10 Expert-Level Tips for Doing a Jigsaw Puzzle 

Have you ever done any of these expert-level puzzle hacks? Which one was your favorite?

Hi Karen, I’ve not done a puzzle, since I lost my eye sight back in 86. I came Arcoss your channel by chance, while listening to some videos my friend sent me. I now complete a braille puzzle for the the first time in my life. Thank you Karen. (Signed joe Sam grandson)

I don't mean to brag, but I put together a puzzle in 1 day and the box said 2-4 years.

I use the ziplock bag hack, too. I also use a Sharpie to scribble the puzzle name, manufacturer and year I completed it the first time. That’s in case it somehow gets separated from the box. For puzzles I decide to donate, I mark “No missing pieces” on the bag. It’s something I appreciate when thrift store shopping for puzzles.

Puzzling keeps you sharp. Dad, age 101 yrs., has a dedicated puzzle table, that’s for a half century been never empty. Now he prefers 500 pieces - finished within a week. Thanks for your tip list. It’s good to see them being passed on to a new generation of puzzlers. Quite familiar with these tips, dad too likes first sorting out the pieces. (by shapes, color gradations, as well as by texture & image focus. - Thus puzzling before the main event). Another tip: roll up your sleeves to prevent “catching” a puzzle piece when reaching over. Oh yeah, watch out for that puzzle elf. You swear that the missing piece has not fallen, even after combing the floor on your hands & knees... Only to have it appear later in that very same spot. Happy Puzzling!

i thought i was a geek for doing puzzles, watching this has confirmed my suspicion

I’m almost completely blind and I have recently got into doing jigsaw puzzles. I absolutely loved your idea about turning the puzzle upside down, because it added a different perspective to it. I do my puzzles without even being able to see the picture on the box and not knowing what to expect when I open it. I have no idea what my end result are even supposed to look like, so solving the puzzle without matching colors was my favorite suggestion. I’m going to be uploading a video on Tuesday, March 31 about how I complete puzzles as a blind person

Love all the great ideas! 💡 But I was genuinely flabbergasted at the separate ziplock baggie for edge pieces 😱 Sorting those out when starting a puzzle is such a core part of the experience for me! Pre-sorting when you put it away feels like soaking the communion bread in wine before it hits your stomach, hahaha 😆

I keep my edges in a separate bag. Saves so much time on repeat puzzling adventures!

I am on my fourth 2,000 piece puzzle since quarantine started. I don’t like using shortcuts. To me the fun in doing a puzzle is taking your time, rummaging through the box or searching for that one piece to finish a section. Probably just me though.

Now we over 70s are confined to our homes ( UK Coronavirus ) thanks goodness for jig- saw puzzles. Great show, Karen

I live in the north east where the snow and cold keeps us inside 75% of the time. I only do puzzles in the winter and feel I’m horrible at it so I just now sought HELP and found you! I think I just got a whole new attitude adjustment in my puzzling!! THANK YOU!!

I realize this video was made a couple years ago but have a suggestion for the foam core. If you have a dollar tree store around you, go there and buy their foam poster board. They come in white or white with a black covering on them. I always get the white ones, and like Karen says, I move them from the couch, to the bed at times or from my card table I usually work my puzzles on. The card table is an easy move too in case you want to be in the living room watching and or listening to the tv while working on a puzzle. The Dollar Tree foam poster boards are only $1.00, so I buy several at once, just to keep some on hand at home. They don't take up much room, but do go to your dollar tree! Hope this don't bite me in my tail, and next time I go get some it's all gone....LOL I just did 4 deer, cabin related puzzles for my deer hunting brother to put on his walls, so I also glue the puzzles to the boards. Don't have alot to trim off either with the 1,000 piece puzzles. I've got 2 puzzles coming from Amazon that are for my walls, and one I had personalized with a picture from my grandsons graduation from high school that will definitely be a living room picture. If the quality of it turns out ok, I've got 4 more graduation related pics to get done and make him his own collage. Happy Puzzling Everyone!!

Really important tip: don't do puzzles near vents. I was doing a puzzle at the kitchen table and a piece fell on the grate on top of the vent. Luckily it didn't fall in, but I reoriented myself on the table so I wasn't so close to the vent. Keep your pieces safe!!!

I have been using poster board for a number of years, and have since applied a layer of felt with spray adhesive so as I move around or want to prop the poster board up the pieces don't fall off!

