Magazines are cheap, published monthly and designed for limited use, so why do I and many others hang on to so many?
In the age of blogs and online decorating sites, does anyone even need to keep magazines anyway? Yet, there is something I enjoy about a shiny new decor mag.
I've decluttered my magazine collection many times, maybe more than any other item, yet I still count 48 magazines in my current collection. I've culled my magazine subscriptions down to zero, then added a subscription or two that I missed back in. I've tried getting my magazine fix at the library only, which I found to be more trouble than it's worth.
First, the non-negotiables. I have 27 issues of the discontinued Domino (25) and Cottage Living (2) magazines that I'm still not able to part with. At one point those Dominos were almost worth their cover price on ebay, although prices seem to have peaked and dropped like a rock since then.
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| endtable magazine storage |
That still leaves 21 magazines up for grabs. After one last flip through 3/4 of them I let 12 go, which is enough to eliminate one stack under the coffee table. A 25% reduction isn't too bad, I guess.
Do you find it hard to let go of magazines or have another decluttering weakspot?
The only magazine that I subscribe to is a knitting magazine, and I don't buy any others. I keep them because I may actually want to knit the patters in them in the future...but I would quite like the space and thus am thinking about cutting out/scanning (probably scanning!) the patterns and getting rid of the rest. I have lots of knitting books, so knitting shelf space is limited! But knitting is 'current' in my life, unlike the books from my history degree, so I don't mind giving knitting paraphernalia house room.
ReplyDeleteKeeping magazines that have patterns you might use sounds totally reasonable to me, Nicola!
DeleteMy spouse and I both keep music magazines, for instance he has the first 50 issues of Kerrang. I limit mine to special issues like "The Best 500 Albums of All Time." I used to keep decor mags but when I got rid of them, I saved a few pix. Now you can collect ideas on Pinterest instead!
ReplyDeleteYou really *are* big music fans, eh?
DeleteOh, I definitely use the heck out of Pinterest, it's great, yet I still like keeping those mags around.
My MIL got us a subscription to Mental Floss. I keep telling my hubby to tell her to stop renewing it. My hubby will read it the day it comes in, then never touches it again. I thumb through it and stick it in our donations bag right after. I used to be into magazines when I was a teenager, but I definitely don't miss them, especially all the advertisements.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. My boyfriend's mom often gave me her free second subscription to Organic Gardening. I liked it, but after the first year or two I flipped through it then it went straight into the recycle bin. Felt wasteful. Luckily, she stopped renewing it and I haven't missed it.
DeleteIt sounds like you've done an amazing job so far! As long as you have space for them and time to keep them organized, there's no hurry to get rid of them, right?
ReplyDeleteThanks Zoe, that's my theory. But sometimes it seems silly that I want to hang onto them, especially since half or more is nothing but ads.
DeleteSecond blog tonight that is having these issues. I thankfully never really kept magazines, so it was less of an issue to declutter. I did go for the 'tear out pages that you want to keep method' - not as tidy (though I create scrap books) but smaller at least!
ReplyDeleteReally, what's the other blog? I have some tear sheets too, but I only like doing that with mags where I only want to save a page or too. I've also taken pictures of some pages, but that doesn't work for things you want to read.
DeleteMagazine and newspaper subscriptions are popular gifts from my family, and National Geographic is the only one I save so that's part of why I felt conflicted about giving them away. But I don't really use them - and I got some great donation suggestions so I'm kinda excited now to see where they end up!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Domino magazines were going for so much! Did you sell any of yours?
Hi, my name is skye and I have too many magazines.
ReplyDeleteI love the shelter and remodeling mags and even though I may find the article online, they don't usually post all the pictures and those that are posted are so small. And there's hardly any floor plan pictures to show how the spaces were reconfigured. So even though I only tear out my favourites and put them in binders, sometimes I resent the space they take.