Tip of the Day #24
September 4, 2007 by Julie Bonner
Filed under Home & Living
Instead of holding on to old magazines which take up loads and loads of space, create a filing system and tear out the pages you want to keep.
You can buy a plastic filing container for about $5, and a package of filing folders for about $5 – $10; hit the sales when you can. Label the tabs according to your interests like: parenting, decorating, organizing, gardening. If you are just really into decorating then break down the categories by rooms.
After you are done reading your magazine front to back, tear out your favorite articles or pictures and file them away. Then throw the magazine in the recycling bin. There, no more wasted space in your home taken up by items you don’t need!
Coming Soon…Home & Dining’s Fall Harvest Scavenger Hunt. Stay tuned for details.
Technorati Tags: domino magazine,organize magazine,magazines about organizing,how to organize [...]
Thanks for sharing this useful tip. I also keep magazines with articles that I like. But as I keep more magazines, it also take up a lot of space.
Oh my gosh it’s like our brains are connected. You know how I’m moving; well because I used to submit to more magazines I get a ton. But since I’m moving and don’t want to take them all guess what I’ve been doing in my spare minutes? Too weird. I started this like three days ago.
Great idea. I always wonder what to do with those magazines that are important but are taking up a lot of space. Thanks for the useful tip.
@Pamela – it’s amazing how much space a flat magazine can take up isn’t it? It used to be very hard for me to throw them away, but with all of our moving I had to develop a system to keep my favorite articles. This has worked well for me.
@Jennifer – Yeah, I thought I was getting that magazine ripping vibe from you.
I hope the moving is going well. Rip, rip, rip…Wish I was there to help. I’m very good at packing and unpacking. I’ve had just a little experience. Let’s see….6 moves in 8 years. Ugh.
@Alan, You are very welcome. It’s still hard sometimes for me to throw away my favorite ones. Especially when they have a great cover!
I do have a great collection of articles now though. Thanks for stopping by.
I’m a sucker for magazines and subscribe to a jillion of them — Organize (of course), knitting, quilting, travel, news, etc, etc.
I’ve found one method for dealing with them that works the best for me: I sit down with a magazine THE DAY IT COMES and quickly go through each page, tearing them off as I go. When I come to something that I want to keep (like a pattern) or to read later, I put it to the side. I DON’T READ IT AT THAT TIME. The goal is to get through it quickly and get it off my desk.
When I’ve gone through the entire thing, I find I usually only have a dozen or so pages left to deal with. The patterns/reference articles go in the appropriate file folders and the “read later” articles go in my “Take to work and read at lunch” envelope. I also keep an “Internet” file folder for those articles that reference something I want to check out on the Web.
If I don’t follow this method, I find that I am soon overwhelmed in back issues and it takes almost an entire Sunday to plow through them.
Great tip Peg! I’ll have to post your tip so everyone can benefit. Thanks!
Also, if you find you don’t want the magazines at all, you can donate them to your local library, to be given away, or taken by others who have the same interests.