A Puzzle A Month

I pick up jigsaw puzzles in spurts.  Sometimes none for months (or maybe even a year???), and then two to four or even five at once if I happen upon a bunch I like for a good (cheap) price.  My 'free' time varies throughout the year, and historically I do only a few puzzles over the course of twelve months, mostly in the cold dark months of winter.  Which means I have found myself with a backlog of puzzles waiting to be put together.  Some from as far back as 2015 according to this Goodwill sticker on one.

I like to do puzzles 'in season' by what their picture is: winter scenes in winter, summer scenes in summer, etc.  Some are harder to peg down the exact season, and those I tend to do if my eye happens to catch that one more than a seasonally recognizable one at the time I am grabbing a puzzle to work on.  Which is how I have 11+ year old puzzles in my stash that still haven't been done (rarely do I do a puzzle more than once, so I tend to give them away after completing them).

 This past winter I put together a big one.  In spring, none.  In late spring I decided that I should, if possible, devote some of my scarce summer free time to working through that puzzle stash.  If I could get one puzzle put together each month that would be a good thing.  Not just for reducing the amount of puzzle boxes I have stashed, but because working puzzles is a relaxing thing for me who has a hard time sitting still if her brain (and hands) aren't working away at something.

In June, I did this one:

And for most of July, I picked away at this one for about three weeks:

This is the one I have chosen for August: 

I find it both entertaining and a bit frustrating to note the difference in price on puzzles from the exact same Goodwill location in 2015 (99 cents) to the 2025 sticker on my August puzzle.  It's not like it costs them any more to acquire them in 2025 than it did in 2015 (ahem, free donations).  Then again, overhead costs (utilities, building maintainence, minimum wage) have gone up a lot in 10 years, so I guess that 'explains' the price jump.  (I'm looking at it in percentage increase--a tad over 131%, rather than simply $1.30 more).

Anyhoo. . . 

Maybe I'll try to keep up this puzzle a month thing for the remainder of 2026.  That would open up some currently used (for puzzles) storage space as well as bring me some tidbits of enjoyment weekly and would move along five more puzzles to new homes by 2027. Win-win, right?