Welcome to Day 2 of the 31 Day purge. The first day was a huge success. So many of you shared your progress on Instagram (using the hashtag #abfol31daypurge”) and over at my Homekeeping Facebook Group. A lot of you even got a friend to join the purge with you, as an accountability partner. Keep up the great work. We only have 29 more days. You can do it!
Purge Day 2: Magazines
Task: Pull out all of your magazines & catalogs. Purge (recycle) any that you no longer want or need. If you haven’t read them in the past 12 months, it’s time to purge. Toss outdated catalogs. It’s not necessary to keep any catalogs longer than the most recent issue. Magazines & catalogs can be a huge clutter bug in your home. It’s time to part ways. As a rule, when you get a new monthly subscription or seasonal catalog in the mail, immediately purge the old one.
Organizing Tips:
- Homemade Storage Boxes. Organize your subscriptions & favorite reads by category & place them in magazine storage boxes. You can save money by making your own. Here is a great tutorial on how to create them yourself.
- Baskets. Store your current issues in a magazine basket. Keep it close to wherever you usually read. I keep mine right by my bed, where I read every night.
If you’re interested, the sign above my bed can be found here.
If you’re new to the purge, you can revisit all of the posts HERE. I’ll see you tomorrow, for another task.
HAPPY ORGANIZING!
Tags: 31 day purge, declutter, magazine organization
31 Day Purge, Blog, decluttering, October 2014, Organize, Other Spaces Posted in
32 comments
32 comments on “Purge Day 2: Magazines”
Where did you find the darling basket?
The basket is the retired Thirty-One Gifts Magazine Basket. Loved that style!
I LOVE this purge! Thank you!!
Where did you get your bed??
Thanks!!
Andrea 🙂
The bed is from IKEA, but is no longer available.
Phew! This day will be soooo much easier for me than yesterday. I mostly keep up on purging magazines. It’s nice to not have a huge project for today
Love this post. My hubby seems to hoard magazines for months and months and months.
Our local Senior Center has a library and in it there is a box for “purged” magazines so others may enjoy them when I’m finished with them.
Oh boy this could take me a while since I still have parents magazines from when my oldest of 5 children was little. He has since completed his Bachelor and Master degrees from college. Yes they are magazines from the 90’s… don’t judge 🙂 I will have to find those around the house somewhere but I do have a lot more on my bookshelves in the living room that I can work on in the meantime. I must not open just recycle them otherwise I may think there’s a good article to read or a great craft to do.
After years of bins full of tearsheets, I have graduating to taking my monthly tearsheets from over a dozen shelter magazines, and scan them with my Fujitsu scansnap. It has OCR capacity so if I can only recall one thing about the article, I can search with the one word. It brings up all possibilities in my Evernote and I can easily forward my idea to a client or friend. (i am a Realtor). Comes in handy to be resourceful to my clients. My Scan Snap has changed my life. No more paper files or piles.
Diane, that is a great idea. It sounds like the NeatReceipts scanner my friend wanted to go in on together. Thanks for the reminder!
What is the name of the paint color on the wall?
I wholeheartedly wanted to purge the pantry yesterday, but it didn’t happen. I promise to go hunt down and purge any magazines/catalogs tonight. *fingers crossed*
As an organizer, I would say that paper clutter is the #1 issue in folks’ homes. Your rules for the releasing of magazines are perfect!
Here’s an idea for how to use your old magazines… use them on top of your kitchen cabinets to prop up decor items. It’ll always be the perfect height. You can also donate them to your local library or school. Our library sells old books and magazines. I think they sell the mags for $.05 a piece.
great ideas. thanks for sharing!
Years ago I started a system for the interesting ideas in magazines that I want to keep. I have files set up with labels: “Crafts”, “Party Ideas”, “Recipes”, etc. Then as I’m reading a magazine if I see something I like or a recipe I want to try later I simply tear out that page and put it in the file. Then when I’m done with the rest of the magazine it gets recycled. When I need a party idea or a new recipe to try I simply pull out that file and look at the cool ideas I’ve accumulated! I do have one set of magazines that I would never cut up and they have a special place on my shelf.
Love the basket! Where is it from?
It is from 31 Gifts.
A great place to recycle your magazines is in doctor’s office waiting rooms. You’ll just want to make sure your mailing address is taken off first. Don’t you hate it when you have to sit there and all they have are golf and fishing magazines?
After I have a small stack I sit down with all of them and start cutting out only the articles I will use. I put these in a notebook. If is nothing in the magazines I tie them together along with my Hubby’s magazines he no longer wants and donate the good ones to our local Vets. They love them.
I have two print mags, Tea Time and Love of Knitting. Everything else is digital. I got several digital back issues of Get Organized and plan to get them all. Also Studio magazine. I can look at them on my computer, or if I feel like cozying up on the sofa I can read them on my iPad Mini.
Hi Toni,
I’m new here. Nice blog and website! I have four questions:
1) Do you like, and would you recommend, the IKEA dresser next to your bed?
2) Where did you get your bed, and is it “metal” or iron?
3) Where did you get the magazine basket next to your bed?
4) Where did you get the white, wall-mounted inboxes that are in your office next to the white board?
Thanks! I look forward to reading tomorrow’s post!
The drawer is a great item for the price and would definitely be recommended. The bed is from IKEA but is no longer available. The basket is from 31 gifts.
Done! Your room is just beautiful! I love the wall art above the bed. Where did you get that made? Or DIY’d?
Thanks, Rachel! Can you comment on the wall-mounted inboxes? Love those and can’t seem to find them anywhere! I’m just into a new house and trying to set up our command center!
Thanks so much!
Which post are you referring to with the inboxes? If you can comment on that post, it will make responding a bit easier for me. Thanks!
I’ve heard lots of suggestions to drop off old magazines at the doctors office, and I hope our new doctors office will accept them. Our old doctors office had a staff member or independent service that went through the magazines and swapped out the old magazines with the newest issues. They didn’t like people leaving old magazines. I enjoyed reading ideas in the comments on how to save good articles. 🙂
I love your site. I’m preparing to move and I can use this to get off to a great start in our new home. I recycle my old magazines, after I cut out the recipes. I started a recycle cook book. I put in category in a three ring binder. I love it.
I LOVE magazines! I kept reading that I should get rid of old ones as they were a major source of clutter. So I started ripping put pages & filing them. Now. I have a couple of boxes of magazine tear outs.
My aha moment came when I heard 2 things about old papers:
1. They harbor microscopic bugs
2. If you want to get s stain out of your lace handkerchief are you really going to sort through all those tears outs to find the solution or are you going online?
I have been comparing the Neat Recipts & the Fujitsu Scanner to see which would be my best digital solution. I saw a post about the Fujitsu. Any recommendations?
Woman on a Declutter mission!