# My latest Dungeon Tiles storage solution



## buzz (Jan 3, 2009)

I've recently been cleaning up (and cleaning out) my collection of gaming paraphernalia, trying to get things organized. One of my goals was to find a storage solution for my _Dungeon Tiles_ that would keep them both handy and portable. I was poking around OfficeMax today for ideas, and I spotted these:

InFile Hanging Storage Case (link removed; looks like this product is no more)

I remembered that I had a portable filing box sitting mostly unused, and figured that there was a solution here. So... I bought a bunch of cases.

I punched all the tiles (yes, they were sitting unpunched on my shelf) and started sorting them by size into separate cases. Trial and error showed that you can stack tiles about 7-8 tall and still have the cases close securely. The hinges on the cases are not that strong; they popped out of the sides on one case while I was packing it. I think a little superglue would remedy this, though.












Then, I placed them in the file box. This is an OfficeMax brand file tote; it can fit eight of the hanging cases with a little room left over. I was able to fit all of the tile sets released to date in this one tote, with some space left to add a set or two more. File totes like these come in all kinds of sizes, so one could fit more or less, depending.






Voila! Packed up and ready to go.






The total cost of this solution is probably around $55. The hanging cases were $5 apiece, and the tote about $14 or so. I just lumped tiles together by size, but you could probably sort them thematically, too. And, of course, you could use these for any company's tiles/counters/maps/whatever.

Anyway, just thought I would share. This seemed about the best solution I could find. Not to mention, it cleared space on my shelves for more D&D books. 

(I'm not sure if any other companies make these hanging cases. If someone knows of similar products, please speak up.)


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## Treebore (Jan 3, 2009)

Thats cool!


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## Asmor (Jan 3, 2009)

Beats my solution.

I've got a gallon ziploc baggie for cavern pieces, a gallon ziploc baggie for city/sewer pieces, and several baggies and boxes for regular dungeon tiles sorted mostly by size, though I do for example have a baggie that's just doors...

I thought Office Max went out of business?


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## Thanee (Jan 3, 2009)

Nice. I just have them scattered into four small boxes, seperated by size, roughly. Takes forever to find something. 

Bye
Thanee


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## JustKim (Jan 3, 2009)

Those look great, I think I'm going to need a slightly bigger tote for mine though.


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## Treebore (Jan 3, 2009)

Asmor said:


> I thought Office Max went out of business?




I believe they only filed bankruptcy. I know Kay Bee Toys and Mervyns went, or are going, out of business.


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## buzz (Jan 3, 2009)

Asmor said:


> I thought Office Max went out of business?



OfficeMax has neither gone out of business nor filed bankruptcy. I know because I work for them. 

You're maybe thinking of Office Depot, which recently closed about 120 stores and laid off over 2,000 employees.


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## Ktulu (Jan 3, 2009)

Pretty cool.  I've got mine in plastic baggies separated by theme (indoor, cave, streets, etc..), anything larger than 3x3 gets separated by size.


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## JoeGKushner (Jan 3, 2009)

Thanks for sharing.

When I point out some of the things I don't like about the D&D mins/counters, it's because people are well, forced to come up with solutions like this. It's like a fire and forget strategy for WoTC instead of supplying the solutions to problems that long term buying of their own products would create!

Anyway, that's pretty neat.


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## thalmin (Jan 3, 2009)

Looks good. How many tile sets do you have?


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## megamania (Jan 3, 2009)

JustKim said:


> Those look great, I think I'm going to need a slightly bigger tote for mine though.




Me too.  I have over 20 sets.  I'ld need 4 - 5 totes now!   Ouch!


Still-  it would be quicker to find individual tiles than my Baggie in a box method.

Kewl.


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## thalmin (Jan 4, 2009)

megamania said:


> Me too.  I have over 20 sets.  I'ld need 4 - 5 totes now!   Ouch!
> 
> 
> Still-  it would be quicker to find individual tiles than my Baggie in a box method.
> ...



I just picked up some of these. The tote holds 8 files, and it looks like each file will hold 1 set. But they also have some larger stackable boxes. I picked up one that will hold 15 files, and it is on sale for $7.50 and even comes with one of the files in it! No carrying handle though.


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## Holy Bovine (Jan 4, 2009)

JoeGKushner said:


> Thanks for sharing.
> 
> When I point out some of the things I don't like about the D&D mins/counters, it's because people are well, forced to come up with solutions like this. It's like a fire and forget strategy for WoTC instead of supplying the solutions to problems that long term buying of their own products would create!
> 
> Anyway, that's pretty neat.




