Magazine Hoarding Therapy, And While We’re On This Subject….

Well it seems I am not alone in my hoarding tendencies. I knew I’d be in good company here!

If you are a fellow magazine hoarder and feel like the time has come to part with some of your beloved publications (not having a place to set down your coffee mug on your coffee table might be a hint), here are a couple quick ideas to help you get started.

ONE – sort. I find a great way to get rid of magazines en masse is to sort magazines by kind. My mom passes on some of her magazines to me, and after leafing through a couple of them I realized there probably wasn’t anything in them to make them saveworthy, so I recycled the whole lot. My House Beautifuls? Can’t part with a single one. I might have to visit this decision again in 5 years, but for now, they are staying put.

TWO – rip & toss. What are you really saving that magazine for? If it’s for one image that you absolutely love, rip it out and recycle the rest.

THREE – save. you can save old magazine images to your Pinterest boards by scanning (or taking a good photo of it with your phone or camera), or if you know what magazine and edition it was from you can find the image online and save to your Pin board.

Throwing your ripped images into a photo box for future reference works too – that is what I did for years and I suspect if you loved shelter mags before Pinterest, you did as well. A couple years ago I gave the contents of that box a quick sort and put them into plastic pockets in a binder. I don’t think I have it in me to take a picture of every one of these images and upload it, plus I like looking through them when I need inspiration.

This is my fancy labeling system. I hope Martha doesn’t try to steal it.

While we’re talking about magazines, can we discuss something that gives me the heeby jeebies a bit?

I truly hope I don’t offend anyone – because I think I might be the only person who has the heeby jeebies about this – so if you do this – it’s me, not you.

This might surprise some of my real life friends and my children who know I am not squeamish when it comes to talking about bodily functions. Not much grosses me out or freaks me out, but this makes the list:

I understand that everyone poops. And that some people like to read while doing so. It’s a great thing. The human body is awesome. Yay for pooping.

BUT.

If I’m a guest in someone’s house and there is, let’s say, the sports section of the newspaper in a cute basket or built in magazine rack next to the toilet, it’s all I can do to NOT think of the male in the house sitting on the toilet doing something I don’t want to think about him doing. Ewwwwwwww. Or how about if the reading material is Better Homes & Gardens or InStyle? Great. Now for .00025 of a second I have had the thought, before quickly thinking of something else, anything else, other than my beautiful hostess um….doing her unmentionables in this very spot. GROSS. I know it happens, but do I need to be reminded of it?

There is only one exclusion:  Children’s reading material next to the potty – that’s cute. Awww.
Adult reading material in a bathroom used by guests –  *gag*  *dryheave*  *gag*

Trust me – I grew up in a small house with three older brothers, with one bathroom that everyone shared, including guests. I have kids and a husband to share a house with. Bodily functions happen, and hopefully they happen regularly 🙂  

But my guests and your guests do NOT need to be fighting off images of us on the toilet because a crossword puzzle or House Beautiful is right next to it.

So – how about keeping the reading material in a bathroom not frequented by guests? Or if there is the one bathroom issue, perhaps keeping it stashed in a cabinet?

Maybe a closed basket for magazine storage? This one seems appropriate, don’t you think?!

Am I the only weird person on the planet who doesn’t want to see someone’s reading material when I visit their house? Tell me – it’s okay, I can take it!

WOW on the first Best of the Nest party!!! Jennifer, Pam, Kris and I are blown away by all the inspiring projects linked up! This Friday we’ll be featuring some of our favorites – come on back to check them out!

Lisa