Taming the Clutter--Magazines

I love getting magazines. Thanks to free subscriptions and subscriptions I've received for birthday and Christmas presents to my favorite reads, I always seem to be getting a new magazine issue in the mail. Most of the free magazines I flip through and recycle within a day or two, but my favorite magazines (mostly cooking related), I keep as reference in case I ever need to refer to a recipe or cooking tip.

Up until this month, three years worth of magazines (4 or 5 different titles) were "neatly" stored in a bookshelf at the back of the closet. I had over 200 magazines taking up precious storage room. So, I had to find a way to keep the recipes and articles I wanted while decluttering.

Enter the glorious binder.

If I could have a binder for every part of my life, I would. I love having everything in one place and so beautifully organized...ahhhhh. It's the same feeling I get when I open a brand new box of unsullied-tipped crayons.

I went through every single magazine (I was on bed rest at this point in my pregnancy, so I had plenty of time), and tore out the articles and recipes I wanted to keep. I only kept recipes I knew I would make. Homemade mozzarella cheese, as fun as that sounds, is probably not going to make it's way into my kitchen anytime soon.

While sorting through the magazines I put all the pages into categories. Breakfast Recipes, Lunch Recipes, Dinner Recipes, etc...Kitchen Tips, Kid Activities and Crafts, Beauty and Fashion...the list goes on. Since I had such a backlog of magazines, one whole binder was dedicated to recipes.

I used page protectors (very inexpensive at Target), and placed the recipes back to back so I could flip through them easily. I categorized them with Breakfast Recipes being in the front, and Dessert in the back, and everything in between. I left some empty page protectors in between each section to add more recipes as I get more magazines.

Now, my magazine reading routine has changed as well. I read them promptly and save any applicable articles or recipes while recycling the rest. This eliminates the paper clutter and allows me to use more binders!

How do you tame paper clutter? Let us know in the comments!

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