OCD in full swing: puzzles

Hey ya'll! I'm marking things off my {list} slowly...and it's such a wonderful feeling! There are some things I've been wanting to do for a while now but time hasn't allowed - organizing my puzzles was one. My boxes were so ratted and torn, I couldn't stand it anymore. 

Last year, I put all of the puzzle pieces in a ziploc and placed the box lid in the bag too, BUT...even after they went through my kinders' hands a dozen times, I found myself having to replace the baggies more often than I would have liked. Blah! So...this is what I came up with this year!

A teacher gave me these at the end of the year. They're from her math series I think? Thick, plastic envelopes that hold math manipulatives. I decided they'd be perfect for storing all of my little 24 pc. puzzles! Certainly worth recycling!

I sat down one evening (when I couldn't sleep) and began building my puzzles. Yes, you're reading this right...I built every puzzle I had. ha! Half of the pieces had been mixed together, some were missing, and some were too ratty to use. So, I purged and threw away several puzzles. This made me muy sad! But, I found out which puzzles I had all of the pieces of and took pictures of the finished products. *Side note: in all reality, this was very relaxing...much like coloring. I hadn't put together puzzles in a while and enjoyed doing this to be honest, it was fun! ha ha ha 

I printed off the picture, laminated it for durability, and placed it PLUS the puzzle pieces in the plastic envelope. 

Now my kinders can grab an envelope, build the puzzle, and refer to the picture if they need! Viola!

Don't they look MUCH nicer now? I think these will go along great with Rochelle's "fast finisher" post. What are you doing to organize? Do you have a better way to keep your puzzles neat? Please share! Also, don't forget that voting began today for the 2012 Most Fascinating Kinder blog. Click below to vote for me, please! Thank you!