My puzzle areas have transformed and largely progressed throughout my years of puzzling, thankfully! As a kid, I puzzled on my bedroom floor. I would assume I puzzled on a piece of carboard, or something similiar, since we had shag carpet (it was the 70s afterall!) and it is really hard to puzzle on shag carpet! Lol! When I joined the Army 1990, I only did a few puzzles during the 4 years I served. We had a hutch type shelf thing with a little drop down so we could use it as a writing surface, and I remember putting a puzzle together on it. And I believe we put one together on the floor that was too big for the drop down surface on the hutch. My roommate, Kathy, liked puzzles too! We still keep in touch and she still does puzzles today! After the Army, I mostly puzzled on the coffee table on Sundays as I watched movies on Lifetime. Oh, but let’s not forget when I worked for UPS tech support for their shipping software and puzzled most of the work day while talking to customers and helping them fix their computer issues! My cubicle held a 1000-piece puzzle perfectly! There were a few of us that puzzled and it made a sometimes frustrating job so much better!

So, now, let’s move on to 2014 when we bought our home and I finally had a house with some extra space for puzzling. The previous owners added on to the house, including extending the kitchen/dining area, a mother-in-law suite with a walk-in closet and full bath, and an extra room off the master bedroom. There is a small area for a formal dining room right off the living room that I used as my puzzle table area for quite a few years, but then we started using it for the homework/computer area for my now highschooler and my hubby, who really still prefers the kitchin table. It was perfect really for puzzles since I was close to my kiddo and my dogs. I eventually moved my puzzle table to the extra room off the master bedroom but my dogs were not having that! No No NO! lol! I had the room blocked off because that was also my cat’s area. My basset hounds are just a little needy and they need to see their humans at all times. So me being in a room that they couldn’t freely access, was a big no! Lol! So, then I moved my puzzle table into the spare room where I also worked. That room definitely became a full blown puzzle room and my work computer went into the closet. I work from home as a medical coder (since 2013) and that wasn’t really working out too well since I was pretty cramped in that little closet area! My older son was in the mother-in-law suite room area, so I figured when he got his own place, I would just move into that room again. I say again, because when we first moved into this house in 2014, that room was where I worked and my younger son had his toys and everything in there so he could be with me when I worked. Then my older son took it over when he came to live with us during and after covid. So, now that room is my lovely puzzle space and my work computer is in the corner, where it actually started 10 years prior and not in the closet! That room actually has a walkin closet, so I guess it wouldn’t be that bad! The closet is jam packed though – but in an extremely organized way of course – full of puzzles!