Yeah - imagine how these would sell to gamers with a dragon painted on the side!


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## JoeGKushner (Jan 4, 2009)

Holy Bovine said:


> Yeah - imagine how these would sell to gamers with a dragon painted on the side!




You joke but Games Workshop and other miniature companies seem to think that these things have value and price them accordingly. Which in turn lead to other miniature companies making their versions.

I'd like to think that WoTC, knowing the exact dimensions of the products their making, could make specialized compartments for the handling, sorting, and ease of retreiving specific pieces.


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## buzz (Jan 4, 2009)

JoeGKushner said:


> I'd like to think that WoTC, knowing the exact dimensions of the products their making, could make specialized compartments for the handling, sorting, and ease of retreiving specific pieces.



The question is whether they could do it profitably.


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## buzz (Jan 4, 2009)

thalmin said:


> Looks good. How many tile sets do you have?



I have one copy of each set released to date. Nine or so?


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## Holy Bovine (Jan 5, 2009)

JoeGKushner said:


> You joke but Games Workshop and other miniature companies seem to think that these things have value and price them accordingly. Which in turn lead to other miniature companies making their versions.
> 
> I'd like to think that WoTC, knowing the exact dimensions of the products their making, could make specialized compartments for the handling, sorting, and ease of retreiving specific pieces.




But those things also cost way more than what the OP is talking about.  I've seen the stuff GW does and it is crazy expensive.  Really I use clear crafting boxes and pay very little.


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## DaveMage (Jan 5, 2009)

Very cool, buzz!


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## larrycormier (Mar 4, 2009)

*D&D Dungeon Tile Organizer and Storage Case Available!*

Hi all,

I'm new to this site, but I just wanted to let you know that the Dungeon Tile Storage Issue was what got me here in the first place. I was looking for a way to store D&D Dungeon Tiles myself, but couldn't find a good solution. So I made one. I have designed a D&D Dungeon Tile Organizer and Storage case to address the problem, and have placed a prototype on eBay if anyone is interested in taking a look at it. It can be found under D&D RPG Mapping Tile Terrain Organizer Storage Case. Take a look, and see if it might be the Solution you were looking for! It was for me!

Thanks!   

Talk with you later,

Larry Cormier


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## JoeGKushner (Mar 5, 2009)

Might want to refresh that link in the OP. Looks like it's not pointing to the correct spot anymore


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## buzz (Mar 5, 2009)

JoeGKushner said:


> Might want to refresh that link in the OP. Looks like it's not pointing to the correct spot anymore



I think the product is no more; Google may be the best option at this point.


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## jephlewis (Mar 5, 2009)

OP, Thank You Very Much for this solution.



thalmin said:


> I just picked up some of these. The tote holds 8 files, and it looks like each file will hold 1 set. But they also have some larger stackable boxes. I picked up one that will hold 15 files, and it is on sale for $7.50 and even comes with one of the files in it! No carrying handle though.



yep. I went to officemax and picked up the tub that holds 15 of the file-things, as well as nine of the file things [for a total of ten]. I would have picked up more, but that's all they had. I'm going back next week.

Apparently, InFile seems to be gone, as well as "innovative storage designs" [the people who make the InFile products]. I can't find a good link.


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## avin (Mar 5, 2009)

Got all my six tiles stored on two shoeboxes... /cry


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## Nebulous (Mar 5, 2009)

Mine are stuffed in an amazon box, some punched, some not punched.  The only saving grace from this shoddy solution is that i don't actually use them that often, and when i do, i almost always have them pulled out ahead of time so i don't have to search for anything.


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## kitsune9 (Mar 5, 2009)

buzz said:


> The total cost of this solution is probably around $55. The hanging cases were $5 apiece, and the tote about $14 or so.




Wow, good idea. I do have a couple of these cases myself, but I didn't pay $5 for them. They can be found at a Japanese import store called Ichibankan here in the SF Bay Area. There's one in Japantown in SF and another in downtown San Mateo on 3rd that I know of and there could be a third location. They sell those for a $1.50 each. There's another competitor that's also from Japan called Daiso, but I'm not sure if they sell those cases. Daiso seems to be a larger chain and is probably elsewhere outside of CA.


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## Daniel D. Fox (Mar 5, 2009)

I have a 3'x1.5'  long table beside me i stack them on so I have quick access to them. However, the Streets of Shadow I had to draw squares on, because they're nearly unviewable with the white crosses to indicate squares.


