games and Free Jigsaw Puzzle Games Games from Shockwave.com](http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/jigsawpuzzles.jsp) on a daily basis. They go away once I’m done and working one usually takes less than an hour. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/10 "2011-06-11T00:45:12Z")
Most of the puzzles I work on these days are in the 100 piece range with my 3-year-old granddaughter. She’s usually tearing the puzzle apart before we even finish it! For a normal adult puzzle (500 pieces or more) overnight is sufficient. We don’t have enough room in the kitchen for stuff like that to be sitting around taking up space for too long. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/11 "2011-06-11T02:16:33Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > …For a normal adult puzzle (500 pieces or more) overnight is sufficient. We don’t have enough room in the kitchen for stuff like that to be sitting around taking up space for too long. You could use it as a place mat 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/12 "2011-06-11T20:53:07Z")
Depends on how much I like the picture and how much I enjoyed working the puzzle. The range isn’t great though. It goes from 10 minutes to the next morning. When my son was little and I was working on them after his bedtime he’d ask me to lave it if finished it so he could see it in the morning. Now I cannot imagine him caring less. ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-do-you-wait-before-you-bust-the-puzzle/584785/13 "2011-06-12T01:29:25Z")
It depends on the puzzle. We have done a few really hard puzzles specifically to use as art. These we never break apart. Otherwise we usually break them apart after a couple of days. We’ve have a 36"x58", 4000 piece puzzle taking up our whole kitchen table since February. We can’t figure out an affordable way to frame it. We’ve saved this one: [http://www.jigsawgallery.com/details.php?refnum=ES1013](http://www.jigsawgallery.com/details.php?refnum=ES1013) And the one on our table is this one:[http://www.gosale.com/4895485/winter-spring-4000-piece](http://www.gosale.com/4895485/winter-spring-4000-piece)