The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Angie at Echoes of Laughter. This post ties in so nicely with my hairspray hoarding situation and now it’s Angie’s turn to share what item she has an abundance of. See I told you we all have our downfalls 🙂
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Shhh! I have a secret hoarding habit. I must confess. If you have visited me at Echoes of Laughter, then you would also know that I LOVE to organize and I have written some really popular organizing posts here, here and here. In fact, one of the reasons that Laura chose me to contribute here at IMAOJ is because of our shared love of organizing. But I have to be honest here, I do have one gnarly habit that makes me hold my head in shame.I have tried to kick it, tame it and stomp it out, but it keeps coming back. And it is this:
The hoarding of an insane pile of magazines beside my bed. {Does anyone else see the irony of the headline on the Real Simple magazine? Ha.} I am a huge magazine junkie! I love the pretty aesthetics of magazines and although I have tried to tame this addiction over the years, I have to acknowledge that reading magazines and absorbing beautiful pictures just make me happy. I must also share with you that this is only a fraction of what was in my bedroom until recently.{I just carted off 3 bags to be donated.}
So, I have had to be very strict with myself and give myself a good talking to! No more messy piles of magazines in the bedroom Angie! Enough already! I have decided to limit myself to only 10 magazines at any one time.in the bedroom. By having a messy magazine pile in my otherwise tidy bedroom, it makes the whole room feel cluttered. And I don’t like that feeling. The bedroom should feel peaceful and calm, right?
So, after my self-directed lecture, I got to work and gave myself just 30 minutes to get that mess cleared up and out to my car to find a new home.
And here is the end result. Just a nice little pile of only a few magazines. This is so much more soothing to look at than the messy pile on the floor, don’t you agree? My husband is very happy!
How about you? Do you have any secret hoarding habits or not-so-secret hoarding habits that you would like to share? I know for some people, it can be things like socks or Tupperware in the kitchen. And if you do have a secret hoarding habit, what have you done to try to tame it and make it manageable?
Wishing you a lovely week!
Angie’s blog, Echoes of Laughter, is all about filling your home with love and laughter. She loves creative projects, organizing & decorating, cooking, baking, and all things domestic. Angie lives in Alberta, Canada, with her husband and two great kids.
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m @ random musings says
haha this brings back memories of both my sister and dad. they both kept years of many magazine subscriptions at ready access and loudly protested the loss of any. I completely understand the attraction of the content, it jus seems that there is so much available electronically, and a laptop takes up far less room!
Jrmiss86 says
If you have an IPad, see if your magazines are available in newsstand. Getting mine digitally was the best thing I have done to keep them from overtaking the house!
Melissa says
I had an enormous stack of magazines sitting on my nightstand waiting for me to make time to read them. I’ve finally made time to sit down and go through them. I take pictures of things I wanted to remember with my phone rather than keeping them.
Maria says
Where can you donate magazines??
Tyna says
Oh! I know this one! You can donate them to nursing homes/skilled care facilities! Just take in a big ‘ole bag to the front desk and drop it off!
Go to Girl Organizing Solutions says
Senior Centers are a great place for magazine donations. Goodwill also takes them here in Maryland.
MelanieL says
Flipping through magazines is my favorite thing to do in my free-time! Needless to say I’ve got potential to gather quite a few but I’ve limited my self to two magazine files in my book case so it won’t get out of control. It’s hard for me to part with my back issues but then I always think of the excitement I get when a new issue arrives and how that day will come:)
Ellen Delap says
Love this! We all have a secret hoarding stash of something, right? Even organizers have one small slip up… mine is nail polish! Now the secret is out! What I do to corral it is keep it organized in small wicker baskets, organized under my sink.
Thanks for this fabulous post!
Tyna says
Medicines and supplies! They’re such random sized things – band aid boxes, cold med boxes, bottles of cough syrup, vicks, ace bandages, etc. I tried putting them all in the same basket, but ended up having to dump out the basket to find what I wanted. But separate baskets/boxes for different items feels cluttery. Hmmm…any ideas?
Carrie says
I love this post as I felt like the only organizer that has secret hoarding habits! So glad to not feel alone! 🙂 My weakness is recipes! I have cookbooks, clipped recipes, printed recipes. I have 3 ring binders for the printed ones, however I recently started saving recipes to a flash drive. But the cookbooks and cooking magazines are still a weakness!
Jenny says
I tamed my magazine clippings pile at http://proverbs215.blogspot.com/2013/03/organizing-our-spare-room-week-3.html using pinterest! Every few weeks I go through and take out any magazines that are more than a couple months old (we get so many free subscriptions its insane!) and donate them or take them to work to read with my coffee before my shift starts and then leave them for coworkers. It sounds like you need to implement a process like Laura recommends to keep boundaries on your magazine collection in the future!
Becky Lowmaster says
Magazines have been my weakness as well. I was going thru stuff on living room table and there was womans day magazine from 2011, oh dear…recycle bin. I’ve gotten rid of most of my magazines a few years ago and have not brought many home with me. Prices are high, not willing to spend asking price. I also collect decorative tins. Most are M&M tins and a few Christmas ones. I usually find a home for decor ones by giving away cookies in them that I bake. One way to do it after having tin sit around. Or find something ro stash inside the tin, for a useful purpose.
Geralin Thomas says
I’m a fan of Flipboard for viewing everything online much like you’d flip through a magazine. It might eliminate the need for at least a few of those subscriptions.
Joyce says
I’m finishing up my stack of magazines right now! 🙂 I usually pass them on to friends, or donate to our Friends of the Library.