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## Cergorach (Mar 5, 2009)

I keep mine in a box of D&D Basic Game (The one with the plastic black dragon), I have a couple more of them, so I can expand ;-)

My problem isn't how to store the 2D cardboard D&D tiles, but how to store my 3D gipsium D&D tiles...


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## Ruined (Mar 10, 2009)

I found a nice amount of the translucent InFile folders at Office Despot yesterday. They still had a few more clear ones as well as a stock of black cases.  Now that my tiles are organized and easier to transport, I should get more use out of them.


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## JoeGKushner (Mar 23, 2009)

just a quick update that you can find these at Office Max as of last weekend.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Oct 29, 2009)

Having bought a new set of dungeon tiles recently and finding myself always spending a lot of time building my dungeons during play, I am looking to organizing the tiles used by my group better.

This one looks interesting, though I think storage is not the only issue - maybe the least. One advantage in our group is that we have a fixed gaming place and we can store everything we have there. The disadvantage is that it is impossible to prepare the tiles before the game. 

So my goal would not just to store the tiles, but to easily find them. 

I'd like to balance concepts like "storage by size" and "storage by theme". 
Size is often important to lay out the wider areas of an area and to identify fitting pieces. But "theme" is also important - since I don't want to always get an altar or strange energy ball when I need a door or when I need furniture!

One of the things I wonder about is what kind of storage containers I would need. Unfortuantely, the OfficeMax solution mentionered here is not just tricky because they seem to have gone or something, but also because they are not found in Germany. 

--

So, what are your suggestions? What are your experiences? Any more tips and advice?


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## jasonbostwick (Oct 29, 2009)

I store by theme. I have around 3-4 copies of each set since Ruins of the Wild, so it would be pretty cumbersome otherwise.

The tiles are in IKEA boxes by general theme (Dungeon, Dire Tombs, City, Wilderness, Caves).

Within these boxes, I have the tiles in Ziploc bags based on type. 
So, within the Dungeon box, I have a bag of doors, a bag of stairs/ladders, a bag of furniture, a bag of weird elemental tiles, etc. 
Tiles bigger than 4x4 are just free in the boxes - they're not too tough to sort through.

So far it has made it very easy to manage the tiles, both for prepping things in advance and improvising encounters at the table if things go differently than planned. We game in a fixed place in my house, so transport isn't an issue, but the tiles are stored well enough that it wouldn't be to tough to put the boxes in a back seat.


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## Thanlis (Oct 29, 2009)

I like the idea of ziplocs by theme.

I'm currently using the Infile hanging boxes, btw -- Target sells them.


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## weem (Oct 29, 2009)

Hmmm... I dig that setup... maybe just grab some of these now that I have an idea of how I can store these, hehe.


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## Oryan77 (Oct 29, 2009)

I really need to take pictures of my new setup. It is perfect.

I used ziploc bags but all the tiles bunch down at the bottom of the bag. It wasted a lot of space when storing the bags in boxes.

I got a bunch of those plastic containers that have individual slots in them with dividers that can be removed to make bigger slots. I used a razor blade to cut out some of the permanent dividers and created slots sized to fit each size tile. These plastic containers slide into a bigger carrying box with a handle. 

My fingers were sore from all the cutting with the razor blade, and it took me about 2 weeks to create these (I have a lot of tiles). But man was it worth it.


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## Oryan77 (Oct 30, 2009)

Oryan77 said:


> I really need to take pictures of my new setup.




Ok, so I took a few pics. I also included a pic of how I store my minis


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## FATDRAGONGAMES (Oct 31, 2009)

Very cool idea!


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## buzz (Nov 1, 2009)

Oryan77, that's brilliant. Much better organized and more scalable than my solution.

Where did you get the containers? Namely, where did you get the bigger carrying box they slide into? That's really cool!


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## Olaf the Stout (Nov 1, 2009)

They look like they could be Plano boxes, but I'm not sure.  Either way, it looks like a great way of sorting and storing the Dungeon tiles.  I'm still trying to figure out a way to store mine.  That could be the answer.  The question is though, is something like that available in Australia?

Olaf the Stout

Edit:  Where did you get the container to sort the minis from?  I'm relatively happy with my current minis storage set-up but there's always room for improvement!


