apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I finally learned to tear out what I wanted to keep and put it in a folder. This is especially effective for recipes and design ideas. It was crazy to keep the whole magazine to save one image, and it's much easier to find them now than searching through a stack of un-indexed mags. Sometimes I astonish myself at what I thought was appealing just six months ago, so the folders stay surprisingly svelte. I have also started to do that with the New Yorker. Two in play at one time is my limit now, but sometimes I'll stash a short story in the glove compartment for unexpected delays.

I have lately been sending my old magazines to overseas soldiers through http://www.booksforsoldiers.com, where there are a lot of requests for various magazines. The good-cause nature helps me get over my pack-rat tendency. I make copies of articles I want.

The other thing I've done is stop any subscriptions to weekly magazines. They pile up way too fast. If I need a New York Magazine fix, I'll pick one up from a newstand, which then feels like a "treat" instead of an obligation to get through one issue before the next one arrives...

scan the magazines!

I tried donating a collection of shelter magazines to the library at The New York School of Design, but with no luck.

What I do now is allow myself a year's worth... and when the current October issue comes in, I head back to last year's October issue, reread it, tear out anything I want to keep (you'd be surprised how little comes of that!) and then toss it into recycling. The fact that it feels like a system, and has kept my piles from becoming towers, has helped me part with the back issues.

I'm a little obsessive when it comes to getting rid of things but in my purging, I like to find a somewhat useful venue for the tossed. After I've cycled through the monthly mags, I drop them along my leisurely route -- the laundromat and the coffee shop for the current, interesting mags -- the bundled recycling pile curbside for the older gab mags. You'd be suprised how well worn a few good New Yorkers get when you send them off -- and how appreciative you are when you happen upon some reasonable reading material when you're stuck at the laundromat.

I think for us magazine addicts, scanning the hundreds of issues would take the rest of our lives. I have amassed maybe 50 New Yorkers that I need to got through and read, otherwise the magazines I can't part with have already been pared down and I'm still left with an unliftable pile.

I was recently at Two Jakes in Williamsburg looking at the Bisley file cabinets and they have systems where filers can be hung from under a shelf. That seems good for magazines to my eye, but they may be hanging without the spine outwards. It may be better just to file them, or just the prized articles, in file drawers.

As cheezy as it is, and I may get lambasted for this, I always loved Carrie's system in the character's "Sex and the City" apartment. In her entrance foyer/hallway her bookcases were filled with filed backissues of magazines. They were categorized in those magaine filers, and did not look imposing giving a sense of order to the gaggle. I guess one'd have to have a foyer for that.

Lastly, in my old apartment we had this great communal landing where people put things they didn't want anymore and they were ALWAYS taken by somebody. Magazines, stereos, clothing, odd objects that anyone would ever want, everything was put out there. That greatly encouraged me to constantly purge.

After reading magazines I bring them to work and drop them in the lunch room. This way they don't go to waste and more people get to enjoy them.