Pinterest has some cool ideas (see link below). However, I highly doubt that you need to keep the entire magazine. How about looking through it and only saving the pages you want to keep? That will probably save you a huge amount of space.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/403635185337147857/

We need more info I find with the interent I get fewer magazines now than before. As for display I am not sure I would have ever had a need to dis play them , I had them in my office for reference and really just stacked on shelves in a closet in that that space . I guess mine were not displayed beacuse they were full of stickys that marked the items I wanted to reread or just look at. When we moved I had over 800 magazines and finally made the decision to eliminate all but 2 dozen. I bundled them in stacks of 25 and placed them out on the sidewalk to give away and only one or 2 stacks per day at the end of the month they were all gone to good homes.

I used to place worthwhile ones in a magazine rack. As stack got too tick, I removed the older ones and when charities came to collect household donations, I included them. Recycled as well.

I cancelled all my subscriptions and called to have random magazines stopped - trying to save some trees and reduce plastic. I am now reading everything on line, including free books on Cloud Library.

Well I don’t want to display them but the problem is I still will have to keep them in the open in the family room in the hope that I might pick one up and read it. I feel very guilty when I I put them in recycling when they are new and unread. I can’t stop the subscription since they come for free with annual membership and and it would feel( in my head)I am refusing to keep myself updated. But the pile grows bigger and bigger and is not an attractive sight. Sometimes I hide them inside the closet when we have guests over. I have had a few hundreds as well that stayed in our basement for a while and then years later some were donated or recycled.

But if you are not reading them, you are not keeping yourself updated, anyway.

Chances are, if you do not read them within the first couple of weeks of getting them, you won't.

Browse the cover, if there is something of interest, tear out that article, keep in a binder, recycle the rest.

Do your professional societies also publish the journals electronically, as well? In my profession they do, so I finally just bit the bullet and began recycling them as soon as they are delivered - only keeping a handful after scanning the table of contents quickly. I keep them in a wooden “inbox” and purge if the box fills up (rim only, not overflowing!). Now, if I need to look up a particular topic I access the journal online. It also helps to schedule time in your weekly work calendar for professional reading/keeping up-to-date (For me, it is 1 hour first thing every Friday morning - before that days conference calls begin).

It’s highly unlikely that anything in the print version isn’t also available online. Since you aren’t reading them anyway, try to let go of the guilt and give yourself permission to recycle them.

Consider if you haven’t read in three or six months, will you - and would information still be relevant? Take a few steps to purge and you’ll realize it‘s not as hard as you think.

- Only keep a few in a rack that you think you may read/reference and ONLY store other relevant ones in a bin say under a bed. Out of sight but not out of reach, if you are having a hard time recycling at that time. It’s really a burden to have to hide them when people come over.

- When bin gets filled, time to recycle vs putting in boxes in basement - how many times have you actually referenced any once in basement.

**** Also take a hard look at what you are receiving/not reading and cancel. A small step towards helping the environment.

Yes guilt also plays in big time. I like the idea of limiting myself to a few only and if there is overflow recycling some. But thats how this pile is sitting there. When I get fed up I recycle some. Going totally on line will be hard but I will I will think about it. I think you lose your eyesight faster with online reading. Also Laura where do u keep the wooden box and how many does it hold? What does it look like? I really appreciate everyone’s input. I think many people may have this type of issue. Its both an emotional and esthetic. Need to hear more in this. Maybe Ellen is right idk

More on this

File boxes. Read once and recycle.

When I rejoined the family building business, my father had 2 bookcase rows of Builder and Professional Builder magazines over about 20 years. Took a month or two, but articles by builders, architects and interior designers were a well organized advanced education.