Top 10 Tips to help you De-clutter all those books and magazines!  

 

1.    Think differently about your reading material when you pick it up for the very first time. Ask yourself, "When will I read this?"  

 

2.    Unless it concerns a stunning breakthrough, most information in magazines recycles every 18 months. With this in mind, start paring your magazine clutter based on date. How old are your magazines?

 

3.    Calendar your reading time. Be realistic. Within a few months, if you are sticking by your calendar, great! You're getting a lot of reading done! If not, it's time to purge.

 

4.    Our public libraries want your books. Donate, donate, donate.

 

5.    Discipline your magazine reading: When a monthly magazine arrives in your mailbox, open it only after you've glanced through or read the previous  month's issue. If you didn't read the previous month, recycle it now and be sure to read the current issue before the next one arrives! Cut recipes or desired articles from magazines and organize in a notebook with clear plastic sleeves.

 

6.    Cookbooks: Get really honest with yourself. Will you actually prepare recipes from all those cookbooks on your shelves? Might you pare down to your top 10 cookbooks? The internet is an amazing source for recipes and guides to healthy and happy family living. Use this resource and save a few trees.

 

7.    Organizing guru Peter Walsh suggests we have clutter because we don't respect our space. Simply put, don't put more books on one shelf that can fit. This means no double-stacking.

 

8.    Read Jeri Dansky's blogs, Ten Ways to Find New Homes for your Books and Purging the Book Collection: The Non-Fiction Edition  

 

9.    Cut the address labels off your magazines then donate the magazines to doctor or dental offices or other places where the wait is long and the reading material old or dull.

 

10.     Create a habit of purging books you don't love or that you know you won't read again. A healthy bookshelf has at least 10% of free space. Keep your book shelves fresh and ready for new books to love.

 

Bonus: Know the difference between clutter and a collection. A collection of books or magazines means that you have categorized or organized your stuff, that your stuff is not stacked on the floor, or has become a burden in any way. Your book collection should not prevent you from moving around or doing anything else with your life.