Declutter Magazines: 15 Minute Mission

Today's decluttering mission is to declutter magazines.


This mission is designed to be done while working on the Organizing Magazines, Newspapers & Catalogs Challenge here on the site.

If you don't have many magazines this decluttering task might not take you very long. On the other hand, if you've got a lot 15 minutes may not be enough for all of them, but even that short amount of time will make a dent.

Remember that if you have lots of magazine subscriptions, but consistently don't read them then these magazines are really just clutter and you should cancel your subscriptions so you're not wasting money or cluttering up your home.

Below, I've shared my thoughts on how you can determine what is a reasonable amount of magazines to keep, versus how many is too many.

I know that parting with any paper, but especially magazines, for some people is very tough.

So, for bonus points I'd love for you to tell me what your criteria is for keeping a magazine past the time you receive the next issue.

Or do you follow the one in, one out rule for magazines, which is what I try to follow personally?

In addition, sometimes I know it is difficult to part with something you paid good money for. But often you can feel better about it if you know they are going somewhere they will be appreciated.

So I've listed the top 7 places to donate magazines.

Finally, this decluttering mission can be used for any type of magazines, but if you have cooking magazines you can also check out the how to declutter cookbooks article here on the site to give you more ideas for how to get rid of those type of magazines.

Remember too, if you do this challenge and want to share your pictures of what you've decluttered you can do so at the link, and I'll add the best ones to the site.


Top photo courtesy of Liz Latham of Hoosier Homemade

What A Relief To Have Them Gone!

Several readers have done this mission and sent in their results. The photo above is from a reader, Cindy, who said, "I was busy today and yesterday because I had vacation cleaning out a cabinet in my pantry. I had stored a lot of paperwork and magazines in it.

I got the magazines out and off to recycling today. I shredded a lot of paper but have a lot more to go.

It is official I am a HOARDER and cannot be trusted with magazines. What a relief to have them gone!"

I'm so proud of you Cindy! I am so glad you've experienced relief from getting rid of this clutter, and you know what, that was an amazing amount of paper clutter you got rid of in a short period of time!

Sandra sent in the photo above, and she said, "I was able to find a teacher who is picking up these 2 bags of magazines. Over 100 magazines between my entire family. I am feeling good right now."



Fay sent in the photo above, saying, "Thanks to a local request for old magazines I have decluttered health and fitness mags, family mags and started on the cooking mags. Nice to know they have a home to go to rather than the recycling bin."


Finally, the pictures in the collage above were sent in by a reader, Karen, who kept coming across more magazines as she decluttered her home. She said of the top picture, "I'm cleaning in my living room this am. Thanks to this Declutter 365 group I went through magazines in the rack. This represents a very small portion of my magazine clutter, but here it is. Pile on left is to keep (for now !) Others are headed for recycling later today!"

Then, about a month later she sent in yet another photo, the one on the bottom. She said, "Ok everyone, I have taken the first steps to decluttering magazines. I finished reading my current 'Country' magazine and gave it to a friend. Here is my first pile of magazines (several were still wrapped in plastic) I'm giving away! Still hanging on to a LOT of 'Country', but not for long ! (Maybe ) lol!"

You've got to start somewhere Karen, so good job! I hope this has helped inspire you to declutter your piles. You can read my thoughts below about how many magazines are "too many."

How Many Magazines Is Too Many?

Every time we do the Organizing Magazines, Newspapers & Catalogs Challenge on the site I get some version of this question -- how many magazines is too many?

It may seem maddening, but I'm not one for giving hard and fast rules because I think everyone needs to make determinations like this for themselves.

Signs You May Have Too Many Magazines

However, you may have too many magazines if you have a big stack of them on your coffee table, like the reader above did, and haven't even bothered to read them lately.

Magazines are something that is supposed to give us enjoyment, allow us to relax a bit and maybe learn something while also be entertained. If you look at your stacks of magazines and you don't feel those feelings, the anticipation of diving in, you may have too many.

I know I felt that way personally when all of a sudden my weekly rag celeb magazine felt like another task to check off my list of things to read rather then something I enjoyed and looked forward to.

For me, I realized one, I was in a busy season of my life and didn't have time to read it, so I felt guilt as I looked at the accumulating pile, knowing I paid money for those, and should read them, but goodness, I didn't feel I had time. So for me I let go of the guilt and didn't renew the subscription, and really I haven't regretted it!

Remember These Days A Lot Of This Information Is Online

Plus, with the explosion of the Internet you can read a LOT of the stuff magazines discuss online, and save it digitally using Pinterest to boot! (By the way, follow me on Pinterest, I love it over there!).

I found with some of my magazine subscriptions I didn't find new ideas, because I'd already seen it before, online. Again, this meant I wasn't as excited when the magazine came in the mail. Again, I knew that meant for me two things. First, don't renew that subscription again, it was a waste of money. And second, just donate those magazines and move on without the guilt. Magazines aren't like homework -- we don't have to read them if we don't want to!

So basically, what I'm saying is, if you aren't actually reading all those magazines you're accumulating -- you may have a clutter problem.

Do You Really Need To Save All Those Back Issues?

In addition, with the fact that you can find so many ideas online these days, you should seriously consider the "why" of you saving back issues of magazines, before you actually work hard on organizing and storing them. It may instead be time to let those back issues go.

Or perhaps not! No one can decide for you what is and is not clutter. Only you can. But that stack up there, in the picture above, you'd have to work pretty hard to convince me that isn't too many magazines. That's my thoughts on the matter anyway. What are yours?

Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!

Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.

The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!

Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.

Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.

In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.

If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Get Rid Of Entertainment & Medial Clutter Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Paper Clutter Hall Of Fame

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