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Um - Keeping magazines isn't difficult...

...it's finding places for them that aren't just piles on the floor and getting rid of them that's the difficult task.

I have a whole collection stored in magazine files. But I've decide I'm over them. They take up too much shelf space in my studio apartment. So I'm going to go through them and remove the 1-2 articles that are really inspiring and chuck the rest. I'll end up with a pile of clippings a small fraction of the size of the entire collection.

Some magazines now have the pictures from articles available online. If that's the case, I'll just keep the digital files.

ilima, i am with you. I rip out the pages that interest me, put them in an expandable file by category (home, fashion, receipe, comedy - i'm a writer) and then recycle the rest.

For the most part, they get tossed after a few months. You can pretty much find the articles online now.

magazines are retarded

I like magazines (I have to; I work in the magazine industry), but I rarely keep them around longer than a year. Then I go through my huge stack and keep only the issues that I remember reading cover-to-cover, or that feature a favorite celebrity of mine.

Always a font of inspiration, cellardoor.

I agree with ChrisGal with the internet they are becoming redundant.

Don't just chuck your magazines! Take them to a free clinic, or women's clinic for women's mags. They will be really happy to take them. One man's trash....

I've been using zinio.com to get my magazines in electronic format. It's great, much cheaper and doesn't take up any valuable space.

Me and my husband went trough all our magazines a few months ago and got rid of almost everything. We tore out and filed what we really wanted and threw out the rest. In all the years we had them I never looked at them again and this way we have 2 folders instead of 2 shelves full of them.

If you have the space and look at them frequently, keep them. Otherwise, toss them or give them away.

I have a one-year rule. After I get this month's, last month's goes on a shelf. I make a little check mark on the cover any time I go back and reference anything. After a year, if it doesn't have 3 check marks, I don't need to keep it.

I don't know about a clinic, but last doctor's office I was at they had several end tables stuffed...so I doubt they wanted more. I think even they are finding magazines redundant - half the time, people bring their own book or magazine.

desylic!ous, "always a font of inspiration", were you referring to me or magazines. I hope I inspire people to stop buying the incredible waste that magazines are.

I donate to my library's used book store. They offer them for free to anyone. I usually wind up 'trading'; drop off a few; pick up a few. One of the great things for me is that I'm exposed to magazines I might not otherwise buy or read. And one of the great things for everyone else is the magazines are recycled.

I also recently cleared out my collection of magazines as a result of my latest apartment cure. I now have one binder with the pages and articles that inspire me. I love flipping through a magazine, but after a while retaining magazines simply weighs your space down.

If you have old Dominos, don't just rip out a few pages and throw the rest away. People are buying them on eBay, so if you don't want yours anymore you might as well make some $.

I scan the articles that I like and file them onto my hard drive into different folders for 'recipes', 'vacation ideas', shopping ideas', etc. Then I recycle them.

For the people saying magazines are a dead medium and, I sadly agree, they are dying a slow death. After spending 8-9 hours at work on a computer the last thing I want to do is go home and spend 3-4 more hours reading magazines and newspapers online. Besides, you can't/shouldn't take a laptop to the beach so you can read a magazine.

Although I finally stopped my sisyphaen tearing and filing of the New Yorker, gave up my subscription to W, recently lost Domino to the economy, and enjoy reading the newspaper online, I simply LOVE the texture, portability, and reusablility of good old paper magazines. I like to make things with paper, so I tear and file the best stuff from the ones I still get, and keep several shelves (a lot for and 800 sq foot apartment) of outdated magazines for wrapping paper, inspiration, collage materials, homemade cards and random art projects..... I'm a paper fiend!

I keep one shelf of magazines in the storage unit meant for LP records.