Tell me I can do it.... (throw out my old scrapbook mags)

I had every issue of CK and Simple Scrapbooks and I took them to a crop weekend and people could have whatever they wanted for free ( I kept them in my car and the interested people came to my car and took what they wanted). On the way home, I took them to the recycling bin. In my mind, I justified it that I gave people who would get usage from them an opportunity to get them. I don't have a great deal of supplies, but I did enjoy the magazine. Keeping them was more a matter of "I have every copy of CK and SS", but they were really just sitting on a shelf, taking up a lot of space, I rarely looked at them again.

I would not recommend even thumbing through them especially since you haven't scrapped for five years. There's nothing in them that you couldn't get inspiration from on-line now.

I got rid of mine long ago. I spent a Saturday going through all of them, cutting out the layouts or articles that I liked and tossing the rest. I made my own idea book out of an old blue CM idea book. Since I don't follow trends, I wasn't worried about something being "outdated." I just scrap what I like. I kept my CTMH idea books (love them) and my two "My Creative Companions", even though I don't use those two much any more. My general "go to" is my Pinterest board.

I free-cycled mine a few years ago. I figured that there was oodles of inspiration online and I really, really needed the space that all of those magazine were taking up. Somebody snapped them up so fast that I never even had time to second-guess myself about parting with them. They were claimed and picked up within the day.

I'm surprised people buy them!

I went through all of mine while watching TV. I tore out the pages of layouts I liked and tossed the magazines in the recycling. I've never regretted it.

I got rid of 95% of mine several years ago and haven't missed them. I am moving and getting rid of the rest now.

I got rid of the majority of mine a few years ago, and kept a few special edition magazines I really like. I ripped out pages I was interested in and put them in a binder in different categories, and recycled the rest as no one was interested in them. Then I never looked at the binder because I would just look on my Pinterest boards for ideas, so I tossed the binder contents last year. There's nothing in there I can't find online.

If you are in a similar situation with cooking magazines, I found almost every recipe I had ever torn out of a magazine or saved a magazine for online and pinned the recipe to the appropriate category on Pinterest. My recipe binder is much less bulky and easier to navigate now (The binder holds family recipes and those others have shared).

A few years ago I donated a whole bunch of mine to the library, years and years worth, and they were pleased as punch to get them! Many libraries also have periodicals in their collections that people can check out. They especially like it when they can get full years of them. Plus when you donate them you can take a tax deduction (in the U.S. anyway) and then I don't feel quite so horrible about all that money down the drain. If I decide to get rid of more of mine, that's what I'll do again.

I still have quite a few magazines and special issues in my personal reference library. I keep them sorted by month or theme so if I'm looking for something particular I can quickly go to just those relevant issues and flip through them. That way I find I actually do use them and look at them. For me, it's a lot quicker to look through 4-5 magazines than it is to sift through loads of links and blogs online.

Mercy, I miss Simple scrapbooks so very much. Those were the days.

I just downsized my clothes closet from two six foot closets to one closet, Now every time I open my closet I only see things I want to wear. It feels awesome! I didn't think about the $ spent because I used the clothes and now someone else can. I did the same thing with my hallway closet and six large bags went to Goodwill. There was stuff in there I hadn't thought about for years. For me, it feels awesome.

I need to do this too. I will keep the ones I was published in and let the rest go.

I called first and asked the library if they were interested, and they said they were so I hurried right over before I changed my mind, LOL.