Home Organization Project 47

Remember the pile of magazines from last week’s home organization week #46 project? Well, that’s what we tackled for this week’s project.

We get more print magazines now than ever before. Are you wondering why in the age of digital would we get more print magazines? Our local newspaper went from delivering the paper 7-days a week to paper delivery only 4-days a week and I’m still annoyed by this! We all agreed (teens included) that we liked the ritual of reading in the morning. So last year for Christmas, we got magazines. Sports Illustrated, Vogue, In Style, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Preservation.

Yes, we’ve shared the magazines with neighbors when we were done so they’re not going into the recycle bin when we’re done. It’s easy in our neighborhood to put a stack out on the sidewalk for taking. Well, that works when the weather is nice. We have lovely neighbors who share their magazines as well.

Home Organization Project 47

1. This week’s project. Magazines.
2. Small. It took about an hour. I actually made it last longer by going through all of my binders and reading all of the articles and taking in the pictures.
3. Clear and clean. There were magazines stashed in several spots around the house. It was time to consolidate the stacks and eliminate.
4. Get set. While I usually put magazines out front on the sidewalk, it’s the rainy season so I took them to Goodwill instead. If you’ve never thought of that as an option for magazines consider it. I buy lots of magazines there, too, and they cost less than $1.
5. Stop buying. Our son said his favorite Christmas gift ever has been his subscription to Sports Illustrated magazine. He looks forward to it arriving every Thursday in the mail and pours over it. He’s getting his subscription renewed for his Christmas gift this year.
6. Less is more. Yes, this is true but magazines have come back into our lives and I like it. Our morning reading on non-newspaper delivery days involves some fighting over our very outdated, second-hand iPad that is prone to crashes. Someday we’ll embrace technology fully but until then, give me a magazine that I can clip, cut, fold over the pages, snail-mail ideas to my sister, and spill my coffee on.

Lastly, I would add that I still like all of my magazine clipping as opposed to Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest is fun and oh so pretty but I’ve gotten burned several times where I’ll pin something and then when I go to visit the website, it doesn’t actually exist. I generally don’t read, and then think about a pin, in the same way I do a picture or article in a magazine. Call me old-school but I’ll take my idea binders and recipe binders (here’s how my recipe binders are organized) any day!

Just in case you want to follow me on Pinterest – you can do so here.

Do you read magazines and clip articles or are you all digital? Which do you prefer – print or digital?

52 weeks of home organization

As part of our New Year’s resolution, we’re cleaning out a different area of our house every week this year. Find all of the “weekly home organization projects” – or click the image below.