I resolve...to clean up my craft magazines!

Hi folks

I will start out this post with wishing you all a happy and prosperous new years. It's a time of year when many of us make resolutions (some realistic, some not so much!) and I am one of those that fails to stick to them. However, I feel my resolution for this year might be one I will stick to because I can clean up my stash of mags and give to charity/recycle at the same time.

Reading through various posts on Facebook, I came across a video about cleaning out craft magazines by removing required pages and filing them away. I immediately grabbed a stack of magazines and started going through them. I was amazed at how few pages I pulled out of each magazine - some magazines I pulled out only one page, which means I had at least 60 pages of a magazine for absolutely no reason. For the budget and time conscious in particular, I've devised a few tips to make the job easier.

• When you have a spare half hour, pull out a small stack of magazines and go through them, scanning pages for pictures, ideas, tutes or contact details that interest you. If you come across any e-directories, it may be worth checking out whether the links still work before bothering to rip it out.

• Once you've finished going through all the mags, separate them into various categories that suit you. This might include headings/sub headings such as "Techniques", "Inspirational", "Design Templates" - under a heading like "Techniques" you could then sub-categorise into "Embossing", "Inking", "Stamping" etc.

•  Purchase a ring binder, (or several depending on stash size), A4 clear sleeves suitable for the binder and cheap A4 paper (it can be coloured if you wish). If the page you've ripped from the mag is the full A4 size, slide it into the approriate category and label accordiningly. If it's too large, trim down or if it's too small, stick it to the A4 paper using double sided tape.

I'm hoping that I will have my filing finished by the end of January - or maybe February! - ensuring I won't have to search for ideas or techniques, it'll all be at my finger tips. The binders can be added to as you aquire more magazines, and you can donate the leftovers to charity or recycling, depending on how much you gut the mag.

Happy filing folks!!!