My name is Jonelle Tannahill and I am a Magazine-a-holic...

Okay,  I am addicted to magazines....

I must admit the list of magazines I subscribe too is long and I take them on all my travels to read and ponder over BUT...I have not been throwing them away because they have one article or pictures or inspiration that I want to savor.  I even want to keep all the back issues thinking I will have time later to re read them and save the things out of them I want.  There is a flaw in this though, I never have the time to go back to it.

Now don't judge me, I know you have magazines too.  Maybe not as many as I do, but I hope my tips at the bottom of this post will help you to recycle your magazine "collection"

Today I decided that I am going to be brave and toss all my magazines that are more than four months old over the next four weeks. On the one hand I feel disloyal and afraid I will forget that wonderful idea or miss re reading that article, but on the other hand I suspect there will be a huge sense of liberation in cutting my clutter. I am nervous that I am not only throwing out wonderful, brilliance and clever ideas and inspiration but that also I am chiseling away at my past. Habits die hard here.

You see I am a magazine person, I have so little time to read a novel or money to buy a lot of books.  I subscribe to many different kinds of magazines representing my many interests. I love nothing more than flipping through the pages and creating ideas for the future. They entertain me, they can calm me and they can equally whip me up into a frenzy of excitement and dreamy ideology.

To put you in the printed picture I have every decorating magazine that I have ever bought and I have been reading a long time. They live in every room...by my bed in baskets, under tables, in a drawer of my dresser, even in two plastic tubs in the garage. They inspire my home decor, the way I dress, the crafts I make.  I get tablescaspe ideas, jewelry ideas and even gift ideas.  make up my interior.  I put some of the pictures on bulletin boards for inspiration (See left).

How will I store the four months of magazines I am going to keep?  In one basket in one room of my house, near the chair where I normally read.  And when I come across a great picture, I will tear it out there and then.  I will then keep 5 file folders to keep my inspiration:

* home

* garden

* crafts/gifts

* fashion

* ideas

So, what prompted my fallout? My husband for one.  He has been putting my mail on my office chair for weeks now as I have been traveling.  When I came home I noticed there are 20 magazines and catalogs that are piled up in between maybe 20 pieces of my mail.  I am not sure how or when I will get to reading all this, as I have stacks of magazines already that I need to finish reading.  I also realized that many of my 'vintage' magazines that I have been guarding these past 10 years, because they had so many good ideas I want to remember are now old and dated and probably not what I am going to inspire me any longer. 

So this morning I began looking through the magazines and deciding, donate, give to a friend/or daughter, or tear out what I want and toss the magazine.  Much of what is in these magazines is also online.  I can bookmark these web sites and check them for inspiration periodically.  I have vowed not to subscribe to any more magazines at this time and to go through the ones I have "laying around". As I ripped through the ones on my office chair (so I may sit down properly) I felt good with my decision.  In fact it got easier when I moved to the older magazine pile that laid by my bed.  As I ripped at rapid speed, keeping those pages that appealed, the pile of tear sheets were minuscule next to the higher pile of magazines. Times change, tastes change, I must change too

My list of hints for the purging process...

1. From now on I am going to tear out the pages in the issues that resonate
2. I am only going to have magazines in the house that are four months old, so on the first day of every month I will throw out the ones from four months ago
3. I will keep the pages of beauty that rings my bells and I will discard the rest.
4. I will free myself from the cluttered surfaces that my overblown magazine collection has caused
5. I will store them in one basket in one room
6. I will start afresh....except for my two very favorites, Romantic Homes and Real Simple....I'm not ready to tear and share those yet.....but I will get rid of any that are more than two years old
7. I will trim our address off the front cover and then donate them to your local doctor or dentist’s office, hospice, or retirement home.
8. I will save certain pictures or covers to put with my gift wrap supplies and use the pages as wrapping paper for smaller gifts
9. I will donate them to schools, nature centers or day cares for the use in children’s art projects.
10. some of you with pets can run them through your shredder and use them in to catch the droppings from your pet bird or bunny.
11. Anyone can shred or crumble the pages and use when shipping packages.
12. Give them away, or trade magazines with a friend promising to get rid of the magazines you bring in by the end of your magazine cycle