Simplifying my Real Simples

Thanks for the comments that I received both here & on FB about my little record table. Taking those into consideration, I am keeping it as is for now. I may get the itch to paint it at some point, but not for now.

So, do you remember how difficult it was to keep your room clean when you lived at home with mom & dad? (It was for me, anyway). Well, when you're married (as most of you few that read this thing are), instead of just having your own mess to clean up in your bedroom, you have your spouse's too.
And let's be honest, most guys aren't concerned with
keeping a room tidy. So, in other words, I find myself straightening up our bedroom a lot.

This idea came to me one of those many times.

I have had this little magazine rack for a while now- I think it was purchased at a Home Goods. (I'm hoping you can make out what it looks like, underneath all the magazines piled on it.)

It was once in our living room, then we got a nicer one to replace it, so this one went in our room. I use it for my Real Simple magazines. If you don't subscribe to this mag, you should! It has the neatest organizational ideas as well as yummy, easy recipes. Also, it doesn't seem to have as many ads as most women's
magazines do either.

I was almost, almost going to chunk every one of these magazines in the garbage (the rack was completely full, as you can see by the pic), but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then, it occurred to me that even though there are some things in these that I would love to keep, I didn't have to keep the entire issues. 

So, it took me about a few nights, all while watching the tube, but I got this project done. I sat in the floor with my
scissors & pen...

...and my Daisy girl keeping me company, and cut out only the pages and/or sections that I wanted to keep. I made temporary labels for "Recipes", "Organization", "Inspiration", "Good To Know" & "Decor Ideas", and started filing.

I ended up keeping a lot of recipes and a lot of organizing tips...

...and sentimental things...

...but the bulk of the magazines were filled with useless pages that were thrown away.

Talk about making some space! Now I have most of the magazine rack left for new issues!

I gathered all of my categorized loose pages, a 3-ring binder, a pack of dividers, and started punching holes. These are some pics of the steps & what I ended up with...

My binder & dividers...and a snout & paw belonging to my little helper in the top right corner. :)

 I found TONS of yummy recipes! I need to keep this binder handy!

To jazz it up a little, I cut the edges of the pages with my zig-zag scissors.

All organized...

So, my favorite part- the Before & After...

BEFORE


AFTER