I did this as a separate post since it refers to those pesky magazines and not to general household filing, finances, etc.

This is not my original idea; I read about it elsewhere. But, I am going to try to make some "albums" into which I actually PASTE some of my magazine bits. I am only going so far as to use a slightly heavy paper in 3-ring binders, as I want flexibility of removing and adding easily, and not much investment, as opposed to buying pre-made scrapbook-type albums.

My rationale is this--a lot of what I save, or want to save, are purely visual--either for home or garden--such as Chrismas decoration ideas, a container planting to try, a new plant species, a room color scheme, or even a product I might want to buy or use. So there might be just a few of these in any given magazine. Most of the time the size is much less than a full page, though I am ripping and saving the page because the bits are hard to handle. Only rarely do I need any directions or write-up, since it's more to jog my own memory and I can use other references if needed (and if it's so complicated, I usually won't be saving it). I have been putting these in file folders, but then I have to take them out and sift through them; then, when I have put some into sheet protectors and created albums that way, it's a lot of work and you just get a front and back out of it unless you fiddle around andoverlap things.

So I realized I really want my own specialized visual album of these ideas that are easily viewed--like my ideal decorating or garden magazine that has only the ideas I like-- and I can fit several on each page, can re-arrange pages into different categories. I also like that it may be easy to do one-in, one-out--I can see if I already have saved 5 photos of essentially the same thing (I do tend to do that) and can paste a new and improved version over an old picture, and so forth.

Then I would only "file" more in-depth articles, insturctions and references that aren't already available in my books or other sources, and again, can keep purging those.

Now, I realize that this might be just another way to churn through clutter, so I'm going to try to evaluate how it works in the overall scheme of things. I'm thinking that if it keeps me more aware of and current on what I have saved and why, and have easy reference to my favorite ideas, I might save less overall and implement more. You know, you buy more magazines because you don't want to admit that they all have the same thing anyway, and part of the fun is leafing through them.

This year I had started keeping a separate binder of "things to try right now" (in about 4-5 categories, choosing things for which I already had the materials or the know-how, or was at that stage, or whatever) because of the very problem of having so many things filed away that that's just where they stayed, and also trying to see what thing really were "some day" and needed to just stay put or even be pitche out, vs. those things that I was just a step away from being able to implement, and was pretty successful in accomplishing some new things rather than just "some day".

This may be an old-news idea, but for me, while I have a number of magazines themselves filed in 3-ring binders using those plastic thingies, so I can go there rather than shopping for a new one, and ripped stuff in file folders and accordian files, and sheet protectors, but that was not working for some of the things I wanted to create using the ideas there.