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vacuumfreak

magazines... what to do with them?!

vacuumfreak
15 years ago

I am just starting to get myself organized. I'm cleaning a closet today... Now I can actually see through to the carpet! I have about two years worth of Reader's Digest magazines that I don't know what to do with. I want to keep them so I can look back over them in the future. Not sure I ever will though. Is there a clever way to hang or organize magazines that wouldn't take up too much space in a one bedroom apartment, or should I just toss them?

Comments (16)

  • poshspace
    15 years ago

    I donate them to nursing/retirement homes.
    Take care,
    Susan

  • western_pa_luann
    15 years ago

    Just get rid of them.

    Since you haven't made the time to look at them for the past two years, chances are you never will.

  • marge727
    15 years ago

    I take them at least 4 at a time to anyplace I have to wait--DMV, Kaiser, subways in a foreign country, airports. I also leave a stack in my car. I read them again & tear out anything really earth moving and leave them there when I leave. I distributed 20 years worth of National Geographics that way. Now any magazine over 2 months old is liable to find itself in a new home. Surprisingly when I leave them at Kaiser when I come out of my appointment, they are all being read by somebody.

  • des_arc_ya_ya
    15 years ago

    How about donating them to the library? Our local one has a display up front with giveaway magazines. I both take and receive from there! LOL

  • maryliz
    15 years ago

    I agree. If you haven't read them yet, what makes you think you will in the future? For some reason, you have never read them at home. And if something doesn't change that makes you read them at home, they'll sit and collect more dust. So get rid of them. Free yourself!

    If you can't force yourself to part with them all at once ... take one with you every time you will be waiting somewhere. Read through it while you wait.

    I think of it as a scavenging mission. I take notes of any URLs, book titles, etc. that interest me. Something I can look up in the library or online. Often, I only end up with a few lines on a piece of note paper, instead of having to save an entire magazine.

    After the scavenging mission, I leave the magazine where someone else is likely to pick it up, such as a waiting room. I pull off or cut off the address label, for security.

  • quiltglo
    15 years ago

    If you are just starting to organize, getting in the habit of getting rid of magazines is one of the best things you can do. I will donate women's magazines to our thrift store. They sell them for fifty cents. But now, more often than not, I pitch them right into the recycle container.

    Gloria

  • jannie
    15 years ago

    I rip out recipes or anything else I wish to save, tear off the address, put the magazine in a box. When the box gets full, I bring it over to the waiting-room-lobby of the hospital where i get dialysis three days a week.

  • andrea_san_diego
    15 years ago

    Toss them now. Any info that you want to look up can easily be found on the web. Sometimes while I'm watching TV I sit with a stack of magazines and sissors scanning for recipes worth saving. Everything else goes into the recycling. Stacks of old magazines are a fire hazzard.

  • talley_sue_nyc
    15 years ago

    I work in publishing.

    Throw them out, and buy new ones ;-)

  • lilydilly
    15 years ago

    From someone who threw out 5 years of Reader's Digests, I promise that you will never ever regret it. The world is full of new stories, new health information, new jokes, and reading matter, and it'll come our way faster than we can read it all.
    I used to think I was going to miss out on some vital informative, edifying piece of literature if I didn't read everything that came my way. Then I read that it's perfectly ok to de-clutter information from our lives, and I was cured for life.

  • donnawb
    15 years ago

    I would through them away. I have a wicker box that I keep some magazines in and when it starts getting to full I look through it when I am watching TV and take what I want out of it if anything and pass it to my neighbor or toss it in the recycle bin. I usually read my magazines when I am waiting at the bus stop for my kids.

  • bmrbabe
    15 years ago

    There used to be magazines that I would read as soon as they came in the mail - or within a week or two. For the ones that are sitting around (I have some that are unopened from February and March!), I am not renewing when the time comes. I am taking a critical look at them; are the articles still interesting? Is most of the magazine advertising? Not renewing DOES create more junk mail, as the publisher pleads for my renewal. What is the website for getting off magazine/junk mail lists? I am tired of the clutter and the waste of paper!

    Reader's Digests always go in the recylcing when the new one comes.

  • maryliz
    15 years ago

    Sorry to turn the tide of this thread, but you bring up an important topic: Catalogs!

    Any decent company will be happy to take you off the mailing list after a single request, though you may still receive a few more catalogs, as the lists are printed far in advance. I sometimes ask to stay in the customer database, but not receive the printed catalog. If I want anything, I can still call the 800 number to order, or order online.

    Some companies will sell your address to other companies. Before requesting a catalog, I carefully check their privacy policy / list sharing policy. If I do not like the terms, they do not get my business.

    Some companies only rent your address. The company that sends you the catalog never sees your address. It is sent to a third party mailing house that prints it onto the catalog. Unless you order, they don't have any way to contact you a second time. Because I get so few catalogs, there have been times when I have detected a rental of my address, and yet I still called to be sure that I was correct. It's like spam. One leak of your security and it's all over.

    There is an organization devoted to reducing junk mail catalogs. It is called Catalog Choicehref>. Perhaps you won't see "your" catalogs there, but it's worth a try.

  • kateskouros
    15 years ago

    agree w/ talley sue. toss them and buy new. (i work in publishing, too!)

    we're building a new home and i frequently find pages or stories i'd like to hold onto. i break the spine and carefully slide out the pages and slip them into plastic sleeves in a notebook binder. this way i can revert back to them without saving an entire issue. i keep a recipe binder as well.

  • mvastian
    15 years ago

    Kate,

    You are greek, aren´t you? (Or your DH is)
    So glad to meet you!
    I thought I was the only one here from Greece...

    Maria in Athens

  • neesie
    15 years ago

    Toss them and report it on the "I found it so freeing to get rid of" thread. I found it incredibly freeing to quit subscribing to magazines. If you ever regret your decision and find yourself in a panic the local library has a lovely corner where you can find all current and old magazines in a lovely area with comfortable chairs. Know that you can always read and relax to your hears content. And with that knowledge, you probably won't!

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