Beautiful magazines and catalogs can quickly turn into clutter. One week turns into another and before you know it, you’ve so many magazines you’ve meant to read, or that you saved for something in them – but you just don’t remember what!

 

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It is possible to organize your magazines, catalogs, newsletters and other periodicals so you avoid an overwhelming accumulation. It all begins with setting a few household boundaries for this type of reading material. This way, the volume doesn’t accumulate to create heaps and stacks of clutter.

Try these tips in your house for handling reading material.

• Choose one large magazine basket or other attractive container as a home for magazines and materials. Having your magazines in one spot, rather than in the den, kitchen, office and everywhere, lets you keep track of how much is at hand. If your house has magazines for him and for her, you may each want to have your own container.

• Make it a household rule to limit the number of magazines to the amount the container will hold.

• Place new magazines to the back of the container as they arrive.

• If the container gets too full to hold any more, then purge out the oldest copies from the front of the container.

• Don’t allow yourself to worry about what you may have missed in that issue. We live in a world full of information, more than we have time to absorb. More issues will quickly arrive to replace those.

• Pay attention to what you never get around to reading. Be sure to not renew those subscriptions. You can always pick up one from the newsstand. Don’t be tempted by subscriptions that save you money. What you save in money, you lose in valuable time fooling with stacks you don’t have time to read.

• If you find something you might want to order in a catalog, but you want to think about it, then turn down the corner of the page to remind yourself which item you were thinking about. Place that catalog in the back of the magazine container. As you add new material to the container, the catalog will gradually get pushed forward. When it surfaces again at the front of the pile, get real and either order the item or discard the catalog. This is a great way of setting a deadline you can remember.

• Don’t save entire catalogs because you might want to order something from them someday. Instead, tear off the back cover which contains the web address and phone number. Store these shopping sites in a folder in your desk. When you need to shop and want to remember a website, you can look there.

• Tear out items as you find them. You hardly have time to read all the things available. When would you have time to go back and find the article a second time? Go ahead and tear out recipes, decorating ideas, web sites you want to look at and so forth. You’ll find you often tear things out from a common theme, for example recipes. Identify the theme and set up a place to store your clippings, such as in a binder or folder, for that theme. Discard the rest of the magazine.

• Magazines can be reused and recycled. Pass them to friends. Donate them to shelters. Many places, from hospital ERs to nursing homes would enjoy them. If people wait there, they will appreciate something to read. When ready to discard them totally, put them in the paper recycling bin.

 

About Lea Schneider

Professional Organizer Lea Schneider’s organizing advice has appeared in Woman’s Day, Natural Health and Better Homes and Gardens Kids’ Rooms magazines. She is the Grand Prize Winner of the Rolodex Office Makeover Challenge. Her team of professional organizers, at Organize Right Now, provides organizing assistance through her Organize Online program. She is the author of Growing Up Organized: A Mom-to-Mom Guide. Learn more at www.organizerightnow.com.