# What do you do with jigsaw puzzles you've finished? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 22, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528 "2015-08-22T16:31:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/1 "2015-08-22T16:31:45Z")
I’ve just finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle - my first one. And I’ve admired it… and now I don’t really know what to do with it. I expect there are solutions available for storing them in a “built” state (the box advertises some kind of ‘puzzle glue’), but I showed it to the family, took a photo for Facebook, and then broke it back up into the box. Not sure what its ultimate fate will be, but it may well end up in recycling. What do you do with yours? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/2 "2015-08-22T16:41:33Z")
I don’t put them together, but my dad was a huge fan of doing them and he’d put glue all on the back of it so it’d stay together and then hang them on the walls as pictures. You can just use regular glue, it’s quite simple…what he’d do is just use a regular tube of glue, put some down on the back and then smear it around using his finger to cover all the pieces…then doing it again for the next small section until all parts were covered. This wouldn’t take too long, only about five or ten minutes. Then you let it set and dry and when you move it and even pick it up, the pieces all stay together. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/3 "2015-08-22T16:49:13Z")
I have one that I have done twice. The first time, it feel to pieces shortly after I finished it when some dicks tried to move it from the table to a couch on a towel, where a dog jumped on it. I put it together again a year later and glued it to a cardboard backing. Last weekend I reinforced it with strips of wood and its hanging above my fireplace. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/4 "2015-08-22T16:51:34Z")
It’s this one: Antique World Map 1000-Piece Puzzle [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003M6S1V4/ref=cm\_sw\_r\_awd\_gHk2vbKN1MD4T](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003M6S1V4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_gHk2vbKN1MD4T) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/5 "2015-08-22T16:51:51Z")
I take out a dozen pieces, replace them with more or less than a dozen pieces from another puzzle, then put them back in the box. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/6 "2015-08-22T17:01:55Z")
Dang missed edit. It’s that map but a different puzzle; mine is 2k pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/7 "2015-08-22T20:13:26Z")
If it’s complete: I carefully take it apart in sections and put it back in the box, because I can’t bear to take them apart. Then, if it’s somehow special to me (a scene I’m fond of, or an unusually-large puzzle), I save it. If it’s not, then I donate it to the church rummage sale or a garage sale. If it’s not complete: I mark where the missing piece is on the picture on the box, and then just jumble it back up in the box and either throw it out, or (more likely) forget about it on a shelf. Since all of my jigsaw puzzles themselves came from rummage or garage sales, missing pieces is not an uncommon fate. Ah, well. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/8 "2015-08-22T23:50:54Z")
I like to put them back in the box for a year or two then do them again. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/9 "2015-08-23T00:41:23Z")
The last one I did went to the thrift shop after I got done with it. I figure that someone else could enjoy it also. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/10 "2015-08-23T00:49:40Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I like to put them back in the box for a year or two then do them again. That’s me. If they are good puzzles, I do them again. I also rewatch movies I’ve already seen. > [@Ponch8](#): > > The last one I did went to the thrift shop after I got done with it. I figure that someone else could enjoy it also. I don’t buy them from thrift shops or antique stores because > [@TriPolar](#): > > I take out a dozen pieces, replace them with more or less than a dozen pieces from another puzzle, then put them back in the box. these people exist! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/11 "2015-08-23T01:35:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > these people exist! 🙂 That’s the way I always got them. I figured I was supposed to do the same thing when I passed it on. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-jigsaw-puzzles-youve-finished/728528/12 "2015-08-23T04:05:26Z")
My mother keeps the puzzle assembled for a while, then disassembles it and puts it back in the box. Then every so often she donates some puzzles to the church rummage sale.