Saturday, February 09, 2008

Managing a stash of Christmas magazines


If you're like me, you probably have quite a stash of Christmas magazines. I've got Family Circle and Woman's Day Christmas issues going back to the late 1960s -- and, if I count magazines passed on to me by my mother, I have some going back to the early 1950s. And let's not forget all those wonderful Good Housekeepings with the elaborate gingerbread house ideas! I have managed to declutter many, many magazines from my life, but not those Christmas issues. They have too many great recipes and craft and gift ideas. The only problem is that I can seldom remember which issue I saw a particular idea or recipe in.

This year, I discovered the recipes-to-try form at Organized Christmas, as I mentioned in an earlier post. It has helped greatly when I come across a recipe I want to try. But what about all of the craft and gift ideas?

A couple of years ago, I started a sort of system which has worked well for me. In the month or two after Christmas, I go through some of the magazines in my stash. As I find ideas I want to try, I place a sticky note on the front of the magazine. I jot down the title of the craft and note its page number. I keep all of the magazines that I've marked like this on the same set of shelves. This has helped tremendously with finding those great ideas again.

As a bonus, I find that there are so many wonderful ideas in my magazine stash, I'm more easily able to resist the Christmas issues of these magazines when they appear in the grocery store!

7 comments:

  1. What a great idea. I am forever going through magazines looking for ideas that I had seen before.

    Thanks for the tip!

    Linda

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  2. Hi Linda,

    Thanks for stopping by my Christmas kitchen! Hope this idea helps you as much as it has me.

    God bless,
    Mrs.T

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  3. Anonymous12:19 PM

    Have you happened to come across instructions for a Victorian gingerbread house that would have been late 1970's or early 1980's? It was a 2-story with open back to see into the rooms. I made one a long time ago, but didn't save the article.
    Merry Christmas!
    Linda P.

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  4. Linda,

    I have looked through many of my old issues looking for the house you've described. I was sure I had seen it in an old Good Housekeeping. But I haven't found it yet! Maybe after Christmas...

    God bless,
    Mrs.T

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  5. Anonymous10:27 PM

    Thanks for looking! I appreciate it...Warm regards, Linda

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  6. This is a really good idea. I don't save old Christmas magazines, but I have a pretty good sized collection of Christmas crafts books (like Christmas with Southern Living, Creative Ideas for Christmas, etc., going back to about 1985). I've taken to going through those and marking with sticky notes the pages I'm most interested in. There may be only a couple of ideas from each book I want to try, but can't get myself to part with the book if there are still some good (untried) ideas in there. It's an obsession, I guess, but not such a bad one :)

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  7. Hi again, Lynn!

    Oh yes, I have the books as well as the stash of magazines. I have 9 or 10 of the Gooseberry Patch Christmas books by Leisure Arts, and a bunch of other Leisure Arts Christmas books. Love those! It's an addiction...

    So thanks for your great idea for marking the pages with things you want to try by using sticky notes. I will be utilizing that! I was just thinking the other day that I wanted to browse through a few of those books to get inspiration for Christmas ideas.

    God bless,
    Mrs.T

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