Monster Hunter World and the Lack of Shelf Space

I understand I’m living in a different environment than most hardcore board game players. Before GamesReviews became as popular as it has, and before our board game footage began performing so well, everything we did here on the site was paid for out of pocket.

This was the same for my free-time board gaming as well. That meant we would perhaps pick up 3 or 4 expensive ($80 – $100) games per year, plus things on sale and smaller titles. Being a reviewer has accelerated the number of games that enter my home and has created a storage problem I still haven’t managed to figure out.

This week or next, I’m prepared to accept two HUGE core boxes for Monster Hunter World: The Board Game. Inside each box are large miniatures detailing some of the heroes and monsters from the Monster Hunter Franchise. Each box is enormously large, filling an entire Kalax shelf. With a total of 36 Kalax shelf spots, this one game is going to take up 2 of them. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but generally I can fit 4-5 board games per shelf spot, so using 2 for 2 games is a lot!

These boxes for Monster Hunter World are massive, and if you are a huge fan of the game, there are additional expansions you could have got via Kickstarter, with a few of them going to retail as well. Massive board games are starting to become somewhat of a problem. I have two few games taking up too much shelf space. Bit offenders are Descent: Legends of the Dark, Descent: Legends of the Dark – Betrayer’s War, Lord of the Rings: Journey’s in Middle Earth, and a few others. Here is the issue – I love these games!

My wife and I have started to put games we play a lot less away in closets and on shelving units in bedrooms. We haven’t yet gone to the extreme of packing games into storage totes for the garage, but I assume that time will come eventually. We often try to sell off our give away our games once we are finished with them, but don’t live in an area with a large board game playing population.

What are your suggestions for dealing with shelving issues and board games?