We use the tray idea but purchased about 10-15 identical lightweight cookie sheets with edges (you want the lightest ones possible-Dollar Tree or similar) to sort and stack. We use different colors of cardstock under the pieces. When you need to consolidate pieces, lift the cardstock and slide the pieces into the next tray. About 4 trays with an empty on top will cover a 1000 piece puzzle and cat proof it for overnight on the dining room table. If you want to clear the table, stacked trays and a foamcore partly worked puzzle sandwich clipped with binder clips make quick work of clearing the table for use for another purpose.

Instead of foam, I use a dog kennel replacement liner. They’re light and cheap and have edges for keeping the pieces in!

I watched the video, thinking I'd pick up a new tip or two. (I've been working puzzles for fifty years, and I like the really challenging ones!) However, I use every single tip that you suggested. They work! I'm so proud of myself! Ha Ha.

You have inspired me to do the 18,000 piece Ravensbuger “ Magical Bookcase”. I use a combination of the tricks here. I sort pieces on several sizes of foam core /thick cardboard. I can then stack them. I also store the large amounts of pieces that I am not working on in clear plastic containers. This allows me to work on smaller areas of the puzzle without taking up an entire room. This has been effective in keeping the pets at bay. As I progress with the puzzle, I split large areas into shapes. This all allows me to keep the puzzle in some frame of reference and order. I am going to try the colander method for puzzle dust next.

An inverted unpainted picture canvas can be an inexpensive reusable puzzle piece holder (or two) also.

Karen I love this channel! I've been known as "the puzzle guy" among my friends and family for my whole life. During quarantine, I knocked out a 1,000 piece puzzle of Santorini (very challenging) and a 1,000 piece puzzle of Star Wars - both incredibly fun. Managed to do the Star Wars one in about 20 hours. The Santorini one took a bit longer just because of all the sharp changes in the picture itself (buildings, walkways, etc) but I've been approaching the puzzle sorting/assessment process with all of your hacks without even knowing about them! New sub here, for sure! Can't wait to see more!

Thanks for the tips. I'm a fairly new puzzler so every bit helps. It's awesome to see an expert taking advice and ideas from others (and sharing them!). It's humbling and a very good trait. Well done. As for my own tips...I usually leave the edge for last. It's a fun way to finish off the the puzzle. When I break it up I store it in bags of 50 - 200 pieces depending on the size and picture of the puzzle. (I usually don't store the edge pieces seperately). Then I have "mini puzzles" for whenever I can squeeze in a bit of 'boring-fun'. Keep the videos coming! It's a great channel :-) From South Africa

This whole ordeal is puzzling but where else quarantine doing my first puzzle and I love it

I have always ALWAYS stored my pieces in ziplock bags. When I start sorting and remove the edge pieces I also have a set of different colored kids plastic bowls and each color is for a different jigsaw Shape. You could buy a set bowl set for Colored pieces too. They also are handy as they stack and take up less room. I even have a bowl just for the lesser Shape pieces where there is only one or 2 of that piece--they all go in one bowl. I also have a bowl for People, Body Part,s small Animals etc, or a certain part of the jigsaw that really stands out. My brother made me 2 different size wooden jigsaw boards and they have a lip so the pieces do not slide off. You could also take a photo of the jigsaw box lid picture and have it on your iPad so you could ZOOM around and also if you want to use the lid to store or display jigsaw pieces

Wow! Mind totally blown! I have been doing these things for years and never knew that I was doing it right. Sent my husband to get me a piece of foam core as we speak!

Just found your channel, I bought a jig saw puzzle for something to do.. I'm now binge watching ur videos LOL

great tips! thank you! i just started puzzling with a 200, now doing a 300, next is 500. I'm really enjoying it. what got me started was watching your videos of the world championships.

Biggest puzzle hack do them during covid19 quarantaine

My husband and I retired and it’s bleak and wintery outside . Puzzles are perfect for us. Great ideas thank you

I keep a spreadsheet of every puzzle I have done, complete with time taken! #puzzlenerd

I LOVE TO DO PUZZLES, and probably have 500, I do all of the tips you have listed, but instead of a cooking tray, I use multiple white paper plates to sort, then they can be stacked, I also use 2 foam boards, one to put under, and one on top ( then I can slide it under my sofa ) KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK.

