Time to start lookingfor those straight edges.

So many pieces to swoop onto the floor!

I love doing 2,000 piece puzzles and it takes me thousands of days to do it as I just walk by and do a few at a time. I could be exaggerating a bit but it does take quite a while for me.

I usually use a few long low edged trough like cardboard boxes to spread the puzzle pieces out. Sometimes I separate them by colour. I as most people do the outside first.

I also have to cover the whole puzzle and puzzle sorting boxes or my one puzzle piece stealing cat will have a hay day and I'll have to hunt for the missing and often chewed pieces.

Happy puzzling.

You are ambitious, for sure!

And yes to trays for those extra pieces 😃

I've used the shallow cartons from canned food & drinks at work. I use regular serving trays at home. Another trick I used at work was to make a very large shallow tray out of a large sheet of corrugated cardboard taken from a shipping carton, so the puzzle wouldn't slide off the table if anybody bumped into it.

Looks like you have a large piece already. I just cut an inch or so into each corner, folded them up and taped with packing tape, scoring the cardboard so it would fold easily.

I always do the border first too.

1/2 sheet baking pans are your friend. I use two of them and then I can stack them. I don't sort on them, just try to get pieces face up. I use pieces of printer paper to sort. I can stack those too.

Target and Walmart have good prices on the baking pans. Treat yourself to a couple of new ones.

https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Natural-Aluminum-Commercial/dp/B0049C2S32/ref=lp_289674_1_1

I like to do 4000 and 5000 piece puzzles and the first thing I do is sort the pieces roughly by color into ziplock bags or bags that linens came in. While sorting, I pull out all the outsiders. After the edges are done (minus the few that I always mange to miss), I work on one color bag at a time. Luckily I have some boards that came in two cardboard puzzle carriers that my kids had a long time ago, so I can have a couple different colors working at the same time.

You can always throw a vinyl table cloth over the undone puzzle to keep prying critters away,

I would love that puzzle, but I bet it's too big for my table. Fun!

Looks like a fun puzzle! If I were a cat though, I'd be sorely tempted to participate.

We use the little tray tables for extra pieces, then cover it ip with cardboars because of the CAT, haha yours is a neat one !

Another vote for trays or cookie sheets to sort pieces on, particularly by color if possible...or sometimes I will pull together certain things like hands and faces.

Looks like a fun puzzle!

Of course the puzzle box makes at least 1 good tray too 🙂

Yes, but can you bake cookies on it?

My 92yr.old aunt does jig saw puzzles. A recent one was difficult and took weeks. Not until she readied it to be framed (brush Moj-Poj (sp?) on the back) did she see that each piece had a tiny number on the back of it making it easier to put them into corresponding groups!

I Like the puzzle but it's way too big for me. 300-500 is my best. I hate keeping my table covered up with a puzzle for too long. Good luck.

Nice picture but 2,000 pieces, yikes! I've been doing 1,000 and that's plenty for me. For sorting and stacking, I bought a few pieces of thin white foamboard, 20x30inches -- cheap and convenient from Walmart's office supply section. Sometimes I work the puzzle on the foamboard itself, if the size matches up.

Something else I've used as a puzzle-working surface was a framed cork bulletin board - I think it was 24"X36". The cork makes it non-slip.

FWIW, I don't get cementing finished puzzles together for display, tho I know lots of people like to. In my mind, jigsaw puzzles are a toy to be used again and again, not just once. Also, the bumpy surface makes it difficult to see the image properly anyway. I really appreciate the folks who donate their used puzzles so others can enjoy them too 🙂

That ought to keep you busy for a day or two!

I havent worked a puzzle in a couple years but this thread inspires me. I used to work them a lot but got tired of it. Good space and lighting are a challenge. I like 300-500 best but have worked the 700’s. I’ve glued together some 99-cent puzzles just for the fun, but I wouldn’t glue a nicer one.

Great puzzle but the size intimidates me! I am firmly in the 300 piece camp. Carol's comment on gluing the pieces together reminded me of my dog's groomer. She must have 30 puzzles of dogs hanging in her shop. I don't know if she did them or was given them but they are a lot of fun to see and very appropriate art work!!