Our small group of four started playing Carcassonne almost a year ago, and we are all totally hooked on the game. We live is 3 separate homes very close to each other and each of us has purchased the Carcassonne Big Box 2017 version. Being hooked on the game, we have also purchased, in this order:

Getting everything into one box was getting impossible, so we started looking for better ways to manage our addiction to the game. This is what we have done so far!

Organizing the Big Box

The Carcassonne Big Box 2017 box is designed with most of the tiles and the trader tokens on the right side of the box.

The elevated center row holds the 50 / 100 scoring cards, the standard start tile, the Flying Machine die, and the Crop Circle tiles.

The left side of the box consists of two empty compartments that are filled with various plastic bags containing the meeples and other wooden objects .

The first step in the standard box re-organization was to create a removable cardboard insert for the right side of the box and purchase a variety of clear plastic containers that can be labeled to replace all of the plastic bags.

The clear plastic containers can also be labeled to hold all of the tiles and other objects that come with other additional expansions.
In total we should have:

• 36 SATINIOR Clear Plastic Storage Containers with Hinged Lid (2.12 x 2.12 x 0.79 Inch) holds 9 tiles.
• 48 CHUANG CHOU Clear Plastic Containers with Hinged Lids (2 x 2 x 1.4 Inch) holds 16 tiles.
• 12 SATINIOR Clear Plastic Storage Containers with Hinged Lid (2.52 x 2.52 x 0.79 Inch) for misc items.

A Friskies Paté cardboard box is exactly the proper width for the removable insert, all you have to do is cut it down to size and fold up the new end.

Final Box Layout

The lower compartment of the holes on the left side of the box are 2.8 x 2.8 x 1 inch. The best fit that we could find was a single 2.52 x 2.52 x 0.79 inch Storage Container. The upper compartment is 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.2 inch which easily holds 4 stacks of one 0.79 inch plus one 1.4 inch Storage Containers. There is a little extra room on top of the containers, but not enough for two 1.4 inch Containers.

The cardboard insert that is placed on top of the score card on the right side of the box can easily hold a custom container for the Expansion 8 Bridges plus room for 10 spaces for a single 16 tile Plastic Container or a stack of two 9 tile Plastic Containers; with a little room left over for a 20 sided die or other small things that make your game interesting.

Our Big Box now holds everything that came with the Big Box plus Exp 3: The Princess and the Dragons, Exp 5: Abbey and the Mayor, and Exp 8: Bridges, Castles and Bazaars, plus Halflings and River II. Everything is in labeled boxes and there is also a variety of 10 empty plastic boxes under the top visible layer of boxes on the left side.

This is what my personal Big Box looks like so far

This is what the as is Big Box looks like. Each of the bottom 6 tile slots currently holds 8 Tiles, but they are large enough to hold up to 10 Tiles. If we agree to eliminate the Robbers and Messages which extend the game onto the score card, we could create room in the standard box for up to 20 expansion tiles.

Special Note: June 3, 2022: Things are getting tighter in the Big Box. Since the layout above was published, we have purchased 3 additional sets of Meeples (Purple, Orange, Brown), and 9 Phantoms! The actual Bridges are now stored outside the Big Box!

Special Note: April 28, 2023: Just finished making the 15 new Water Well tiles for the latest fan-expansion. Things are getting tighter in the Big Box again. It's time to move 3 more smaller/unused boxes to the side!

I'm currently using 18 large containers, 8 small containers, and 2 oversized containers. Only 1 large and 1 small containers are completely unused, plus 1 small container is unnecessarily holding my original Halfling 1 tiles. The removable box is currently holding 10 large containers, and each of those containers could be replaced with a stack of 2 small containers.

Each of the 6 lower compartments on the right side of the Big Box is currently holding only 8 tiles, but they are capable of holding 10 tiles each. If we do make the decision to not play with The Robbers and The Messages expansion which happen on the score card, that would also free up 2 slots in the Big Box plus 1 small container.

Also, the 6 Abbey Tiles are in a small container which could hold 9 tiles, and the 12 Mayor Tiles are in a large container which could hold 16 tiles. If needed, we could combine the 18 Abbey/Mayor tiles into a stack of 2 small containers holding 9 tiles each.

