I had a small thrill yesterday going through our storage shed and discovering what was in all the boxes we had to store during this home renovation. Ends up most of them are full of books and magazines. I don't think magazines should be stored, they should be read and tossed (unless they're Real Simple or Martha Stewart, those are soft cover coffee table art books). But I do it anyway, it's just painful to toss things that I feel like I could gain knowledge or enjoyment out of.
And the books. I discovered books I'd gotten out of give-away piles back at BYU-Idaho in 2001. I was so excited at the time to see free books since I only owned text books at that time. I really need to purge them, I don't even read the books I'd pay for.
In our new house the biggest cause for needing to purge is that there simply isn't a good place for them. Technically there is space, I could leave a stack of boxes full of them in our house, just wouldn't have room to move around much. Or if I were really not wanted to get rid of them and had a genius engineer who could build this wall out of magazines, that would work. (Isn't that amazing?)
But I need to purge. I have decided I will try to skim one magazine a day and toss it. That's my goal anyway. I'm excited and nervous, I had skimming, but I don't have time to really go through these either at my snail pace.Wish me luck.
Q: Do you have this collectors problem?
Q: Any good ideas on getting rid of them or saving articles?
Q: What do you do about church magazines, they seem a little weird to throw away?
5 comments:
oh afton, YES, i DO have this problem! I've got old Parenting magazines that I keep because I think I'm going to go back and read that article when my kid is sick or whatever...doesn't happen. :)
And i'm constantly getting books at Goodwill and needing to pass them on after I've read them...so, I use Bookmooch.com. List all your books, get points for them and use those points, if you want to, to get other books you'd like to read. You have to ship your books to whoever mooches them from you, but with media mail, it's usually just $2-3, which isn't bad (unless it's a HUGE hardcover), when you'll get a book in return for that. Otherwise, we just swap books at bookclub meetings.
And church mags - it's hard to toss them, but since they're all online, (Travis bugs me about it)there's no reason to keep them. I'll cut out good pictures or paintings and put them in plastic sleeves/binders for the kids to look at during church. I still feel like they're getting used, even after I've read them. Hope these ideas help!
So here's what I've come up with:
Out of the ones I currently subscribe to, I save Real Simple and Martha Stewart. I save church magazines for a year; after that I toss everything but the conference editions or any special editions. I keep back issues of Parenting (which I no longer subscribe to) because my kids like to cut out the pictures and glue them on paper. I also save Bon Appetit, Domino, Family Handyman, and This Old House (no longer subscribe to any of those) because I do go back and use them for projects or recipes.
Everything else I read and throw away. I have one bookcase shelf full of magazines and another tiny shelf of Parenting-scrap-craft magazines.
yes, i too have this problem! i have stacks of big apple parent still waiting to be read--four years after having left nyc! good luck with your goal, it is praisworthy!!! :) laurel
i love books! and so i collect them and always feel that they're too valuable or that i learned so much or i enjoyed them so thoroughly that i couldn't possibly get rid of them, so they've sat in boxes. since being married we've been fairly transient, living in 4 places in our almost 3 years of marriage and we plan to move again this spring. argh military! a few months ago i decided that i'd better use the books that i have so i got a nice book shelf and have the books displayed. i now read them and lend them out and can justify keeping them around. so... that's not really a solution to decluttering, but it certainly makes me feel better about keeping all my books! :
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