This month we are going to deal with all those magazines that pile up. You know the ones that you don't want to throw out yet because you still intend to go through them to see if there might be a good recipe, an interesting article, or a great craft idea that you might want to use one day. Then before you know it, you have months of magazines that still haven't been addressed because you don't have the time and haven't been able to face going through each one looking for those articles you want to save!
 
OK - first of all lets deal with your situation as it is right now before we move on to a foolproof method of dealing with each and every magazine as it makes its way into your home.  If you have more than a year's worth of magazines loitering around, my harsh suggestion is to get rid of all of them except the 3 most current issues. If this is too difficult for you, make it 6 months.
 
Remember that if you have heaps of unread magazines lying around and haven't read them yet, the chances are that you will never get around to reading them. Of course, you don't want to just throw them away as you have most likely paid good money for them, so pile them up and donate them to a nursing home, a doctor's office or local school. They will actually will put them to good use.
 
Now let's move on to dealing with all future magazines as they enter your home. This is so easy and you will be able to find those recipes or articles without any trouble from now on. Purchase some attractive 3 ring binders and a supply of clear sleeves. Notice that I said attractive - I think everything should be visually appealing. Next, collect all those torn out recipes that you have stuffed in a kitchen drawer and any other loose magazine articles and then decide what kind of folders you need such as recipes, craft ideas, gardening, exercise, decorating, or whatever. Group them into like piles - recipes with recipes, etc.
 
Now comes the easy part. Insert these loose articles or recipes into the clear sleeves within the designated binder. I slip a coloured sheet of paper in each sleeve, so I can put recipes on either side and be able to see them better. For recipes, I would also suggest having tabs to organize them even more - like soups, salads, vegetables, mains, fish, desserts, cookies. This system works so much better than a recipe accordion file because you can see the recipes and access them a whole lot faster than you can with one of those accordions. In addition, the recipes are protected within the plastic sleeves.
 
Now, when you try out one of these recipes and then decide that you like it, keep it. If you don't like it, simply take it out of the binder and throw it away.
 
Go ahead and do the same with the rest of your categories. Label the outside of each binder (surely you do have a label maker - a must for every home!) and now you have an attractive and very organized system for all the magazine recipes and articles that you have pulled out over the years.
 
Another idea for storing your articles is to digitally scan them and create files to store on your computer.
 
If you find that you just don't have the time to read your magazines, then don't renew them. You can find just about anything that you might want online these days - whether it be a certain recipe or a specific decorating idea - so take advantage of your computer.
 
Magazines don't need to get out of hand. Keep them in your car so that whenever you are waiting for an appointment or picking up a child from an activity you not only have something to do, but as you go through your magazines you can tear out any recipes or articles that you think you would like to keep and as soon as you get home immediately file them into your binder. Notice I said immediately, don't put them down, put them away!!
 
I take my magazines to the gym with me, and go through them while I am slogging away on the elliptical machine. A good diversion since I'm multi-tasking while I am exercising.
 
Here are a couple other binder suggestions: Keep all your household appliance information in one along with warranty information. If you order take-out food, make a binder of take out menus and keep this handy.
 
The possibilities are endless. Enjoy the wonders and joys that creating organized binders can create, and also the satisfaction that comes with taming those magazines!

Merri