I am a hoarder. Yes. I am a magazine addict. It is horrible. I have Family Fun magazines back to 1996. I have Mothering Magazines further back. And Taste of Home Cooking magazines back to the 80's. I have stacks and stacks and stacks of magazines. I have parenting magazines, home magazines, gardening magazine, cooking magazines.

What can I do? Yes, I actually **do** go back and look through the magazines. I have almost memorized which magazines are which recipes (or article or picture or whatever).

Am I a hopeless clutter-addict???? :(

I have a system for magazines, because I too was a horder. Now at the end of the month, I gather all my magazines up (except Mothering which I usually pass on to others) and I sit down with an accordian style file folder. I have sections labeled recipies, crafts, shopping, layouts, pass on and other. I go through each magazine and just rip out the pages I want and file them in the appropriate places in the folder. The rest goes in the recycling bin. Then when I have time during the month, I take the file folder and transfer the information to the approprate place, such as recipies to the recipe book, or crafts and layouts to the craft area and double check the shopping items to see if I really want to buy the items. And the pass on items I mail to whom ever I needed to pass it on to.

It really has helped me cut down on my stacks of magazines and I don't feel guilty for buying them anymore! :thumbsup:

Funny, dh and I were just talking about what to do with his magazine collections. He's been into Volkswagons for years and has finally, um, "out grown" them.

We decided to put an ad in the paper for them. They have a section that you can list things under $50.00 for free. We are going to list them for .50 each. Anything that doesn't go, we'll recycle. I'm so proud of him. He really has come such a long way as far as getting rid of stuff.

I cut out all the recipies that I like and put them into a binder... I love binders. I have one for each year of Alex's school and one for the "before years" art. One for Cyan, three for gardening notes (that are often pages or copies of pages of magazines that I liked the article in and then I recycled the magazine.) One for banking, one for savings accounts for the kids, one for the apt, and one for the home notebook which has schedules, calanders, and chore notes. Most get used once a month or so, some much more (like the garden ones right now... lol)... I want to have them all in a safe and useable place, but I am a Deferrer/Perfectionist...and until I find the perfect spot they will stay on my desk... :p

Love Val

Originally posted by spookygirl
I have a system for magazines, because I too was a horder. Now at the end of the month, I gather all my magazines up (except Mothering which I usually pass on to others) and I sit down with an accordian style file folder. I have sections labeled recipies, crafts, shopping, layouts, pass on and other. I go through each magazine and just rip out the pages I want and file them in the appropriate places in the folder. The rest goes in the recycling bin. Then when I have time during the month, I take the file folder and transfer the information to the approprate place, such as recipies to the recipe book, or crafts and layouts to the craft area and double check the shopping items to see if I really want to buy the items. And the pass on items I mail to whom ever I needed to pass it on to.

It really has helped me cut down on my stacks of magazines and I don't feel guilty for buying them anymore! :thumbsup:

WOW that is a great idea! I want more time in my day!!!!!! Wahhhhh! :wah: I want to be perfect... lol...

Love Val

A few months back, as part of house planning, I went through about 8 + years of architecture and home dec mags, clipping out what I wanted to keep for inpiration. I also clipped recipes from women's mags, and gave 2 boxes to my MIL who could care less how old they are; pleased as punch, she only reads hand-me-downs, and we were heading into winter hibernation. We then donated the rest to my sons' school who were happy to take them and all the other women's and bridal mags. They refused DH's computer mags, though.

I weaned more than half out. I kept about 6 months of Chatelaine to go through for recipes, and parenting mags I like to review when the kids hit a different stage. Oh, and of course, I still have every IKEA catalogue dating back to 1990 :p

Originally posted by BlueRoseMama
WOW that is a great idea! I want more time in my day!!!!!! Wahhhhh! :wah: I want to be perfect... lol...

Love Val

LOL! Now talk to me about my business, and that sorting and filing and you will see me on the floor in a fetal position, sobbing :wah: