Sound like an obvious fast task? Yeah, it is. But who is guilty of letting this become an issue? I am!
Since getting back into the classroom, I have had ZERO time to read magazines. Last priority...even though I'd like it to be a priority in my life. I'm guilty of subscribing to around 30 magazines (most I don't pay for - found free subscriptions online). My.bad.
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| Don't worry - I didn't take this picture recently...I do not still have October 2011 magazines in my home. |
I'm also a double newspaper subscriber - ya know, for the Sunday coupons. I'm pretty good at keeping up on getting rid of the newspapers.
Okay, so...my house...it's kind of a mess...still. These 5-10 minute challenges help me as much as they help you.
Here's how I did...
This is my pile of "I'm going to take those to school to use for projects" magazines. Not happening. Gone.
This is my pile of magazines that have arrived in the last week -- I suppose I'm too lazy to stash them with the other "current" issues.
This is where I keep my "current" issues - bad place to do so. I never look down there, so therefore, they're forgotten about.
The pile on the left are my "I want to read these" from November/December 2011 and the pile on the right are my "current" issues...which, when looked closer at, seem to be a mix of January and February.
I decided that I'm sick of the extra clutter, so I sorted my mags into 3 piles...
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| Cancel the subscription immediately. |
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| Don't cancel immediately, but do not renew at expiration. |
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| Must reads - A.K.A., keep subscribing. |
So proud of myself. Honestly. I don't know how many years I've been telling myself I'm going to unsubscribe from magazines, only to add more to the list of subscriptions. Tree killer...that's me. Sad part is...the magazines pictured in this post aren't all of my subscriptions. Some are every other month or seasonal subscriptions. Once I get another round of those, I'll be deciding upon their fate as well.
Your turn!
- Grab a basket/bin/bag/whatever you need to, and walk around your home, gathering magazines and newspapers in your container of choice.
- Sort out magazines/newspapers and decide what you'll cancel immediately (go on the magazine's website and click on "customer service/guest service" to access your account - you may need your account number, located on the address label), what you'll let expire, and what you'll keep subscribing to.
- When you decided what you're going to keep subscriptions to, use the printable below to keep track of your magazine subscriptions so you don't let them expire! I like tracking mine because then I can make sure to watch for good deals when I see they're approaching expiration. Magazines.com, BestDealMagazines.com (subscribe to their email newsletter to get their weekly/daily specials...that is how you score a deal on this website), and Amazon tend to have the best deals on magazine subscriptions. I rarely ever pay full price for magazine subscriptions.
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| magazine subscriptions log |
P.S. I'd love to know how you did! Share your progress in a comment!
Also - I'm posting over at Mom it Forward today and next Tuesday. Come check me out (under "me" --> "time management")!
:) I did this a while back, but I only get one magazine...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget you can tear off the covers and recycle them, too.
I have only read one issue of Real Simple, but I loved it.
My subscriptions now come on my Nook Color, so there is no clutter to deal with (except the clutter on my Nook!) The only bad thing is that when my daughter needs magazines for a project, I won't have them. Otherwise, I think it's great!
ReplyDeleteI love this! & I love your blog! Thanks for sharing! I hope you will stop my blog and enter the giveaway I have going on..
ReplyDeleteitsjustcalledspicy.blogspot.com
Done! I only subscribe to 4 magazines (all free through MyCokeRewards and my Diet Coke addiction!) so it wasn't much.
ReplyDeleteBy the way ladies, if you subscribe to Cosmo, stacking the January through December issues makes a picture of a muscly guy on the spine, so you might wanna keep those for fun! Haha I did!
Aside from that I just kept the 2 most recent copies of the other magazines, since one issue a month usually doesn't last me a whole month of flipping through them at the gym.
I used to keep about two issues of each but it gets out of control fast. I have four subscriptions so once the new issue comes I go through the previous month to see if there are any articles I went to keep than I give it to my mom so she can read it and she recycles them. I keep all my Instructor magazines.
ReplyDeleteHi I was just catching up on blogs yesterday and read this article. I have done this ages ago but today i saw this really clever idea for magazines - http://wearethatfamily.com/2012/02/wfmw-store-your-boots/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wearethatfamily%2FGaiB+%28We+are+THAT+Family%29
ReplyDeleteI thought you might like to have a look (sorry if you didnt i just thought it was clever use of old magazines)