Do you have piles of magazines and catalogs scattered throughout the house? You might be surprised how many you actually have if you gather them all up and get them in one place.We have the best intentions to read all the information coming in through our mailboxes but often times it ends up serving as a constant reminder of just one more thing to do.
If you find yourself saying…
“I’ll read it eventually”
“There is an article I want out of that one”
“I want to buy something out of there for Christmas”…
Then it’s time to Cut the Cutter! Be honest with yourself and figure out what you really need out of the magazines and deal with it now. My general rule is if you haven’t touched it in a year toss it. It’s not that important if you haven’t had to reference it sooner. If you are adamant on going through every magazine, here are a few ideas to help you out:
1. Gather up all of the magazines and quickly make a few piles. Trash, Haven’t Read, Need Something.
2. Carve out a chunk of time or schedule 15-30 minutes a day to tackle the magazines and catalogs until they are gone.
3. Quickly flip through “Need Something” pile to find the articles or recipes you are wanting and tear them out. Keep a couple of folders nearby so you can quickly categorize the articles so you won’t have to do it later.
4. Do the same thing with the “Haven’t Read” pile. At this point if you haven’t read the magazine then skim trough it and see if anything catches your eye. If so, tear it out and put it in a “to read” folder.
5. Put the date on the “to read” folder and if you haven’t looked at it in the next two months toss it. You can only handle so much information at one time. Your getting new information in everyday, if you toss the folder you won’t be missing much.
6. Now you should have one big trash pile!Go through the pile and see what magazines and catalogs you really don’t need or like anymore and then unsubscribe. When your finally ready to toss you have several options:
Visit Earth911 to find a recycling center near you.
Ask a local school or daycare if they could use them for collage projects.
Donate the intact magazines to a doctor’s office or local charity waiting room.
Now you have sorted, tossed and filed oh my! Doesn’t it feel good? Reward yourself for a job well done and next time I will share a few ideas for filing away those pages you ripped out of the magazines.
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We have a magazine/catalog basket in the living room. When it gets full, we know its time to go through them.