Organize Mounds of Magazines and Collections of Catalogues

Magazines and catalogues are good things. They give me hours of pleasure. We actually use them in our work to show clients products that will help with organization. The challenge is to keep them from taking over the house.

Here are a few tip to help you keep magazines, catalogues and, (for you crafters) pattern books organized.

• Keep them close to where you use them. If you peruse catalogues while you watch television, keep them close to your viewing perch. If you use them in your work, store them on a shelf near your workstation. If you like to read them in the bathroom, spring for a bathroom magazine rack. This will minimize the opportunity to mislay them somewhere in route from where they are kept to where they are used.

• Keep them contained. You can choose a lot of different magazine racks, boxes and other containers. Some of our favorites are the ultra-clear magazine boxes at www.containerstore.com and the desk magazine files at www.ikea-usa.com. Ikea also has baskets that hook on underneath a shelf that are great for pattern books when you are working on a project. To get an idea of the variety of magazine holders available, log on to www.magazineracks.com. They have great ideas for wall-hanging, free standing and traditional varieties. One of the ways we organize the catalogues we use in our work is to gather them in large three-ring binders using 3 ring catalogue/magazine organizers. These handy tools snap into the binder and allow you to slide the magazines over them for easy access. Also consider using other containers like flat baskets, copper ham boilers or pretty wooden boxes you may have around the house.

• Keep them accessible. If you store your pretty box on a closet shelf, the catalogues and magazines will get old and probably unread. Keep them out, but keep them neat.

• Keep them current. When you get a new catalogue, throw out the old one. Magazines are a little harder to get rid of when they have a great article, suggestion or recipe you want to hold on to. Clip out the article and save it in a file or notebook and discard the magazine. If it is hard for you to get rid of perfectly good reading material, donate current magazines to nursing homes, clinics or prisons.
  
  Happy reading in an uncluttered house and office.
  
  Beverly & Kristen
  www.KeyTransitions.net