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4.29.2010

The Accidental Collection

I've never been a big collector of things. The more things that I have, the more claustrophobic I feel. So it was strange a few weeks ago when I realized that I had inadvertently become a collector of something. How could this be I wondered? Is this how all collections start? Do they just sneak up on you and then before you know it you are on the TLC show, Hoarders? Well, to be fair to myself. My collection is not that problematic but it is indeed a collection, nonetheless. 


What could this collection be?? 


Well, my Martha Stewart Living of course!! Over the past six or seven years, I have amassed my fair share of MS magazines without even realizing it. You see, I just didn't have it in me to throw out my coveted magazines after I read them. Instead, for several years I used the magazines as a design element in my apartment - decoratively displaying the issues in a nifty little (or large) basket. Eventually my collection outgrew that space,  which led me to archive my MS Living in magazine files. Then, the unthinkable happened. My collection out grew that space too! So I moved the collection to my book shelf and reasoned with myself that there was NO WAY that I could exceed that amount of space. 
Needless to say, I proved myself wrong. For fear that I was soon going to have countless piles of magazines around my house like my grandfather (God love him!) who has been collecting National Geographic Magazine for the past thirty years, I knew I needed to downsize without sacrificing. But how?


For me, the solution was easy and something I have done before with my favorite fitness magazines and law school books: Unbinding.


What's that you say? Well, it involves carefully removing the content, discarding the excess (such as advertisements, etc.), sorting and organizing the subject matter, and then placing the pages in binders for easy access. 


So here is the break down on how it is done:
Step 1: Tear off the magazine cover.
Step 2: Carefully tear out the pages of the magazine by applying steady pressure near the spine. The pages should remove easily from the glued spine with consistently straight edges.
Step 3. Sort the pages (For MS, I sorted by recipes and projects). Keep in mind to keep the pages in sequential order. 
Step 4: Hole punch like crazy.
Step 5: Place in your favorite binders. 
Step 6: Enjoy.
The best part about this space saving tip is that it is so much easier to access all your favorite recipes and projects without having to page through 8,000 pages and no one will ever know that you have a "collection problem."


Dilemma solved!



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