Inspired by the foolishness and mayhem we see on Clean House, my husband and I spent much of the past weekend cleaning house. We cleaned out the kids’ closets and dressers — removing outgrown clothes, those they don’t want anymore and shoes without a partner (yep, my daughter had several of these). Then, I tackled the game room (oh, man… especially when you have hundreds of Hot Wheels, Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Bakugan between two boys).
Dumping Stored Magazines
I remembered I kept every issue of every magazine my writing work appeared in. I also found Writer’s Digest Magazine as far back as from 2000.
I threw away all of the old Writer’s Digest (I still read the magazine, just no reason to keep old ones in storage) and kept only a few of the magazines where I had a feature — not just a column. I probably dumped two-thirds of the magazines in my storage box.
Reading Magazines
I love to read magazines. They take 10 to 30 minutes per issue (except for Reader’s Digest). Rather than keeping the issues with inspiring articles, I trash them as soon as I finish. HOWEVER… I cut out…
- Anything I want to look up… an author, a book, a web site.
- Anything I want to do later such as “Word Power” from Reader’s Digest, which sharpens my vocabulary.
- Anything I want to try later… a tip, a recipe, etc.
Instead of having thick piles of entire issues, I have thin piles of ripped pages. Those that take little time, I put on my office desk so I can handle them when I am back in the office. I review the rest of the pile on a monthly basis, or around there.
Like handling the mail, read your magazine and toss while holding on to anything you want to look up or follow up on. If you keep it, count on never seeing it again until you decide to clean house as those over five-year-old issues showed.
Writing for a Magazine
I have a couple of issues of magazines I’d like to query. I study the magazine before I pitch the editor. But rather than having a dozen issues, I hold on to the last couple of issues. When a new one comes in, the oldest one goes out. I think five issues is more than enough.
Set a limit on the number of issues you’ll keep, and then just throw out the oldest one when the new one arrives.
Managing Subscriptions
I don’t subscribe to as many magazine as I have in the past especially with the books I need to read. I have a couple subscriptions I pay for and a couple I receive free. But mind you, I don’t subscribe to every magazine I can get free. The topic still matters and I don’t want to receive something for the sake of free-ness.
Aside from TV Guide Magazine, no more weekly magazines for me. That’s too much.
How do you manage your magazines? Or have you given them up?
As a writer myself, I know how magazines can stack up — I’ve managed to get mine down to two crates, including my husband’s many academic journals.
I let the magazines build up a little bit before I deal with them, though — when I have a stack that I’m ready to get rid of, I check if the local school wants them. The answer is usually yes — the art departments in particular like having a lot of magazines available for collage projects.
.-= Thursday Bram’s blog …Ask Me Anything, Edition 8 =-.
I stopped all magazine subscriptions about two years ago during a cost cutting episode in my life. I let my subscription to Writer’s Digest lapse recently, but now I want to start it back up again. I realize I miss reading that one.
I’ve only been published in two magazines, Mothering and Oprah so I still have those hanging around. Guess it’s time for me to query more!
.-= Karen putz’s blog …My Mom’s View of my Birthday =-.
I have written for a newsletter available in PDF format so I have saved the pages with my article in another PDF as part of my portfolio.
As far as magazine subscriptions go, I’m down to one. It’s full of a kinds of usefull computer related information so I have a hard time throwing them out (hence a pile of back issues, just in case). The plan, one day, is to put them in magazine holders and catalogue them so I can find articles as needed.
Thursday, sounds like a good plan — don’t want to overdo it, yet enough to prevent spiraling out of control.
Karen, you do what you can. No one should pay for a subscription if they don’t have time to read it.
S, I do that too. Definitely takes up no space except drive space. I used to keep some PC magazines for a while. Finally, I forced myself to get rid of them as I realized if I am not cracking them open… they’ll be outdated before I ever do.
I’m such a magazine addict. It’s bad. I do keep back issues of the ones I’d like to query. I used to keep home decorating magazines for “someday” project. I’ve managed to part with them. I keep as many magazines as will fit on the shelf under my coffee table. When it begins to fill up, I purge.
.-= Mary’s blog …Here’s Your Chance to Win 500 Business Cards! =-.