arianna belle

In the last 'Beautifully Organized' post I talked about organizing the latest magazine issues - the ones that are current reading material. Today I want to go over a few tips on organizing old magazine issues that you've held onto for future reference. You may have heard the organizing rule that you should only keep the most current issue of any given magazine and toss the rest. While that may be a good idea for many, I don't believe it's necessarily a rule all should follow. If you're anything like me, you love your shelter and fashion glossies and like to go through old issues from time to time for a jolt of visual inspiration for a blog post, design project, etc. Oftentimes an issue from a few years ago is just as inspiring as a current one and the tactile experience of flipping through the pages is a nice break from all the digital.

Since new issues arrive to us every month from various subscriptions though, the challenge is not letting the collection get out of control. Most of don't have space to store every single issue of every single publication. What I like to do is, when I get a new magazine in, as I'm reading through it, I fold down the corner of pages that have inspiring content. If I only dog-ear two or three pages, I rip those out, save them in a magazine clippings binder (more on that later!) and recycle the remainder of the magazine. If I find that I've dog-eared tons of pages though, I keep the magazine.

Here's a few ideas on how to store the keepers:

Separate them out by type...

Place stacks of them on open shelving in the living room, bedroom, or office. If done neatly, they can be integrated nicely into the decor of a space.

Alternatively, containerize them in magazine files a la Carrie Bradshaw...

Ikea and the Container Store are my go-to places to get magazine files. You can either turn them around so the fully covered side is facing towards the front, and label them for a clean, streamlined look...

Or you can turn them the opposite way so that the upper half of the magazines show...It's a good idea to turn the files this side when you don't have labels on them. Bonus: Looks particularly nice when the spines are colorful!

Tell me, do you collect magazines? How do you organize and store them?

Hope this inspired some ideas for your own home!

image credits: 1- 7th house on the left 2- mimi + meg, 3- photography by danielle moss styling by alexandra berlin design, 4- scan from your home is a sanctuary via this is glamorous, 5- martha stewart, 6- canadian house and home, 7- hbo's sex and the city, 8- via lonny mag, 9- via for the love of pretty, 10- deliciously organized, 11- i heart organizing, 12- arianna belle, 13- found via this pin

A good tip for magazines that are current reading material is to store them wherever you tend to do most of your reading. Here, a basket next to the sofa makes them easily accessible, perfect for reading while lounging:

You could follow the same idea and place a basket or rack next to or under your nightstand if you read in bed.

Or near your desk if you tend to do your reading there:

Maybe you have a desk that has built-in storage, like the one shown above right (lucky!). Since chances are you don't, you could consider creating your own storage using display shelves. A magazine wall like this one shown below would be perfect for an office or breakfast nook: