I used to be a magazine hoarder. I saved, stored, and moved hundreds of magazines around with me for years because I might get around to reading them again. What if I needed this article some time in the future? Don’t all those magazines with matching-colored spines look great taking up half of that bookcase? Does it make me look smart if I save all of these? I am not really sure of the real reason I was keeping so many back issues of magazines, but I was – until we moved to New Mexico. It was at that point that I listed them all on Craigslist for someone else to take and add to their collection, and in a matter of 1 day I had given away almost every last issue of our Dwell, Sunset, Cottage Living, Body & Soul, etc. magazine collection. What a load off!
photo credit: thebittenword.comTalk about a reduction in clutter! Those magazines not only weighed a ton to move every time I moved to a new apartment, but they also took up shelf after shelf of bookcase space. I realized after we got rid of all those issues that they were literally & figuratively weighing me down, and I felt such relief once they were gone and were someone else’s problem. Some people wanted them for art projects in schools and some were missing issues for their own collections, but no matter what – we didn’t want them anymore.
While I still do have subscriptions and buy the occasional one-off issue of something, I now am scanning the articles I want to save into Evernote or saving web addresses right in my computer, where I can reference them forever without having either the magazine or a torn page hanging around the house for years. Chances are that in a few months I won’t have much use for whatever I saved today, but at least now it is only in digital format and not cluttering up my space. When I am done with the physical magazines, I am bringing them to the library where they are put out on the “free” table for residents to take home. Not only does this save people money from having to buy their own copy, but it also gives the magazine one more life before heading to the recycling bin. It’s a win-win for everyone.
So, this leads me back to my initial question – do you keep all your magazine back issues? Do you keep the full magazine, just the pages you need, or do you get rid of it and digitize the information that you want to keep? Let’s discuss!
i’ve started pulling out the pictures/recipes i love/want to keep and file them in binders, i’m down to about 20 magazines left to go through and rip apart, but i just subscribed to National Geographic, so we’ll see what happens!
the whole magazines i send to the library magazine exchange, the ripped apart ones go in the recycle bin.
I did the binder thing for a bit too, but Evernote has cured me of that too. 🙂 NatGeo – I get that one too, so many beautiful images!
I haven’t paid for any magazine subscriptions since I was a kid (and I guess my mom technically paid for them then). Back then I really enjoyed them, not having cable or internet for most of my childhood — or even a good library. And I did keep them in binders and reread them.
Nowadays, though, I just don’t subscribe to magazines. I got a couple free subscriptions for a while with some Amazon purchases, but I didn’t read them much and donated them to the library (where most of my non-internet reading material comes from these days). I think reading blogs has taken the place of magazines for me. They’re just so much more convenient since I can easily save & share articles I like — and subscribe or unsubscribe painlessly. And of course, they’re free and clutter-free.
I am definitely a magazine hoarder although I’ve gotten better about it over the years. My problem isn’t so much thinking that I’ll re-read articles; I tear out the ones I want and keep them in a file that I go through periodically. Instead, it’s that I think I’ll want to use the images for artwork. I do a lot of collages and scrapbooking with magazines images so I hate to give away or recycle any magazine that has pretty pictures. My new rule is that if I haven’t used the magazine for a project in the past year, I can go through it and tear out one or two pretty pictures then the magazine has to be recycled. Seems to be working so far.
How about 10 years of The Mother Earth News from the 1970’s…Even after I received 3 decades of the magazine on CD.
I try to keep the hoarding to a minimum these days though. Mainly magazines full of gorgeous photo’s of places I’d like to live.
Mother Earth would be hard to not keep around – I have 5 issues of it here on the coffee table!
Some magazine subscriptions include access to their digital archive, with individual articles in pdf format. I note the articles I want to save, download and save the pdf’s in my email, and recycle the magazine. A load off my mind and space.
Some companies offer back issues of magazines as either PDF or on CD.
http://www.fwmagazines.com/
http://www.interweavestore.com
I have copies of gardening, knitting, and writing magazines on CD (so much easier to find what I’m looking for!) and got copies of art magazines for my mom. Less clutter, more inspiration!
I tear out the pages and scan them. I usually only do this because it is something blog worthy and once I post it I delete the magazine article from my computer, unless I need it for reference for something else.
Growing up I always wished I had collected the National Geographic magazines. My son would love them now, but if he is curious about something we just look online. I’ve moved 15 times in my 31 years of life. I don’t hold onto much. I couldn’t imagine moving magazines around with me.
I don’t think I’ve had a subscription in at least 5 years. Between online archives and blogs, I get whatever I need online and save relevant things to Evernote. If I can’t get it digitally at this point, I figure I don’t need to know it!
I’m just not comfortable keeping my sole copy of anything in “the cloud.” I recently removed the projects from a set craft magazines that I was interested in and placed each project in a plastic sheet protector with the finished image facing out. Then each sheet protector goes in a three-ring binder. Voila! Instant access and no back-breaking boxes of old magazines.
JK- that’s why I use Evernote – it’s in the cloud and on your desktop too 🙂
I keep ALL of my magazines and although I only have two different subscriptions it takes a lot of space. I just got a new bin to put them all in because they were taking up too much space in my book shelf and once I got new books I had no where to put them! The Evernote idea is a good one now I wish I would have kept mine. Reading this article makes me want to go organize them now. For people who do not have a scanner and don’t want loose papers flying all over their household it might also be a good idea to put them all in a folder. One folder of papers is better than 30 magazines right!
I only subscribe to one magazine and buy one other infrequently. I recently went through my backlog and tore out the articles and recipes I wanted to keep and put them in binders. The unwanted bits then went into our recycling. It was nice to get rid of the pile! I should, of course, look at scanning the pages but haven’t quite got that organised yet.
I used to keep all my various music and hobby magazines, but I realised I only read them when sorting things out to move/tidy, so i have very few now. I’ve moved around quite a lot the last few years after finishing university, and I’m about to move again. Each time I move I cull more brutally than the last, and not only magazines, so eventually I will reduce my baggage.
I love the scanning idea, I will definitely be doing that with some of my remaining magazines me thinks.
Some are priceless – like Mother Earth News – any survival mags are kept forever. If the electric goes out I will not be able to access the electronic article, but I will the magazine pages.
Others – like crafting – are given to me. Before I continue passing them along, I pull out the one article I want to keep, or two, and stick it in the folder. Then I either pass it along, or give it to the grandkids for their cut and paste days or for their school projects.
Well, the answer is no (in response to your title, that is). But that’s not what I want to talk about. What I WANT to say is that I do believe you’ve convinced me about Evernote, and using expensive electronic devices to organize things, and scanning documents in, and the like. And also, I directed Mr. Savvy to your website this week (during our honeymoon, believe it or not), for the tutorial on how to link gmail accounts.
So! On to getting started. Thanks 🙂
Glad to be able to help get you organized! 🙂
Body + Soul, Yoga Journal, O, Real Simple, Domain–all magazines that share my mindset that “less is more,” yet all magazines that weigh down my bookshelves with their colorful spines and sage (but repetitive) advice.
In my own efforts to declutter, I’ve recently started finding new homes for my old collection, too. A year’s worth of Body + Soul made a lovely gift for a friend who was laid up in the hospital for a week.
I’m new to your site–and really loving what I’ve been reading. We’re definitely on the same path! You can find me talking about my own journey toward living a simple, organized, life at http://www.goodkarmahousekeeping.com.
Isn’t it fun? 🙂
Thanks Holly, and will check out your site!