Magazine clutter - how do you keep? What do you toss?

[niccig]

I'm on a declutter binge. I've nearly got 4 years worth of paperwork organized (gees DH thanks for filing things away!) and I'm ready to move on to the rest of the house. Magazines are a problem. We have a few subscriptions each. Currently they're in a lidded basket in the family room, by the toilet and then there's a whole heap in magazine boxes in the garage. DH is against throwing away his photography or sucba diving magazines eventhough he hasn't looked at them for years. How do you decide what to keep, and how do you keep them? How to convince DH that he can't keep every magazine?

TIA
Nicci

[kellyotn]

I sympathize. DH used to have tons and tons of mountain biking magazines. They got moved across the country, into various apartments and finally our house before it dawned on him that they were horribly out of date. Any gear they were talking about was likely obsolete and any other info (great locations, exercise routines, etc.) could easily and FAR more quickly be found online. I could not have rushed this process, he just needed to "let go" all on his own. So find some good plastic boxes and stack them neatly until he sees fit to toss them. ;) Maybe you can drop a few hints re: them being out of date, etc. This wouldn't have worked with my DH, but he's a stubborn one with regards to keeping things.

[Sillygirl]

Does he need to keep all of each magazine? Or maybe he could cut out a few pages from each and store them in a binder. Do you have a good library in town? Or do the magazines have online back issues for subscribers? Maybe if he knows he has access to those old articles he won't need to keep them.

I always resist the temptation to keep medical journals because I know they're online. So I chuck them as soon as I've read through them when they arrive. Only way to keep the paper flow at bay.

[jerseygirl07067]

Cancel the magazine subscriptions.... Seriously, it has helped me feel way less overwhelmed since I no longer have that obligation to read them while they're sitting there piling up. If I want one badly enough, I'll buy a single issue. Half the time it seems the info is repeated every few months anyway.

But I guess that does not help the ones you have now....When I met my DH he had five HUGE skyscaper height piles of magazines and I was able to convince him to throw them away. We now have a policy, if you don't read it withing 1-2 months of getting it, you probably never will so get rid of them. If there is an interesting article we want to save, we cut it out and put it in our "read" folder, then the rest of the magazine goes in the recycle bin. And if the "read folder" has anything in it older than 6 months that still hasn't been read, we get rid of it. Once you start doing that, it is easier to just let them go.

Doesn't it feel good to declutter? I feel like I am always on a decluttering mission. Not that I have ever done this (wink, wink) but if there are magazines your DH hasn't looked at in years, he probably won't "miss" them either. :P

Marcy

[jerseygirl07067]

Cancel the magazine subscriptions.... Seriously, it has helped me feel way less overwhelmed since I no longer have that obligation to read them while they're sitting there piling up. If I want one badly enough, I'll buy a single issue. Half the time it seems the info is repeated every few months anyway.

But I guess that does not help the ones you have now....When I met my DH he had five HUGE skyscaper height piles of magazines and I was able to convince him to throw them away. We now have a policy, if you don't read it withing 1-2 months of getting it, you probably never will so get rid of them. If there is an interesting article we want to save, we cut it out and put it in our "read" folder, then the rest of the magazine goes in the recycle bin. And if the "read folder" has anything in it older than 6 months that still hasn't been read, we get rid of it. Once you start doing that, it is easier to just let them go.

Doesn't it feel good to declutter? I feel like I am always on a decluttering mission. Not that I have ever done this (wink, wink) but if there are magazines your DH hasn't looked at in years, he probably won't "miss" them either. :P

Marcy

[Aunt to sweet baby boy]

I subscribe to many magazines and i have a "system" of getting rid of them. I read one at a time and when i am done i put it into a paper bag, like from the market. The hospital that is ~15 minutes away from me takes old magazines to put out and when i have a few bags full i go and drop them off. I recently dropped of 4 really full bags. If the hospital did not have this program i would just recycle them as i finished reading an issue. I also sometimes have a few magazines and books that i am in the middle of reading so i will keep a magazine in the car with me and if i have a few minutes i will read an article or two.

Ilana