10 Smart Tips For Dealing With Book and Magazine Clutter
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If there is one thing I am, it is a book fanatic. My husband uses his weekly allowance for food and drinks while I hoard mine for…books! Because I love books, maybe a bit too much, I have figured out a few things about how to deal with the book clutter that comes along with my love for books.
And then there are the magazines. I can speak about the clutter that comes along with those, too, from some personal experience. After all, I’m all about being honest. There are times when I may need to say something like…”My name is Jennifer, and I am a bookaholic and magazineaholic.”
All joking aside, the clutter that comes from books and magazines is real, and it is something that needs to be dealt with if we are to be cleaning up the clutter in our homes and lives.
Here are ten of my best tips for dealing with book and magazine clutter.
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1. Although it can be obvious, it must be said. Only subscribe to magazines that you are actually going to read
I do manage to get most of my magazines for free, but as I wrote in My 10 Commandments of Free and Cheap Stuff, free stuff that causes a clutter headache is not worth it in the long run. There are some awesome magazines out there, but just be selective and sensible in the magazines you subscribe to.
2. Establish a “read rule” when it comes to keeping magazines
What I mean by this is to establish a reasonable deadline in which to read each new magazine that comes. My rule is two weeks, but this may not be the right deadline for you. One great way to get some magazine reading done is to make sure you always have one or two in your “To-Go Bag” that you have packed and ready by the door. However you read them, just give yourself a deadline, and if it is a magazine you enjoy you will find a way to make it happen.
3. Organize your magazines
I do subscribe to quite a few magazines, and there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to find the magazines I would like because there is no rhyme or reason to how I keep them. Do yourself a favor and organize them by like magazines and then in a way that makes sense to you.
4. Don’t be afraid to rip them up
This is my best tip, at least in my book. There is no need to keep an entire magazine just for the one or two articles you want to keep. Rip up your magazines! If the thought of this terrifies you because this idea is just “wrong,” I hear you. This is how I felt, too, at least until I tried it and so enjoyed being able to keep what I wanted while not having all the wasted stuff I didn’t want and all the clutter that went along with that. Rip out what you want and organize these articles in folders according to subject. Trust me, you will LOVE this once you try it.
5. When it comes to books, only keep the books you are truly going to read again
So often we might think we will read a book again, only to have it collect dust for years completely unopened. Just as with magazines, be selective in what you keep. You can earn some cash by selling books you no longer need, you can pass them on to someone else who you know will enjoy them, or you can donate them to various places depending on the subject matter. If keeping book clutter under control is your goal, you must be choosy on what you keep.
6. You really don’t need to keep all your books in prime space
In all reality, you don’t need to keep all of your books where they are easily accessible. If you are keeping books that you deem necessary to keep, try storing some of them in a box on a shelf with some of the other things that you store. It really isn’t that big of a deal to get them out of a box when you want them.
Bonus tip: if you store some books in a box, be sure to make a list of what you have in the box. There is nothing worse than wondering if you have a book because you have no idea what is in the box!
7. Just as with the magazines, organize them in a way that makes them easy to find
A library does it, why shouldn’t I? This was the question I asked myself after I was continuously frustrated by not being able to find the book I wanted without a significant time investment. I should clarify that patience is not always something that comes easily to me, but it is truly a time and clutter saver to have them in a neat, organized, and sensible way. I choose categories such as marriage, parenting, and so on.
8. Purge regularly whether books or magazines
As with most things, clutter can rapidly multiply to epic proportions without us even realizing it. For this reason, doing a regular purge, at least once a month for magazines, is so helpful. It is one of things things that I do at at the beginning of the month. At first purging can be hard, but I find that it gets easier.
9. When it comes to kids books, storing them in a way and in a place that works is key
For awhile we kept my son’s books in a bin under his bed because there wasn’t really any room anywhere else in his room. While this was a good in theory, I’m sure you can imagine that he wasn’t real good at putting them away since they were a pain to put away. When that became a regular happening, it was time to find a new system. Kids need to have their books easily accessible and easy to put away.
10. Go digital
I hear you. You love a good old fashioned book. I do, too, but when it comes to controlling clutter, nothing is better than digital for both books and magazines. With so many digital options today for both books and magazines, make sure you take advantage of storing your books and magazines on a device at least part of the time. The more I read digitally, the more I become used to it and don’t mind it…especially when it comes to the lack of clutter!
Books and magazines can greatly enrich our lives, but only when they aren’t causing us a clutter headache. These 10 tips are the ones I have found to be the most helpful in keeping this clutter under control.
This post is based on a chapter in Ruth Soukup’s book, 31 Days to a Clutter Free Life. Grab a copy and join in, or, grab a copy and work through it at your own pace in your own time.
Either way, you will have a clutter free life by the time you work through all 31 days!
