Do you love playing Dominion, but hate having to carry three huge boxes around to be able to take it anywhere and be able to use all the expansions? So do I. However, with a little time and some simple materials, you can convert a single Dominion box into storage that will hold the base game and both expansions, including all of the extra components that came with Seaside!
Materials
Here’s what you’ll need:
Instructions
1. Remove the plastic insert that comes with the box. You won’t be needing it anymore; you’ll be making your own!
2. Unfold one of the long card boxes so that it lays flat.
3. You are going to be cutting the card box so that when it’s folded back, it will fit snugly inside the Dominion box. Hold the card box over the bottom of the Dominion box and make a guide marking on it like this:
4. Once you have your small marking, draw a straight line across the card box. (You can use the edge of the Dominion box as a straight edge if you don’t have a ruler handy.)
5. Cut the box along the line you just drew. You’ll probably want to make sure you use a cutting board or something similar so that you don’t scratch up your table (which would have made my wife kill me).
6. Next, cut the tops off of the box sections. (You won’t be using them anymore.)
7. Now fold up the larger section of the box you just cut, and inert it into the Dominion box. But don’t get rid of the smaller section. We’ll be using that section later.
8. Repeat the process for the second card box.
9. At this point, you’ve got card boxes filling up about two-thirds of the space in the Dominion box. The smaller sections of the card boxes you cut earlier will be placed sideways in the leftover space, but to make them fit properly, you’ll need to cut off one side of each box. Cut each of the smaller card box sections like this:
10. Fold up each of the smaller sections so that they look like this:
11. Once you’ve folded them, you can place them in the Dominion box as seen below. Once you’ve done that, your insert is complete!
12. Now it’s time to make the dividers. My dividers are simply sleeved cards from another card game that I don’t play anymore; you could also use index cards. You just need to make sure they are about a quarter-inch wider than a Dominion card.
13. Next, print up the labels that you will apply to the dividers. To print out the labels, you’ll need a sheet of label paper and a printer. Then, just download this file (from BoardGameGeek), and print it to the label paper.
14. Simply cut out the labels and attach them to your dividers, and you’re done!
15. Now all that’s left is to arrange the cards in the box. You can do this however you like; here’s how I arranged them:
And that’s it! If you sleeve your cards, you should have just enough room for the base game and both expansions. If you don’t sleeve them (and I don’t), then you’ll probably have room for the next expansion as well.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to manage Dominion storage as well. Have you already come up with a good storage solution of your own? If so, let us know about it in the comments!
Like what you see? Let everyone know using the "Share/Save" button!
I like it, but what happens when Prosperity and Alchemy come out?
I just use a simple 1600 count card box and it fits all of the kingdom cards in the left column and the victory/money cards and the seaside material in the right column with plenty of room to spare. It’s ubersimple and future-proof (to a point).
Alchemy is only going to be about half the size of the other expansions, so I think it will fit okay. Prosperity probably won’t, unless I take the Seaside mats out (and even then it’ll probably be tight). Eventually, I know I’ll have to move to a second box, but that’s going to be a problem for any solution.
I also like your idea of just using a 1600-count box. For me, it was just that I still wanted my storage solution to retain the original look, so I stuck with the original box.
Man Dominion is one of my favorite games ever 😀 Nice tut on organizing everything Ben! If I ever end up getting a Dominion set of my own I’ll definitely give this a shot.
Also what is prosperity? the expansion after alchemy?
Yup! Alchemy is supposed to come out in the next couple of months, and will be about half the size of the previous expansions. Prosperity is another full-size expansion planned for late in the year. So, apparently there’s going to be no shortage of new cards coming up for this game!
[…] house or to a convention, you would have to carry 4 boxes. After some research online [Labels, Box], I created my own storage solution. I took one box and pasted in dividers. Using card stock and […]
FYI: 1000count boxes are not what you used. I used 990 count boxes and they were way to long to only cut in to two pieces. You probably used 800 count boxes.
Otherwise great article!!!
Thanks
[…] inventive people create whole new ways to cut up the box and put in new inserts. Dominion fans love to do this. I’m not quite at that level of creative awesome, but I like their […]
I love the setup. I like the idea of using the Dominion Box itself. My only questions is how they would all fit if all the cards were in sleeves?
I don’t sleeve my cards, but a friend of mine does and was still able to fit them all. (This is with all expansions up through Prosperity!) It gets very tight at that point, though, sp any expansions after Prosperity will require another box.)
[…] found this guide online and decided it would be my model for creating a compact card collection (alliteration ftw!). […]
I just did this, worked out pretty well, all expansions except Hinterlands, that includes the randomizer cards to use as a Black Market deck.