Magazine Mayhem

Since my 2012 motto is Just Do It, I finally got the guts to clean out this mess of magazines held hostage by the ottoman at the foot of our bed.  Well that and a husband threatening to leave me if I didn’t  🙂  Can’t say I really blame him, look at that mess!

The Before:

The ottoman was full of read and unread magazines, mail, receipts, bills, books, torn out magazine pages for later inspiration, binders, old teaching information, pens, an umbrella, and other randomness all thrown here to be cleverly concealed anytime someone came over.  Oh hush, you know you have secret piles stashed somewhere too!

The During:

With the help of Maddie, I sorted the chaos by type of magazine (fashion, family, gossip, home decor, etc), type of information (bill, coupon, receipt), needs filing, and GARBAGE.  Oh was there a lot of garbage:  including the US Weekly and People magazines from the past 4 months that I had yet to look at, pretty sure that information is no longer relevant.  After the purge, I continued to trash magazines by quickly flipping through them and tearing out the pages I wanted to keep, which then got sorted into plastic binder sleeves by category (fashion, food, home, fitness, travel, etc).  I also decided to stop subscriptions to magazines that I found I consistently wasn’t reading or excited to get in the mail.

The After:

Organization and my marriage have been fully restored. What’s in there that made the cut you ask?  Well, starting on the left:

–  the yellow accordion binder holds all important information from school and my teaching career, however short that was, including test scores, transcripts, cover letters, resumes, etc
–  the black folders are actually our (mine and Justin’s) diplomas (who would have thought those were in there!)
–  the white binder underneath the black folders contain all my teaching reviews, documents, student progress, and teaching endorsement credits
–  the Real Simple magazine is atop about 10 other magazines that I have yet to read
–  the flowery binder holds ideas, pictures, calendars, and lists pertaining to this blog
–  the blue binder has numerous plastic sleeves with endless amounts of torn out magazine pages grouped by category
–  the white binder is a collage of different shoes, hats, bags, clothes I pine over and outfits I would love to replicate someday

It is by no means perfect but at least now I can open the ottoman up without disgracefully shielding Justin from peering in on a colossal unnecessary mess.  I would love to get the diplomas and teaching binders put in storage since they are not necessary to have close at hand on a daily basis, but that is for another day.  Glad I am at least still following my 2012 New Year’s Resolution to JUST DO IT twenty-four days later.  Now, let’s see how long this mantra can hold on!

Where do you hide your stash of paper, receipts, magazines, coupons, mail?  Proudly out in the open or shamelessly hidden away like me?

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