i love to read magazines. i usually cram one in my purse when i go to the doctor's (next to my knitting of course). my magazine subscription list is atrocious. however, since i don't have a lot of time to read much anymore (wonder why?), my interests have changed over the years, and the fact that magazines are expensive, i have dropped a lot of subscriptions.
over the past couple of years i started hoarding them. i didn't do it on purpose. it just sort of happened.
whenever i get a magazine, i skim it, maybe pull a recipe/craft/pattern/article that i really like, then add it to my stack. initially, my magazines fit into a 12X12 basket. then they grew into a 12X24 basket. then i started piling the "weeklies" on top of the basket. then the weeklies grew a foot tall.
when we renovated the living room a couple years ago, the basket went upstairs to my bathroom, and i kept a small basket of current magazines downstairs. every couple of months i'd clean out the magazines, sending older ones upstairs and rearranging the ones upstairs. pretty soon i had a stack of magazines on top of the basket upstairs. then i had to split the stack in two. the basket and the stack grew as tall as the bathroom sink (which is probably 3 feet tall). downstairs, the basket turned into a leather lidded hassock, and i had 2 stacks of magazines, probably 18 inches deep. the hassock also had a couple of books tucked in around the edges to prop the magazines up.
not long ago, while sitting in the tub (the only place in the house where i do read the magazines in peace), i looked at that pile and basket of magazines and felt sick. i cleaned it out a few months prior and found magazines that were over 2 years old. there were magazines that were either defunct or discontinued. for some insane reason, i thought i could read (or realistically, skim) a magazine a night and then recycle it or give it to mom. but i neglected to remember that sometimes i read books during my bath, and some nights i don't get to read at all. and the magazines continued to stack up.
so last week, i started cleaning out the stacks. the only magazines i kept were martha's (which i collect, Bob knows why), some old (and now defunct) cookie and blueprint magazines, a handful a piece of inStyle and real simple (both canceled) and a couple of organic health magazines that i still wanted to read. the stack shrank by a couple of feet!
the magazines i pitched: parents and parenting magazines, a ton of women's days, family circle and good housekeepings, and the organic health magazines i wasn't interested in. i took piles of magazines and pitched them out the big bathroom window, out into the back yard. then i went and collected them and piled them into an old wine box. let me tell you, that box was stuffed to the gills and heavy as heck.
now i look at that space where the magazines were, and i feel a lot lighter and freer.
i got to thinking about why i had so many damn magazines. a lot of issues were a couple years old. i had magazines older than my miscarriage. was that why i held onto them so long? why was i so afraid to throw them away? they were just stupid pages bound together. i figured i'd already culled what good things i wanted from them. i was so sick of looking at them, and it was definitely time for them to go.
i'm trying a new magazine reading rule. once i get a magazine, i try to skim/read it within a few days of receiving it, tearing out things that interest me, then either recycle it or pass it on to my mom. so far, it's been working!
over the past couple of years i started hoarding them. i didn't do it on purpose. it just sort of happened.
whenever i get a magazine, i skim it, maybe pull a recipe/craft/pattern/article that i really like, then add it to my stack. initially, my magazines fit into a 12X12 basket. then they grew into a 12X24 basket. then i started piling the "weeklies" on top of the basket. then the weeklies grew a foot tall.
when we renovated the living room a couple years ago, the basket went upstairs to my bathroom, and i kept a small basket of current magazines downstairs. every couple of months i'd clean out the magazines, sending older ones upstairs and rearranging the ones upstairs. pretty soon i had a stack of magazines on top of the basket upstairs. then i had to split the stack in two. the basket and the stack grew as tall as the bathroom sink (which is probably 3 feet tall). downstairs, the basket turned into a leather lidded hassock, and i had 2 stacks of magazines, probably 18 inches deep. the hassock also had a couple of books tucked in around the edges to prop the magazines up.
not long ago, while sitting in the tub (the only place in the house where i do read the magazines in peace), i looked at that pile and basket of magazines and felt sick. i cleaned it out a few months prior and found magazines that were over 2 years old. there were magazines that were either defunct or discontinued. for some insane reason, i thought i could read (or realistically, skim) a magazine a night and then recycle it or give it to mom. but i neglected to remember that sometimes i read books during my bath, and some nights i don't get to read at all. and the magazines continued to stack up.
so last week, i started cleaning out the stacks. the only magazines i kept were martha's (which i collect, Bob knows why), some old (and now defunct) cookie and blueprint magazines, a handful a piece of inStyle and real simple (both canceled) and a couple of organic health magazines that i still wanted to read. the stack shrank by a couple of feet!
the magazines i pitched: parents and parenting magazines, a ton of women's days, family circle and good housekeepings, and the organic health magazines i wasn't interested in. i took piles of magazines and pitched them out the big bathroom window, out into the back yard. then i went and collected them and piled them into an old wine box. let me tell you, that box was stuffed to the gills and heavy as heck.
now i look at that space where the magazines were, and i feel a lot lighter and freer.
i got to thinking about why i had so many damn magazines. a lot of issues were a couple years old. i had magazines older than my miscarriage. was that why i held onto them so long? why was i so afraid to throw them away? they were just stupid pages bound together. i figured i'd already culled what good things i wanted from them. i was so sick of looking at them, and it was definitely time for them to go.
i'm trying a new magazine reading rule. once i get a magazine, i try to skim/read it within a few days of receiving it, tearing out things that interest me, then either recycle it or pass it on to my mom. so far, it's been working!
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