How to Organize Magazines and Newspapers

Have you been wondering how to organize magazines or newspapers or other papers that have found their way into piles around your office or home?

In the previous blog post, we talked about what to do with paper pile ups in your office – or kitchen or bedroom or living room or wherever they are – that are bothering you.

In this posting, we’ll be talking about two cousins of the individual sheet of paper, and those would be newspapers and magazines. Ah, yes. Newspapers from your city, your neighborhood, your state, your past home, or maybe a place you wished you lived in. Or maybe you have a ton o’ magazines: home improvement, crafting, investing, cooking, sports, lifestyle, fashion, celebrity gossip…. How many different types do you subscribe to or purchase or pilfer from waiting rooms?

If magazines or newspapers are invading your space (i.e., they’re becoming a pain in your patootie), then take heed of the following tips on how to organize magazines and newspapers:

Prevention

If you don’t have time to read all of them, what do you think about cutting back on a subscription or two? You’d dial back on guilt because you’d no longer have a “you haven’t read me yet?” pile staring you in the face every day. You’d save time because you’d no longer have to deal with this issue. (Get it? Issue, like a magazine issue? <sigh> This is why I don’t do stand-up comedy.) Eliminating a subscription or two would save you money as well. You can instead spend your money on something you’ll actually use instead of spending it on that pile of wishful thinking.

Maintenance

Can you use a magazine holder for each subscription? When the magazine holder gets full, the oldest one can come out to make room for the newest one. If you haven’t read the old one by this point, you’re honestly not going to, right? (Yup, it’s time to get real!)

Decluttering

I’m guessing that the items at the bottom of each of your magazine or newspaper piles are the oldest? What do you think about taking the bottom half of each pile and exfiltrating those to the recycling bin? As in right now! Or, if you feel the need to flip through each one, set your timer for 10 or 15 minutes and flip through one pile at a time.

If your piles of magazines or newspapers bother you enough that you’ve taken the time to read this far, then it’s time to remove those troubling stacks from your space and life. Now that you know how to organize your magazines and newspapers, when would you like to make this happen?