Before you buy large jigsaw puzzles, grab a tape measure. It sounds like a cautious shopkeeper talking, but a finished 3000 piece puzzle is 1.20 m long, and plenty of dining tables don't have that much to spare.

We did the maths with the sizes on our product pages and the estimate the shop uses, about one hour per 125 pieces.

The sizes are Educa's; the last row is the Trefl Star Wars puzzle. Add room for the pieces still waiting, which at the start take up almost as much space as the puzzle.

Buying large jigsaw puzzles: the table first, then the image

With 2000 pieces you can still use the dining table, as long as the family is happy to eat in the kitchen for a few weeks. From 3000 up, people who do big puzzles regularly nearly always end up with a surface just for them. A sheet of plywood or MDF cut to size, laid on the table or on two trestles, does the job and slides behind a wardrobe when not in use.

Two things matter as much as size. Light: on a 1.5 m puzzle, the far end sits in shadow if there's only one lamp. And height. Hours bent over a low table wreck your back, and a 4000 really is a lot of hours.

How to organise a puzzle with lots of pieces

1. Turn everything face up on day one. It feels like wasted effort, but on a 3000 it's when you get to know the pieces. Do it while watching a film.
2. Pick out the edges, then sort by colour or texture into trays, shoe boxes or lids. Never in piles on the table: piles get mixed up.
3. If you have some freezer bags to hand, split the pieces by area of the picture, one bag per area. Do one bag at a time and join the blocks at the end.
4. Work in blocks, not in the order of the picture. A finished roof in a corner of the table can wait days for somewhere to go.
5. Take a photo of the puzzle now and then. It shows progress when nothing seems to move, and saves the day if the cat decides to lie on it.

For storing pieces between sessions and afterwards, we have a piece on how to store puzzles in an organised way.

Which large puzzles to choose

2000 pieces: your first big one

To start, pick an image with lots of separate colours. The Fine Cheese Shop and The Sewing Table, both from Educa, are scenes with objects all over, the kind that give you clues in every corner. The 2000 piece Amsterdam asks more of you with its façades and canal water.

At 96 x 68 cm, a 2000 still fits on Clementoni's puzzle mat, 105 x 78 cm, which takes up to 2000 pieces and rolls up with the puzzle half done. Beyond that, the mat is too small.

3000 pieces: once the household is used to it

Educa's Burano is the one we recommend most confidently for a first 3000. The island in the Venetian lagoon has every house painted a different colour, which practically organises the puzzle for you, despite the canal and sky. It's rated expert and covered by Educa's lost pieces service. World Map has the advantage that each country is its own area, and The Valley of Balloons is the alternative if you prefer a landscape.

4000 and 5000 pieces: winter projects

The Old Bookshop (4000 pieces, 136 x 96 cm) and The Best Bookshop in the World (5000 pieces, 157 x 107 cm) are shelves, spines and more spines. Orcas and Wolves puts two nature themes into a single 4000 piece puzzle. At this size you don't buy on impulse: pick an image you really love, because you'll be looking at it for months.

And the 13,500 piece Star Wars

Trefl's Star Wars Universe Epic Collection is a case of its own. It measures 194 x 136 cm, comes with a guide poster and brings together characters and scenes from the whole saga. It's not for the dining table. It's for someone who already has that board, a spare room and no doubt about being a serious fan.

All of these are in our puzzles of 2000 pieces or more. If you haven't done a 2000 yet, our 1500 piece puzzles are a good intermediate step, and mats and other extras are in accessories.

One last detail: a 3000 or 4000 piece box is big and heavy, but that doesn't change the shipping cost.