Top 7 Strategies for Jigsaw Puzzles

Puzzles can be a great stress reliever but if you get stuck, this can quickly turn to frustration as well. To help avoid the torture that can come from getting stuck in a puzzle look at our Top 7 Strategies for Jigsaw Puzzles

1. Spread all the pieces out.

Get all the pieces out of the box and spread them out on a wide-open surface. When pieces are in the box, the pieces you may be looking for may be buried under hundreds of other pieces. Dump the pieces, spread them out and, move on to the next step of this guide.

2. Turn all piece’s picture side up

Pattern recognition is the key to putting a puzzle together. Get all the pieces flipped over so that they are all picture side this. This will allow you to start shorting and grouping the pieces by image and color.

3. Sort all the pieces into groups

Group the pieces by end pieces with flat edges and begin to group by patterns and shapes you can find based on the reference image. You may get a few in the wrong bucket at first, but these will sort themselves out as you progress.

4. Start with the border

Start by creating the frame of the puzzle. The pieces are easy to find in the sorting step as they will all have some flat edge. Once the frame is completed; you will have a great idea of the size and scale of the puzzle. AT this point you can start figuring out where other images generally fit inside the puzzle.

5. Work through big easy to identify patterns

Look for faces, markings on buildings to anything that really sticks out on the reference image. Start by places these pieces together first and placing them into your new puzzle frame created in the previous step.

6. Sort by Shape

Begin to sort your pieces by shapes. There are usually 4-6 different shapes that reoccur in puzzles. Once you have grouped by shape, you can narrow down the pieces that are missing in a puzzle and have a smaller subset to choose from when looking for the right piece.

7. Keep at it!

With every piece you get correctly added to your puzzle, there is one less puzzle to have to sort through as you get closer to your goals. Remember that puzzling is for enjoyment and not meant to increase stress, so keep moving forward and realized that with every success, the puzzle gets just a little easier!