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Clear Magazine Clutter

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15 Minute Clutter Clearing Tip: Clear Magazine Clutter

 

Are you secretly a magazine pack rat?

Clear magazine clutter and reclaim your home.

Is your coffee table covered with:

Real Simple, Town and Country, Southern Living, Cosmopolitan, O, Bon Appétit (though you don’t really cook, you just heat up), Time, The New Yorker, Good Housekeeping (for all those promises of getting organized) and People Magazine – your guilty pleasure of celebrity soft mind-porn that you don’t admit to indulging in?

Magazine mania…

One thing that fascinated me with my then mother-in-law, may she rest in peace, is that she collected every National Geographic Magazine that was ever printed.

I found it curious because none of her children, including my then husband, were contributors in any way to those glossy magazines. Not a single, family byline. 

National Geographic Feng Shui?

My mother-in-law never read these magazines or leafed through them because of the photos of naked tribal women.

Instead, she stacked the book-like magazines in half toddler size piles all over the “Back Room” floor. 

No one read them; though her sons possibly did fan through them because of the photos of naked tribal women.

Mainly they remained undisturbed. They were the first thing we encountered every visit as we entered the house directly from the garage into the “Back Room.”

It was like a National Geographic shrine. To be honest, it made the room feel messy and unwelcoming. 

National Geographic future fortune fantasy…

My mother-in-law was convinced we kids would eventually make our fortunes by selling those valuable magazines.

In reality, it one day fell to my husband and I to pack up his parent’s house and deal with the multitude of weighty magazines as we put them into box after box.

We couldn’t even donate a single one of those magazines to the local library.

Not even the special book and magazine society, that shipped overseas to less fortunate countries, wanted our offer of donation.

Seems everyone from my mother-in-law’s era saved their National Geographic’s.

We actually had to PAY to take them to the local dump.

Clutter disguised as home décor…

Think you’ve organized those magazines because they’re neatly stored in decorative baskets? Or fanned out on your coffee table?

Well, sometimes designating a pretty home for our stuff is not really getting it organized. It’s delaying a decision disguised as creating atmosphere.

If you just stockpile magazines thinking you will read them “some day” when you have time, you’re weighing down your space and life. Here’s the truth: magazines recycle their article themes, so you won’t be missing out if you toss the old or even unsubscribe.

If flipping through magazines is relaxing for you, consider that a few well loved magazines will give you more pleasure than a pile of magazines. Recycle them, rather than keep them when new issues arrive. A real fan of certain magazines? I’m all for you having one or two subscriptions, but do you really have time or need for 10?

Magazine Confessions…

One of my clients admitted she subscribes to “Southern Living” and “Gourmet” though she doesn’t cook or bake.

She realized she liked the idea of being a gourmet cook or baker, but soon magazine stacks were overtaking her bedroom floor and causing her guilt and stress.

Another client realized she was paying for magazine subscriptions out of habit and no longer found time to read them.

Imagine the freedom and savings if you clear magazine clutter, letting at least one (or more) magazine subscriptions go. 

Now, with the ability to find photos, recipes, and articles of interest online, you can let go of hardcover magazines to save space, money and increase peace of mind.

Do you have neglected magazine piles? Does this post motivate you to clear magazine clutter? Did you used to have too many magazines and changed your ways? If so, tell me how in the comments below.

Jul's

Hey, I’m Jul’s Arthur, author of the book 25 Days of Holiday Organizing! I help women professionals & entrepreneurs STOP endlessly spinning their wheels stuck in anxiety and overwhelm with the chaos and stuff in their home, instead START simplifying, so everything has a place, they gain FREEDOM, CLARITY and easily step into their DREAM LIFE. Let me help you go from chaos to FREEDOM.