Marilyn Bohn | Creative Organizer

One thing I have noticed as a professional organizer of homes and offices is that most everyone holds onto magazines and catalogs which create clutter.

Here are a few suggestions for eliminating this problem. Keep catalogs separate from magazines. When a new catalog for a specific company comes, toss the old on into the recycle bin. I know some people who only look at catalogs on line-on the internet. I say good for them. I am the kind that likes to sit and look at a catalog in my hand and earmark the pages I think has something I want to buy. When I look back later I often think, “Why on earth did I think I wanted that?” Do you do this too?

Regarding magazines: only subscribe to those you honestly read, be tough and honest with yourself. Often our eyes are bigger than the time we have for all the things we think we will read. If you have craft magazines that has a project you think you will make someday here is a suggestion. Photocopy the front page and the table of contents. Put them in a plastic sleeve and place in a three ring binder. Then you can store the magazine in a magazine organizer somewhere less prominent than on your bookcase. You will have the magazine for future reference without cluttering your space. Organize by the name of the magazine and the year.

The basket where you keep magazines needs to be ‘weeded’ out regularly. If you haven’t read an article ‘you just knew you would read’, but haven’t found the time; then rip it out and put it where you usually read or sit down right then and take five minutes to read it. Or just recycle the magazine then and there. This will eliminate a lot of clutter and guilt feelings while you are at it.