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## Oryan77 (Nov 1, 2009)

buzz said:


> Oryan77, that's brilliant. Much better organized and more scalable than my solution.
> 
> Where did you get the containers? Namely, where did you get the bigger carrying box they slide into? That's really cool!




After reading your first post in this thread, I liked your suggestion and went to Office Max to get some of those hanging storage cases. But those things are $5 a pop, and I figured I needed at least 16 of those to hold my tiles. I just couldn't afford that. Then I remembered that I had these cases sitting in my game room. 

I got them from a fellow minis collector that sent me his minis recently. I planned to sell the cases on Craigslist since I had no use for them. But when I got home after leaving Office Max, I opened them up to see if cutting them up would work. It took me a few tries to figure out a good way to cut them up. I went through about 3 razor blades and ended up with sore fingertips. I won't kid you...it was a lot of work and rough on my fingers, but it was well worth it once I finished.

I don't know if anyone would want to go through that much trouble to make these. But I'll see if I can contact the guy that sent them to me and find out where he got them. I'll let you guys know what I find out.


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## JustKim (Nov 1, 2009)

I recognize it. It's a Home Depot product. The brand is WorkForce and the product is called Small Parts Box. I didn't find it on the Home Depot website and it has been a few years so they might be impossible to find now.


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## RichGreen (Nov 1, 2009)

Oryan77 said:


> I really need to take pictures of my new setup. It is perfect.



Wow! What a great solution!


Richard


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## buzz (Nov 1, 2009)

JustKim said:


> I recognize it. It's a Home Depot product. The brand is WorkForce and the product is called Small Parts Box. I didn't find it on the Home Depot website and it has been a few years so they might be impossible to find now.



The boxes do look a lot like Plano, as Olaf suggested. If Home Depot doesn't have them, Plano should have virtually the same thing.

Plano boxes have been a lifesaver; I use them for board games with lots of fiddly bits (e.g., Arkham Horror) and counters for RPGs.


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## Olaf the Stout (Nov 3, 2009)

Hey Oryan77, where did you get the container(s) that you store your minis in from?

Olaf the Stout


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## Oryan77 (Nov 3, 2009)

Olaf the Stout said:


> Hey Oryan77, where did you get the container(s) that you store your minis in from?




You can find them at Sears and Home Depot:

Stack-On 39-Drawer Organizer: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00965901000P?mv=rr
and
Stack-On 18-Drawer Storage Cabinet, Gray: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00962319000P?keyword=stack+on+storage+cabinet


I use these:
Sterilite Wide 3-Drawer Cart - White : Target

for my huge and bigger sized minis.


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## Thunderfoot (Nov 8, 2009)

A less expensive version of the Plano boxes is the Bass Pro Shop version - same stuff, less expensive.  I also got the President bag and can carry them on the go with dice, books and other crap.  For larger minis, I use the deep boxes, for Huge minis, I just use the cheap plastic storage containers (Shoebox sized) from Wally-World (Wal*Mart).
My total storage area is less than a 3 square foot area about 5 feet high for roughly 15,000 minis and supplies.


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## Mark (Nov 8, 2009)

Thunderfoot said:


> A less expensive version of the Plano boxes is the Bass Pro Shop version - same stuff, less expensive.  I also got the President bag and can carry them on the go with dice, books and other crap.  For larger minis, I use the deep boxes, for Huge minis, I just use the cheap plastic storage containers (Shoebox sized) from Wally-World (Wal*Mart).
> My total storage area is less than a 3 square foot area about 5 feet high for roughly 15,000 minis and supplies.





pics?


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## Thunderfoot (Nov 10, 2009)

Mark said:


> pics?




Wish I could - I don't have a way to get photos to computer... it sucks being poor.  (BTW - I wasn't poor when I started collecting the minis.  )


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## Mark (Nov 10, 2009)

Thunderfoot said:


> Wish I could - I don't have a way to get photos to computer... it sucks being poor.  (BTW - I wasn't poor when I started collecting the minis.  )





Ah, but you are mini-rich!   Maybe, you have a gamer in the group with a cellphone camera who can send them to your email?


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## The Little Raven (Nov 29, 2009)

buzz said:


> InFile Hanging Storage Case (link removed; looks like this product is no more)




Hanging Project Case

They changed the name, but they look to be identical to what you have in the pictures.

The Container Store > 4-Case Storage Chest

The Container Store sells these chests with cases in place of drawers, similar to Oryan's setup. They are not customizable, so if you want to fit the biggest tiles, you'd have to apply some elbow grease.


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