With us starting to do a puzzle almost every week here at Hero HQ, I decided (after getting questioned by the non-puzzlers) that maybe it was time to do a blog on how to make puzzling easier.
Siobhan and I love doing 1000 piece puzzles. We love the challenge of doing them solo, and if you’ve read my other blog about our puzzle competitions, then you’ll also know we love to race each other with hard modes.
If you’re new to 1000 piece puzzles, or you’ve got one sitting in the cupboard because it looks a little intimidating, there are a few simple things you can do to make it much easier. These are some of the tricks we use at home and will be introducing to Hero HQ!
Also, keep in mind that none of this will help with a challenge puzzle or single colour puzzles, I still haven’t managed to find hacks for those ones!
Our Puzzle Survival Kit 🥣
When we’re doing our 1000+ piece puzzles, we tend to use sorting bowls and puzzle mats. Both Siobhan and I prefer using puzzle boards (or cardboard) that are larger than the finished puzzle so that we have extra space for pieces we might be working on, or what I call the “spare pieces” that don’t really have a home until you find it.
We also like using sorting bowls for splitting out the edges, different colours and other easily identifiable areas. We have many (some would say too many) sorting bowls that we use, but really, any kind of bowl works if you don’t mind getting puzzle dust on it. I really liked some paper bowls that we acquired from Mum at one point, and they worked perfectly!
Embrace the Sorting Chaos 🌈
I know it’s tempting to tip the box out and immediately start looking for pieces that go together, but spending a little bit of time sorting at the beginning makes everything so much easier later.
I like going through and finding all the edge pieces and if I’m in a sorting mood then I will sort colours and or faces at the same time. If your puzzle has a bright red building, a character’s face or a section filled with flowers, for example, separate those pieces out. Sometimes if we’re doing Disney puzzles then we also have a face bowl with all the character faces.
You don’t need to perfectly sort every single piece. Even having a few rough groups gives you somewhere to start and means you’re searching through 100 pieces instead of 1000.
There’s a Reason Everyone Starts With the Edges 🖼️
This is probably the most obvious puzzle tip, but there’s a reason everyone does it!
Once you’ve sorted out your edge pieces, build the frame. It gives you the size and shape of the finished puzzle and makes it much easier to work out where the different sections need to go.
Plus, you’ll find out fairly quickly if you missed an edge piece in your sorting and can either go hunting or just find it later, hopefully in the correct colour bowl.
Find the Easy Wins ✨
Once your frame is finished, don’t feel like you have to work your way methodically from one side to the other (unless that’s a challenge!).
Look at the picture and find the easiest, most distinctive sections. Bright colours, text, faces, buildings and unusual patterns are all great places to start.
You can build these sections separately and then work out where they fit into the main puzzle afterwards. I find keeping the middle of the frame clear of floating solo pieces way easier to do the puzzle than if it’s cluttered with spare pieces.
If You Get Stuck, Try Another Colour 💜
This is probably one of the biggest things I’ve learnt from doing more puzzles: stop staring at the same section when you’re getting nowhere.
If you’ve been working on a giant patch of blue sky for 20 minutes and nothing is fitting, move on. Find another colour or section and work on that instead.
Quite often, by the time you come back to the difficult area, there are fewer pieces left to choose from and it suddenly becomes much easier. Or your brain has relaxed from trying to finish it and suddenly all the pieces fit together nicely.
Use the Box as a Map 🔍
Keep the puzzle image somewhere you can easily see it while you’re working.
Rather than just looking at the overall picture, pay attention to the little details. Where does one colour start changing into another? Which direction are the lines going? Is that tiny bit of green part of a tree, a shirt or something in the background?
Those tiny clues can make a surprisingly big difference.
When Colour Fails You, Look at the Shapes 🧩
When colours and patterns stop being helpful, start looking at piece shapes instead.
If you know the space you’re trying to fill needs a piece with two tabs opposite each other, there’s no point trying every piece on the table. Sort through the remaining pieces and pull out only the shapes that could actually fit.
This is especially helpful for those dreaded sections where every piece is basically the same colour.
Sometimes we even line up all the pieces by shape so that we can systematically work through the ones to try to find the right fit.
Keep Your Pieces Face Up 🙃
It sounds simple, but being able to see all of your pieces makes puzzling so much easier.
If you have the space, spread them out rather than leaving them piled on top of each other. Puzzle sorting trays are also really handy because you can separate your colours and sections without taking over the entire table.
I personally like having a couple of boards spread out with all the pieces (sometimes sorted by colour) so that I can work through the boards and if I’ve done my colour sorting right then it will be way easier to work through them all.
If It Doesn’t Fit, It Doesn’t Fit…
Sometimes a piece looks so much like it belongs somewhere that you can convince yourself it fits.
If you have to force it, it probably doesn't belong there.
A good quality puzzle should fit together nicely, and putting a piece in the wrong place can make the surrounding section much harder. If you’re not sure, leave it nearby and come back to it later.
Save the Hardest Sections Until Last 🌤️
Blue skies. Oceans. Grass. Brick walls. Giant stretches of almost exactly the same colour.
You don’t have to tackle them straight away.
Complete as much of the easier artwork as you can first. By the time you come back to the difficult section, you’ll have fewer pieces left and more information about exactly where each one needs to go.
Sometimes You Just Need to Walk Away and Take a Break ☕
A 1000 piece puzzle doesn’t have to be finished in one sitting.
If you reach the point where every piece looks exactly the same and you’re getting frustrated, walk away and come back later. Somehow, the piece you’ve been searching for for half an hour will usually be incredibly obvious when you come back.
Unless, of course, someone else at Hero HQ has already put it in while you weren’t looking.
1000 piece puzzles are supposed to be fun, so take your time, try different sections when you get stuck and enjoy watching the picture slowly come together. And that final piece? Still one of the most satisfying feelings there is.
Do you have any tips or tricks for tackling 1000pc puzzles that we might have missed?
