Catalog and Magazine Clutter

Catalogs and magazines can be fun to browse through every now and then, but this innocent-seeming form of entertainment can have cluttering consequences for your home and your mind.
 
Here’s a list of reasons why I recommend reducing or eliminating your consumption of catalogs and magazines:

• Simple: they pile up and create clutter. Toss them all into the recycling bin now to instantly tidy your home!
• To-Do Guilt Build-Up: Are you saving magazines because someday you'll read that article, try that recipe, or make that DIY project? If you haven’t done it yet, it’s not going to happen and your life has been fine without it. Give yourself permission to toss the magazine and the guilt!
• They are an inefficient way to store information. You have to page through each issue to find that thing you think you remember you saw in last October's issue...or was is September? In our digital age, read the print version for entertainment then find the articles or items you liked online and store them in a notes app like Evernote or on a Pinterest board.
• They make you want to buy lots of shiny new stuff that you don’t need, filling up your home and emptying your bank account.
• My top reason: discontent. Visions of perfection presented in catalogs and magazines can make us dissatisfied with our own perfectly imperfect lives. We can’t enjoy the beauty that we have because we are trying to measure up to a magazine editor’s ideal. We’ve heard lots of talk about this with respect to women’s body image, but I’m also talking about how you view your home and the things you do. We can’t all be Martha You-Know-Who, so stop looking to outside images and discover the joy of being content with where you are.