I have a 3000 piece puzzle that I went back to do since I’m bored 😂 and I actually just separated the edges first then went and put the pieces all one way to help 😂

I absolutely love your channel! So nice to know there are others out there who are obsessed with doing jigsaw puzzles. My hacks: I use a cheap, sturdy poster frame to build on. Similar to the foam core as it is light and portable, but has a little raised frame around the edge so pieces don't fall off during transport. I slide my unfinished puzzle under the couch, where it is safe for the next day. For some reason, I only like to do a puzzle once. A finished puzzle is broken up, re bagged and placed in a box of shared books and puzzles at the office. People love free stuff and I don't feel guilty throwing it away, nor need to find a place to store it. Sometimes people aren't too thrilled with difficult puzzles tho. Thanks again for your amazing channel! Just have to ask, any relation to Bruce Mahler from Seinfeld? Maybe you just have a similar dialect. Thanks again for the great videos!

Just bought a 300 piece puzzle to get started on and love your tips. Going to get some foam core. I currently have the border on a piece of cardboard but I think the foam core will be better. Thank you sooo much for all your tips.

I use the piece shape sorting technique for the cloudberries puzzles mostly for the background colour for the origami and canvas puzzle, the light green to dark green section of the gradient puzzle and the purple to white part of the mountain puzzle. I always do my puzzles on the floor and one thing that I do is put all of the inside pieces face up in straight lines so I can see all the pieces, one problem is that it takes ages to do, for example: it takes me 30-60 minutes for 1000 pieces and it takes me 2-3 hours for 2000 pieces. I love watching your videos, they are interesting to watch and very helpful and it's also nice to see someone who is crazy about jigsaw puzzles like me. Keep up the good work ❤😊

Yesterday, we completed our first puzzle together (500 piece). Two and a half afternoons. We used the neoprene mat/polystyrene roller combination so we could roll up mat and puzzle at the end of each afternoon session. We have 9 or 10 other recently-purchased puzzles in the living room cabinet waiting for us (and 6 or 7 more on order). So, we are newly into puzzling for the long haul! Love Karen's site. Watched Karen's "How to do a Jigsaw Puzzle Quickly" after our first afternoon session and were able to put some tips into practice immediately -- very helpful. Happy to see Karen's "Pomegranate Art Puzzle Review" since half our purchases have been Pomegranate. I think I am not just a Karen Puzzles subscriber ... I'm a "Karen Puzzles" addict!

A tip for cat owners who don't have a rolling mat: when you take a break, cover your unfinished puzzle with puzzle boxes or books and put sth small on top, so the kitty won't sit down there. Bc of my cat, I lost 1 piece of 2000 Heye Victoria Frances Wolf puzzle and I can't experience such a loss again.

Thanks for the tips Karen! I'm not a puzzle person, but a friend recommended it as a Christmas gift to help promote 'sanity' during the holiday family visit.🙄😬 It really helped give a few needed moments of meditative, cooperative calm. Btw, the foam core board helped soo much! Made all the difference. 👌✨💙

I use the Puzzle Sorter 6 Box kit to sort the pieces into. They boxes are like Puzzle Lids and also stack into each other too. Really simple and extremely Helpful

The only thing I would add is make sure you have good lighting. Lol…Being 73 and starting to do puzzles…well, it’s important to have plenty of light!

I have started my first puzzle today! I have completed the edges i am ready to join this community!

I stopped separating or doing edge pieces first! I'm so happy I did... basically you just start like you would if you had already done frame, with a dominant color or pattern and let it grow organically from there. Do you ever try that?!

I already knew most of the tips :D I love Puzzles, and mostly i hang the puzzles on the wall when i'm done, and i do that with the 9000 piece Puzzle. Luckily we have so much room for it.

I can tell this Karen isn’t like most Karen’s that are typicall to the Karen meme.

No code word? Is that some sort of code? I have one personal habit in puzzling. If I find a unique piece, I save it for last. I call it my keystone piece. Keep the videos coming.

My friend got me a 500 piece puzzle of my car for Christmas which I just started yesterday. I haven’t done a jigsaw in nearly 20 years but I’ve been keeping matching colours together and decided to try assembling easily identifiable parts first (the headlight and grill of the car)

Thanks! I am currently working on a 300 peice rainbow gradient!

We have a dedicated counter height puzzle table in our home with an additional round top on top of the square tabletop that you can turn to orient the puzzle different ways to gather pieces or change your perspective as you work the puzzle. My 95 year old mom participates in the process and loves to be able to do this without getting up and down. My sister and I can work the puzzle standing up or sitting down because the counter height table makes it comfortable to do so. Yes, we are jigsaw puzzle obsessed! Love your hacks!

I love your enthusiasm !

Thank you. Your suggestions for puzzles have been very helpful.

I'm in a retirement community and each floor in our 13 floor tower and its sister tower has a jigsaw puzzle table. I love the strategies in your video. Can't wait to try them!

Hey Karen, I'm with Heritage Puzzle and plan on sharing this in the morning on our Facebook. Thanks for sharing and I'll make sure to tag you! Best, Matt

I put felt on the cookie sheets so the pieces don’t slide. I chose a pale blue color. Seems to work ok.

For large puzzles with sections of similar (but not the same color), use card stock 8 1/2 x 11 that can be purchase in office supply stores. Once sorted you can move the smaller sections on the card stock to each relevant part of the puzzle as you make discoveries. You can also work sub-parts of the puzzle on the individual pieces of card stock and integrate the parts later. The card stock also gives a convenient way to scoop up multiple pieces and move to new locations.

I was searching for Karen compilations I searched "Karen's assemble" and this is what came up. Pleasantly surprised

There is indeed nothing new under the sun. You can literally find EVERYTHING you need on RU-vid 💯

As a kid, I had a ton of puzzles, it was my only hobby. During the Covid situation, I began it again and I'm in love - so much nostalgia, but also so much new, cool puzzles to discover :)

I actually sort the egdes first, then I sort by charectors and then sky or what ever is in back ground. I do not turn them up right just in containers where I can sift through as I go. Always fun.

I went to walmart and bought cork boards that are suppose to hang on walls. They are light weight for your lap and they have a wood border around it so pieces won't fall off. The nice thing is they also come in different sizes. I have saved, glued and mounted many of my puzzles so I save the empty boxes and use them to separate new puzzle pieces by colors and shapes.

When I sort my puzzle looking for the edge pieces if there are smaller groups of color I sort them on Paper plates. They will stack easily and then when you're ready to put that smaller part of the puzzle together just get that plate!

I just finished a 1000 piece puzzle with my mum. It looks amazing and took us a month. I'm going to hang it in my room! We are doing a 500 one now (quarantine made us do this not complaining tho) and thank for the tips!

*watches Karen finish a 2000 piece puzzle in one day while ignoring the 1000 piece I’ve been working on for like 3 day* *goes to this video*

Already doing all 10 tips. Thanks for the reminder.

Just got 2 new CORNER PIECE 500 piece puzzles today. Sorted out edge and other pieces and made both borders now the fun can begin. Poly or ziplock bags are great.

Good tips. I think I’ll start using the baking tray idea to give me more room to fiddle with. A tip that I use is to mark out the exact dimensions of the puzzle on my working surface with painter’s masking tape so it keeps my edges straight. I also keep a kind of mental grid map to help locate features relative to each other.

Yikes. 3:42 is a disaster waiting to happen...at least for me. 🤣

Hi Karen OMG I'm so glad I found you channel, I've recently just rediscovered my love/passion/obsessing for this hobby and love watching all your videos, so much so that I forget to go do some of my puzzles 😅 I love all your tips and suggestions and am now an avid puzzle shopper when ever I go out to thrift stores as well Thanks for you wonderful channel 🧩

I recently did the Galison Astrology puzzle. Having sorted it by color before I started made it substantially easier. Edit. It's so pretty I'm glueing it.

Adorable. I like that you are so dedicated to a different kind of activity. Puzzles are fun. Just started to rediscover them.

You know quarantine is getting bad to the point when ur doing puzzles

Watching your video about puzzles has helped me to piece my life back together!! It took a long time, but I am whole again!!

Just finished the Ravensburger 1000 piece Pixar Movies puzzle a few minutes ago. One of the easier puzzles I've done recently. Ravensburger is good quality but sometimes the cheaper puzzles have peeling issues. Break out the Elmer's glue and apply gently a teeny dab with a plastic toothpick to press the print back onto the piece. Seeing the little peelies over the hours you work on a puzzle will grate on you. Good peace of mind to fix.

Don't do puzzles but I was given a 1000 piece Lord of the Rings puzzle for Xmas. So far, I've got the edges and some parts of the map segments on top & bottom. I may use some zip locks to separate the other pieces into groups but it won't be easy cos there aren't really big blocks of colour. It's the three posters for each movie with parts of the map at top & bottom. I can see this taking me months. 😁

Sometimes jigsaws could be really PUZZLING to solve ..... I'm see myself out the door-

My wife, son and I just finished a 2000 piece puzzle. Was nice family time during this quarantine. We had to order another one from Amazon because all the stores were out of them (OK...I wasn't totally quarantined....lol)

Thank you, these are some great tips. I like the bag idea-it never occurred to me to put the edge pieces in a bag all by themselves (DUH!)..and the foam board-that's a great idea!

