Organize It Week 2: Reduce Paper Clutter!

Catalogs rarely change more than four times a year, but the big companies are religious about sending you one (often with a different cover) every two weeks. To keep a handle on them, use magazine files for your favorite ones, especially if they're work-related. If you've seen the same one twice, recycle it. (Or if you have older kids, reuse it by letting them cut pictures out of it for projects or fun.)

Magazines should go in magazine files or baskets. Ideally, recycle the last issue when the next comes in (or give it to a friend or the office give-and-take shelf). If you save old issues, organize one title per file. Once you've collected a year's worth of magazines (that should about fill your magazine file), when a new issue comes, flip through the equivalent issue from last year (if you just got the May issue, flip through last year's May issue), tear out any articles you want to keep, and replace last year's issue with the new one in the file. This lets you save magazines without letting them turn into mountains.

For the magazine articles and recipes or catalog ideas you can't bear to part with, tear out the page and give it a new home in a hanging folder or expanding file. For bigger projects, use a binder with clear sleeves. Give your new files basic names, like "style file" for decorating clips, or "vacation file" for your Hawaiian-fantasy articles.