Cutting Down On Craft Clutter? Start With Those Vintage Magazines!

There are very possibly 34,567 craft magazines in my craft room. Maybe slightly fewer, because I would never, ever, in a million years exaggerate. I will tell you that some of them date back to 2003. That should tell you something right there.

As I'm cleaning up and clearing out during my Summer Cleaning (Spring came and went...), there are a lot more craft magazines around and about than I really realized. Most of them have sticky notes marking the pages so I'd know which pages I wanted to go back to. There are lots of those sticky notes.

The best way to preserve the ideas but not keep the magazines is to take pictures. Whether they're with your phone or a camera, there are a few ways to make the preservation process practically painless.

* If you're using a camera with a removable disc, transferring the pictures is much easier. You can put them straight on a computer or tablet and a labeled folder immediately.

* If you're using your tablet or phone instead of a camera, add them to a new album just for idea pages.

* If there are pages you know you'll never read again - they're not your style, you don't do that kind of craft anymore or they're just bleh - don't bother taking the photos to begin with or delete them before you create the album.

* Decide if you want your photos on an external hard drive or saved in the Cloud. They both have easy accessibility, so it comes down to whether you want them on something physical (a hard drive) or digital that you can reach on all your devices.

* Decide how much time you want to put into the saving process. Maybe you just want them all grouped together, much like they were on the shelf or in the pile you had in your home. Or make a separate folder or give a special name to the photos you want to find first. This can be any level of organized you want - make it personalized to your crafting needs.

And now, what do you do with those magazines?

* Sell them at your next yard sale.
* Donate them to a charity thrift shop.
* Turn them into new craft projects. 
* Share them with a local craft club, school or library for kids' projects.
* Let go completely and recycle them.

Which of your craft magazines will you start with?

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