Puzzle Library In Arlington Home Features Puzzles For All Ages

ARLINGTON, VA — Jigsaw puzzles soared in popularity starting last spring when families were stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Puzzle makers began to see their sales skyrocket as people tried to reduce anxiety from the pandemic by spending time working on puzzles.

An Arlington family is doing its part to help puzzle lovers get their hands on jigsaw puzzles. Inspired by Little Free Libraries, Allegra Jabo and her family created a puzzle library in the enclosed entryway of their home in the Douglas Park community.

Jabo came up with the idea last spring after the family had completed several puzzles when they were at home at the start of the pandemic and needed more puzzles to put together. Rather than traveling around the area swapping puzzles with friends, she decided to create a single location that people could visit to borrow puzzles.

"I realized that we should just make this easy on everyone and have a central place," Jabo told Patch.

Since April 2020, Jabo estimates that more than 1,000 jigsaw puzzles have circulated through what her family calls the Douglas Park Little Free Puzzle Library.

Unlike Little Free Book Libraries, Jabo does not expect people to leave a puzzle when they take one. But like a traditional library, she does ask that people try to return the puzzles to the library. She will make exceptions for puzzlers who like to frame their puzzles upon completion or children’s puzzles that kids enjoy putting together multiple times.

Another perk of the Douglas Park Little Free Puzzle Library is it doesn't have due dates, which means no overdue fines.

There are currently more than 150 puzzles in the family’s entryway, which is open 24/7. Another 150 puzzles are inside the house ready to replace puzzles that are taken from the entryway.

The Douglas Park Little Free Puzzle Library has puzzles for all ages, from a baby’s first puzzle to 2,000-piece Mega 3D puzzles.

"A huge part of the success of the library has been that everyone started cleaning out their houses when COVID hit. People just wanted a place to bring their puzzles," Jabo said.

The family also has missing pieces placed in plastic bags taped to the wall of the entryway for people who cannot find a final piece to a puzzle. The missing pieces were found in the entryway or driveway or are pieces that were returned without the puzzle.

Jabo said people have left gifts and written messages on Post-it Notes thanking the family for creating the puzzle library. In the notes, people refer to Jabo as the "puzzle lady." Another library user said: "Thank you for providing this opportunity to the community. You are amazing."

Jabo said she has had people travel from across Northern Virginia to borrow puzzles from the library. One man in Woodbridge messaged her to find out if she had certain types of puzzles before driving all the way to Arlington. "I would send him pictures," she said. "I've started to learn what he likes in a puzzle. If one comes in now, I let him know we've got it."

With the growth in the collection since last April, people are less concerned that the library will not have a puzzle they like, she said.

Puzzlers should wear masks when they go inside the entryway where the library is located. In response to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, the family is no longer quarantining puzzles that get added to the collection.

With the success of the puzzle library, Jabo is finding it increasingly hard to maintain it. She plans to keep it going at her house for the next several months but is looking for an organization in Arlington that could take ownership of the puzzles by this fall when COVID-19 safety is expected to be less of a concern.

Jabo hopes to find a place to donate the puzzles that would allow people to browse through the puzzles on most days of the week. Ideally, the place would also have tables where people could work on puzzles, she said.

Jabo owns a company called The Science Seed LLC that she operates from her home and wants to get the puzzles out of the entryway by the end of the year to allow her to operate the business with fewer obstructions.

For the time being, though, puzzlers interested in borrowing puzzles can visit the Douglas Park Little Free Puzzle Library at 1706 S. Lowell Street in Arlington.