Guest Post: Organizing Magazines

"Hello everyone!!  I'm Jenn from Clean and Scentsible and I am SO excited to be over here today! I love all things to do with crafting, decorating, and {of course!} organizing!!  Today I thought that I would share with you some of the ways that I organize and sort through my {many!} magazines.

If you are anything like me, you collect a fair number of magazines each month.  From home decorating to scrapbooking and parent magazines, to Oprah - I love them all!  Even if you just get a couple each month, they can quickly add up and it can be hard to go back and find what you are looking for.  I have a few places that I stash my current magazines around the house and I try to keep all of my magazines limited to these areas.  

I often like to read right before I go to bed and have a book basket beside the bed to hold my magazines and any books that I am reading.  It is simply an old wicker basket that I painted white and then added a chalk label.

I also like to look for old crates at any antique or second hand stores that I go to - they are often the perfect size for magazines.  

I have one placed beside my desk and another tucked under my reading chair in our piano room.

Once these storage areas are full, it means that it is time to do a little purging!  While there are a few magazines that I do hold onto, I generally will not hold onto them for longer than a couple of months {or while it is still " in season"}. 

As I read through a new magazine, I either ear mark the pages that I would like to go back to or add a little sticky tab to the page.  Before I recycle any of my magazines, I go back over these pages and see if it is something that I would still like to keep.  I then tear the pages out that I would like to keep {and trim down the edges with a paper trimmer} and file them away.

I found this unit at Target a couple of years ago and it is stored in my craft room.

Unfortunately it is no longer available, but you can always just use a regular file box.  If you know anyone that is handy with woodworking, it would not be hard to re-create it.  I keep those magazines and catalogs that I would like to keep in the slots below. 

For any recipes, I have a binder divided into categories {main courses, desserts, food ideas for kids, etc.} and place the pages into plastic covers.  I can just pop a page out when I am ready to try a recipe and the plastic cover keeps it clean while I am cooking.  Once I try a recipe, I transfer it to my recipe files if it was a big hit or toss it if it got the thumbs down.

I hope this helps you to reduce your magazine clutter and makes it a little easier to actually apply all of the inspiration that you find!

Thank-you so much DaNita for having me over to your amazing blog!  If you get a chance, I would love to have you all visit me over at Clean and Scentsible and I can also be found on Facebook.

Thanks for sharing your greatness Jenn!  Be sure and visit Clean and Scentsible, such a great and inspiring site, one that I LOVE and visit often!

May you be a little inspired!

Until next time,  

DaNita