Paper clutter comes in many forms, but in our home we have the following:
- Newspapers and coupons
- Magazines {Focus of this blog}
- Items we keep for memories such as pictures, cards, newspaper clippings, etc.
My hubby does a good job of filing and taking care of the household paperwork in the form of bills so that leaves the rest for me to tackle.
Magazines were first on my list. We have a LOT of magazines. Some we actually subscribe to and some began to come in the mail all of a sudden. Below is a list of the magazines that arrive in our mailbox monthly:
1. Men's Health (at cost)
2. Women's Health (at cost- recently cancelled)
3. Parents (Discount rate for new parents)
4. Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles (FREE)
5. Architectural Digest (Super discounted rate for Interior Designers)
6. Elle Decor' (Super Discounted rate for Interior Designers)
7. Tennis (FREE)
8. Kiplinger's (at cost)
As well as the free catalogs and flyers from our area:
1. Neighborhood newsletter (bimonthly) (FREE)
2. Crate and Barrel (FREE)
3. Lowe's Creative Ideas (FREE)
4. IKEA (FREE)
5. Local town's newsletter (FREE)
So, when we began to start following our money saving plan {Becoming Debt Free}again after the adoption, some of these magazines were cancelled. Others have been cancelled since the last issue (Architectural Digest, Elle Decor). Parents is the next to be cancelled on the list. There are some good articles as well as recipes and I actually do read most of them, but the magazine cost and adds to our clutter. The newspaper is also going to be cancelled. I initially started receiving the newspaper on Sunday for a free trial (for coupons). But, since we are eating more natural, most coupons don't pertain to us.
Many of the magazines now can be viewed online via computer, IPad, etc. so having the massive stack of magazines on our coffee table was not working. I have subscribed to Architectural Digest since High School just for reference. I also kept getting them throughout college as reference for classes and now as reference for design trends. I love the magazine, but it is high end design. It isn't really a relevant magazine for the work that I do and the style that I follow in my designs. The same goes for Elle Decor'. I will; however, keep these magazines in our office for reference on different design elements and article research. I plan to replace them both with one magazine which focuses on more trends and practical applications. I need to do some research.
The magazines that will not be cancelled are Men's Health (great workout tips and recipes for hubby), Tennis (it's free and hubby loves tennis), and Kiplinger's - wonderful articles on investing and saving money.
We will also not stop getting the neighborhood newsletter (I write articles each issue and keep them), the local newsletter (great ideas on festivals and events in our area), Lowe's Creative Ideas (love their ideas and will tackle some of them in our home), and IKEA and Crate and Barrel (just love to look at them).
So, after the cancelled magazines quit arriving, we will still have the ones that do keep coming. My plan each month is to tackle the magazines. If there are recipes in Men's Health, I will clip them and put them in our recipe binder. The neighborhood newsletter will be filed. Others will be recycled at the end of the month if not needed.
The design magazines I currently have are stored in magazine files from IKEA (as you can see, I need more). Future cereal box recycle perhaps. These magazines are stored by season so that they are easy to reference. For example, all of the November/December magazines are together.
I will follow up this post later with a post on how we tackle our filing system and how we tackle all of those items we just have to keep for the memories.
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| Design Magazines |
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| Other Magazines Stored in a Large Wooden Bowl (Heirloom from my grandmother) |
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