I currently have an extra 6 oversized boxes, 4 large containers (1 has 15 larger custom bridges), and 12 small containers (1 has 2 custom bridges and misc. clips).

Personal notes about organizing the Big Box

The left side of the Carcassonne Big Game Box is divided into multiple compartments for the game tiles of various expansions and the Goods Tokens for the Trader and Builder Expansion. The scoreboard and game rules fit exactly above these compartments.

A removable box, max size 7 1/8 by 10 1/4 by about 1 inch high, fits nicely into the empty space above the score card and rules.

Amazon sells: CHUANG CHOU Clear Plastic Containers with Hinged Lids (2 x 2 x 1.4 Inches). 12 of these boxes will fit in the removable box. They will each hold 16 tiles and the space between the top of each container and the box top is about 1 tile plus 2 business cards thick!

The right side of the box has two 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.2 inch upper compartments each with a lower compartment of 2.8 x 2.8 x 1 inch.

I'm still looking for a box that will fit nicely in the lower compartment.

The upper compartment easily a layer of 4 of the 2.12 x 2.12 x 0.79 Inch boxes with a second layer of 4 of the 2 x 2 x 1.4 Inch boxes.

Looking for a box, max size 7 1/8 by 10 1/4 to fix in box over the score board. It can be about 1 1/8 high, but cutting down its height will not be difficult.

SATINIOR 12 Pack Clear Plastic Beads Storage Containers Box with Hinged Lid for Beads and More (2.12 x 2.12 x 0.79 Inch) Amazon Prime $9.59. Each box holds 9 tiles.

CHUANG CHOU 48 Pack Clear Plastic Containers with Hinged Lids (2 x 2 x 1.4 Inches) Amazon $27.51. Each box holds 16 tiles.

Dec 27: just ordered another 24 of the SATINIOR 2.12 x 2.12 x 0.79 Inch boxes, They should arrive by Friday Dec 31!

10 tiles are 17 5/8 inches long, 17.625 inches, each tile is 1.7625 inches square. basically, 1 3/4 plus 1/80 inches.

Bridges: each bridge is 1 inch high by 1.8 inches long by 0.4 inch wide, all 12 bridges measure 4.8 inches wide.

Fake Bridges: 16 fake bridges are 6.15 inches wide, 0.384375 square each. A two stack would be 0.76875 inches high, 6 side by side bridges are 2.306 inches wide and fit easily in the 2.8 inch lower compartment. 7 bridges are 2.690625 are snug fit, 8 wide does not fit at all. 1.75 plus 0.384375 times 2 = 2.51875 inches which would be a snug fit for the 2.52 x 2.52 x 0.79 inch boxes available on Amazon. But, I could possibly file down the bridge length.

Tile Thickness: 71 Basic Game tiles measure 5.95 inches. 11.933 tiles per inch.
0.79 inch box should hold 9.43 tiles, they hold 9 tiles.
1.4 inch box should hold 16.7 tiles, they hold 16 tiles.

When the cardboard box insertion and one of the new 1.4 inch plastic containers is placed on top of the score card and the instructions on the primary side of the box, the distance between the container and the box top is the thickness of 1 game tile and 2 standard business cards.

The other side of the box has two 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.2 inch upper compartments each with a lower compartment of 2.8 x 2.8 x 1 inch.

I'm still looking for a box that will fit nicely in the lower compartment.

The upper compartment easily a layer of 4 of the 2.12 x 2.12 x 0.79 Inch boxes with a second layer of 4 of the 2 x 2 x 1.4 Inch boxes.

Variable Image Sizing

During my super geek days, I personally wrote a JavaScript that automatically resizes an HTML image to continue to fit on a webpage as the size of the page shrinks.

<img width=600 height=431 src="box/Empty Box.jpg" class=vis50p400x600w431h>

Variable Image Sizing is controlled by the class of the image. Breaking down the class of the Empty Box.jpg image we have:

• vis - the script is triggered when the first 3 letters of the class are “vis”.
• 50p - we want the image to fill 50% of the “available space”.
• 400x - to a maximum of 400 pixels
• 600w - the original width was 600 pixels
• 431h - the original height was 431 pixels
• 000n - the minimum width is 000 pixels
• 000e - exclude these pixels from the percentage calculation