Do you love Dominion, but hate cardboard boxes?

I know I’m not the only one around here who plays Dominion. I also know once you play Dominion, you’re going to want to buy expansions. And once you buy expansions, you quickly learn how much damn space all those boxes take.

What if I told you there’s a way to consolidate all those expansions into one easy, affordable storage solution? You’d think that’d be pretty great, right?

First of all, credit to the forums of BoardGameGeek for this idea. If you frequent that site, you may have already seen this storage solution, but my point here is to let everyone know 1) it works, and 2) it’s easy.

Step 1: Buy this wooden artist case from Hobby Lobby.

The case measures approximately 16 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ x 13″, so it’s possible you can find a case with those measurements somewhere else, but come on, there’s a link right there where you can order this one. It’s a quality wooden case, and if you order online you can try googling “hobby lobby coupon code” and get it half off with free shipping like I did.

As you can see above, the case comes with a removable tray that sits on top, which you will remove, and could then use for arts and crafts supplies! That tray sits on a couple of wooden dividers that you’ll also remove. In the final pic you’ll see the original Dominion box in this case just to give you a size comparison (this is not the storage solution HA HA HA).

Step 2: Get crafty.

Unfortunately, those wooden dividers you removed in step 1 can’t be reused here, because there’s only two of them, they’re the wrong size, and you need three dividers. Step 2 is easy in theory, but a little more time consuming in its execution. In theory, all you’re doing here is gluing three wooden dividers into your case.

Sounds easy enough, and it was especially easy for me because one of my best friends is a proper carpenter, so I just had him help me out, but I’m sure I could have done it myself! I just know it! Anyway, cut your wood dividers and grab yourselves some wood glue and clamps, because it’s time for gluin’ and clampin’!

The lighter the wood the better, because this case can get pretty heavy depending on how many expansions you cram into it. The measurements for each divider are a quarter-inch thick, about 2 inches high, and however long the inside of your case is (unfortunately it’s just over a foot, so buying 12″ planks at the hobby store won’t cut it). Considering the size of Dominion cards, I don’t think you can go much thicker than ¼ inch. Using your cards (and a ruler!) as a guide, glue your three dividers equidistantly apart, setting them in nice and tight at proper right angles (it may be easier to unscrew/remove the top of the case for this), clamp them in place, and let them set overnight just to be safe.

Step 3: Whip up some card dividers.

With those dividers set in place you can figure out where we’re going with this, but before you place your thousands of cards in this case, you’re going to need card dividers to make them easy to organize.

The Dominion files section over at BoardGameGeek is chock FULL of card divider PDFs and zip files you can choose from to download and print, or you could make your own! Or you could get lucky like me and find a guy who printed a bunch for his friends professionally and was selling them for 15 bucks over PayPal thus eliminating any work whatsoever on my part in regards to Step 3!

Whichever method you choose, you’re gonna need those card dividers–so get on it, champ.

Step 4: CARDS CARDS CARDS!!!

You’ve got your case, you’ve got your dividers, you’ve got everything you need! Add those cards! I don’t think you need instructions for this.

That removeable palette attached to the top of the case is great for the rule books, and you could also throw the expansion materials (mats, tokens, etc) back there, but there’s plenty of room in the case itself for that stuff. Depending on how many expansions/cards you have, you may need to craft some inserts to keep cards in place (so they don’t slide up and down a half-empty row), but that’s easy enough if you have any styrofoam laying around. Hell, you could even cut up those expansion boxes you don’t need anymore to make some inserts.

Like I said above, the case can get heavy as you add more expansions. I was lacking Intrigue and Hinterlands, and still carried the case by the handle just fine, but after recently adding Intrigue to the collection I may play it safe and carry the case flat from now on.

Here’s a before-and-after comparison I whipped up thanks to a GIS of stacked Dominion boxes.

I hope this little workshop helps you upgrade your library of Dominion cards into a vault of consolidated gold. HA HA DOMINION PUNS. GET ON MY LEVEL.