Magazine Clutter

Every day it seems I get a new magazine or catalog in the mail. From my husband’s Economist, Business Week, Bon Appétit, and National Geographic to my Health magazine, we have lots of reading material lying around. These are items we have ordered, but we also get Alumni magazines, store catalogs, and local newspapers. I keep all my magazines in two places…in a large square basket in the living room and in a basket in the bathroom.
After looking through the mail, I place the magazines in the large square basket in the living room. I can usually go through catalogs that evening while lounging on the couch and watching TV. Or sometimes I quickly flip through them after I sort and file my mail. One of the things I noticed lately is that most of these catalogs contain the same product information as the catalog before. I am not seeing anything new. If you feel overwhelmed with catalogs, then you can call the company and ask to be removed from the mailing list. I did this for my Frontgate catalog. I never bought anything from them, but all of a sudden I started getting the catalog. I love when my information gets sold!!!
I leave the magazines in the basket until it starts to get full. Usually at this point my husband and I will go through the magazines to recycle the ones we have already read. Sometimes I bring them to work and leave them in the kitchen for others to read during lunch. If you do this, make sure you take off the address sticker or black out your address with a marker.
Another place you can store magazines is next to your bed in a basket or on the night stand. If you do this, remember to clean it out on a regular basis to avoid it from overflowing onto the floor.
How do I determine what magazines can go and stay? Usually if it’s been sitting in one of my baskets for over a month then I recycle it. If I am keeping the magazine for one specific article, I will cut out the article and place it next to my night stand. I will add this article to my To Do list for the week. We tend to keep our cooking magazines for the recipes. In this case, cut the recipe out of the magazine. I keep binders with various recipes (Entrée, Dessert, Sides, etc). I can then hole punch the recipe and add to my binder and then get rid of the magazine. Another thing to consider is that certain magazines allow you to log on to a website to review the same article/recipe/tips as in the magazine. You can make a note to go to the website instead of keeping the magazine. Just remember if you haven’t looked at the magazine in the last couple of months, it’s probably time to let it go.