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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Guilty Secrets part two/ Magazine obsession


I want to discuss another Guilty-Quilty secret today.
Magazines. I love 'em. I hoard them.

Recently while clearing out a corner of the second BR I found a cache of fashion magazines from 09.( Not ashamed.) I took them for lakeside enjoyment and recycled them right there so they didn't come home with me. That's progress my friends.

Living in a relatively uncluttered hotel environment for a few days made me come home and start going through piles of stuff in our storage room  er, dining room. I thought a fall table runner might look better on the table instead of over the pile of stuff on the table.
 I stumbled head first into the magazine obsession.

 So many un-read brand-new old magazines. All new to me, all fresh and un-bent.

All full of surprises I need to know, patterns I want to make, pretty colors, advice I need, interviews with people I want to know, and lots of pictures.

 Years ago when I worked in a middle school, I ran  group counseling sessions. One of my activities was to have each student stand in front of the class and list as quickly as possible all the small things they love or that make them happy.
These kids #1 usually focused on what they hated and #2.didn't know how to listen to another person without judging.  I modeled the exercise first for them and learned a lot about myself! 

One of the things I just love is freshly laundered sheets and towels. Another is gooey desserts, another is anything new.
 I just love a new magazine. LOVE. I won't open them because I want to be settled down to really appreciate them, not see a couple pages then put them down, all used and bent and un-new now. I would never breeze through a magazine first then go back to articles. Oh no, that would break the surprise.

Anyway I unearthed lots of un-read magazines. This is how I am handling it:

 I stacked them up according to type on my dining room table, and am devising a way to keep track of the ones I read but want to keep. Like Home Companion by Mary Englebreit, and Quilting Arts among others.
Each type will get it's own magazine holder. 

I used to pull out an article to keep and recycle the rest however it is unsatisfying to dig through these flimsy articles later. I tried marking the pages with little flags but they get dusty and bent. I tried ripping out everything but what I thought I might want to keep and the cover, so I could store more magazines in one holder.  This works but they feel so anemic and skinny...

It makes me sad for some crazy reason!! Like, loss.   Loss of clutter should feel better, shouldn't it?

Today I thought, I will use an index card for each magazine, with the word "read" ( done) and pages noted with patterns I might want and tuck the index card inside the front cover. Then  tear out the adverts and uninteresting articles and then store them in a holder with their mates.

I started with some Quilter's Newsletters. They are now torn down to the keep pages but still in their covers. I sorted them by date, and found I had several of the same month. People give me magazines, and because I wasn't organized I had duplicates.    I took 5 years worth of QN  magazines down to one magazine holder!

I will keep all the Home Companions intact.  Other titles may go intact into the recycling bin after reading. Some will be torn down to the essentials. I get to have my cake and eat it too.   Kind of.

I hope to have all of one kind together in a holder. 
I have two shelves worth of white IKEA magazine holders, that look very tidy when stored together.

It will take some time to go through my lovely mags.

Do you have similar obsessions, and how do you deal with space issues? LeeAnna

7 comments:

  1. Yes! I have so many art prints it is crazy. I love to buy them. Sometimes because I love the art, sometimes because I love the artist, sometimes because I just want to support the human making a living at it. It is starting to become a problem. I've long had to stop hanging them on the walls (no space) and have been putting them in books. Every con, art show, craft show, etc adds to the pile. I do look at them from time to time so that counts for something right?

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  2. It's new notebooks for me, lined, unlined, big, small. Something about all those clean pages, waiting to be filled. I have enough to last years but have resorted to putting them in my attic. Your house will look very tidy when you have finished your sorting :-)

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    Replies
    1. yes I love new notebooks too

      JAQUINTA
      londonbookworks.blogspot.co.uk

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  3. Where magazines are concerned I'm a ripper. Any pieced quilts I like are drawn out in EQ to keep, keeping details of name and designer. THose I can't draw out are kept in files according to type - applique, quilting, inspiration etc the remainder of the magazine goes into the recycling bin

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  4. When I get a magazine I flick through it straight away and then read it very soon afterwards. I found that I was keeping magazines for reference and then not referring back to them .....so I had a purge and cleared out most of them and just kept a select few. In fact now I would rather buy a cheap instructive art/craft book for a few £ more than a magazine with 'how to' articles in it. When I do buy books and magazines I find myself thinking 'can I pass this on to someone?'

    I collect printed paper: leaflets, free postcards sometimes taking more than one copy with the idea of passing the extra copies onto friends. It does mount up ....the best ends up on the wall and after a few months have passed I find I can get rid of some of it esp if it is relating to events I never got round to going to.


    JAQUINTA
    londonbookworks.blogspot.co.uk

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  5. I too love my magazines but when you have to move, it is more boxes to haul so I got rid of the paper and kept the magazine. How? Scanner. I scan the article I want and send the magazine to second hand stores. I get to keep it and somebody else gets to see it too. Unfortunately for them, I do keep the templates hehehe. Good luck with the cleaning. A little bit everyday goes a long way.

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  6. oh, i was the same way. i had tons and tons of magazines. one day i just gave 80% to the flea market for them to resell. i still wish i had them, but that is like with anything i have gotten rid off. including the magazines i had as a child.

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