Since being quarantined my family and I have started working on puzzles. We’re first timers and are working on a 500 piece😂 maybe one day we’ll be working on a 1000 piece.

3:51 "When you are frustrated, flip the puzzle over" - roger that ;-)

Who is here March 2020?

I heard that before about turning the puzzle around to get a different perspective! That makes a lot of sense!

I am glad you concede! It only makes sense that when you are filtering through the pieces for the sides you also take out the the prominent colors! Come on now there is a few more tips on doing the puzzle that you should mention! I'll still give you thumbs up!

I liked the smaller ziplock to keep the edge pieces separate when you put the puzzle away. Makes it nice when doing puzzles with a grandchild.

A coworker told me about you. This is my first time watching any of your videos. Prior to this I started sorting my “puzzle pieces” by shape. I sometimes use a large tray with white paper in the bottom for my sorted pieces. When I took apart the last puzzle I placed the edge pieces in a zip top bag so I save the step of sorting them the next time I do the puzzle. I enjoyed this video and look forward to watching more. I thought I was posting this on your video “how to do a jigsaw puzzle Quikly”.

I love doing puzzles up side down

OMG, My DH did that same Matisse puzzle a few years ago. We do a lot of art puzzles cuz I love art. I love the colander trick for the puzzle dust. Also, my name is Karen too, so hello!!!! Thank you for your channel! :)

I just finished a 2000 piece puzzle! Struggled very much with the plain pieces

These are some great tips! I also look at the puzzle upside down when I’m stuck. I love putting puzzles together while listening to movies

You don't have to destroy the puzzle once it's done. You can frame them. That's what I do!

I have been working puzzles since I was a little girl, so almost 55 years. I have a table in my bedroom just for working puzzles. I always have a puzzle in the works. I find it to be like therapy, very relaxing. One of my tricks I would like to share is that when you have places on the puzzles where it is all the same color like sky or maybe water, I will arrange the pieces by shape. At that point the picture won't do you much good. I also put my puzzle in a baggie when I am done so the pieces don't get lost. I have several friends that I puzzle swap with. The more pieces, the more fun it is. I am always looking at resale shops for puzzles. Puzzles are my passion.

My dentist when I was young had a Jan van Haasteren poster on the ceiling. I think it was there I started to love Jan van Haasteren jigsaw puzzles.

I've just started watching your channel and I bought a 1000 piece puzzle. Thanks to your tips it took me 13 hours in two separate days to finish it. Considering that the last 1000 puzzle I did took me weeks working with my sister, I consider this a huge success!

Here is a challenge for you will you try to finish the 500 piece gradient on that you gave up

I do not know why. I'm actually baffled to be honest. But it's been years since I've done a jigsaw puzzle but watching your vids has me looking up nice jigsaws to buy! Lol. Not to mention doing one with you is now on my bucket list! I'd be a happy man to spend an evening sorting and solving with ya. Happy puzzling hun!!!

I’ve just started doing puzzles in the winter months. I am on my second puzzle. The first one I finished I bought a frame and donated to a second hand charity shop . I think they appreciated it. I feel good that I completed the puzzle and donated it and hopefully someone will enjoy it.

When i do puzzles i separate my pieces when i see a section I want to do and then find them.

Thanks for the tips. It's funny that you mentioned sorting the pieces by shape. Some friends and I have been building some puzzles over the last few weeks and we were putting together a 5000 piece puzzle of an orange cat with a sweater and it was so hard that I tried organizing the pieces by shape to help things go more efficiently and it really helped. I'm a new subscriber and I'm enjoying your videos.

Lovely tip about holding suspect pieces up to the light. 👍👍

I got a 10000 piece puzzle as my first puzzle , I wanted a challenge and as soon as I opened the box I got lost and didn’t know where to start , and thanks to your videos I solved it !

I got a 1000 piece puzzle and kept it in my wardrobe and never looked at it until now and I’m really happy I found this video

I bought a piece of white coated board and edged it with beading . I can work on my jig saw and then pick up the board to store under the bed until I can work on it again. ❤️ I have also copied your idea to sort the puzzles in colour and shape order. Suits me 😊