I always see pictures of people’s collections with boxes stored vertically on their edge. Looks nice, but when I do this the pieces inside tend to get jumbled around.
What’s the general consensus on the best way to arrange boxes on the shelf?
It’s fairly trivial to clean up the game in a way so the components don’t spill around. First, ditch any vac-formed insert or at least don’t rely on it to ‘hold’ anything. Then basically just pick whichever edge will become the ‘bottom’ on the shelf and stack all the components against it. Start with the heavier things like decks of cards on bottom and lighter bags of tokens on top. A full shelf allows games to hold their neighbors closed. When taking a game from the shelf you can rotate a neighbor on its Y-axis fill the gap and press against the other boxes (if needed). For particularly troublesome games, silicone x-bands are a good option. (edit) Perhaps I should clarify that we store all components in small ziplocs or food storage containers.
My main grip with horizontal storage are the hassle getting games in and out of the stack. There’s also the issue of dishing and split corners from the weight of the boxes on top pressing on the boxes below. And, if they’re stacked ziggurat style, then it’s not efficiently using all the storage space available.
Personally I’m a big fan of vertical storage. It’s so easy to take whatever game you want. In horizontal storage the game placed in the bottom is going to be harder to remove. I also don’t like having a game supporting all other games on top, feels like an unnecessary straining of the box.
I prefer the aesthetic of vertical. There’s just something about it that makes it look like a “proper” collection to me. Of course one downside is that it’ll definitely mess up the components if they aren’t in baggies or some type of organizer.
Mostly horizontal, but for games with lots of little pieces (I’m looking at you Wingspan) we put the pieces into little ziplock bags so they don’t get jumbled.
I'm predominantly vertical, but it depends on the game and where it's going more than anything else. Those Ticket to Ride type boxes that are large squares almost exclusively get set horizontal because I don't want to move the brackets on the shelf up. My Agricola/euro game boxes are all stored vertically. Regardless, I bag everything inside anymore which largely solves the pieces moving around aspect for me.
I have a bit more of a fancy solution to this problem. I usually design and 3D print organizers for my games that should keep all the components nicely in position even if put vertically.
I would love to put them horizontally but it is much harder to find a good shelving solution for this. I also enjoy 3D designing solutions that are not super common.
The true way is modular shelving so you are eable to store them horizontally but each has their own shelf so you can take them out easily and no stress is on the bottom boxes.
The problem with horizontal is that the cardboard of the boxes on the bottom of the piles will eventually bend and tear over time. Permanent damage is worse than jumbled components so I think the concensus is vertical is best.
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