6 Steps – How To Organize Magazine Articles in a Scrapbook

While one or two magazines on the coffee table are fine, five or ten can look cluttered and messy. The problem is also if you want to find one particular item that caught your eye you have to search for the one dog-eared article in “the pile”.

Frankly, as a magazine fan and organization professional I have come up with a simple yet perfect solution for you – Don’t keep the whole magazine. You did hear me correctly. Keep just the article or story of interest. Go ahead – tear it out!

By following my easy six step process, you will become organized and eliminate magazine clutter forever. Best of all you’ll be able to find precisely what you want within minutes instead of hours.

For those of us that keep hard copies:

1. Purchase protective clear plastic sleeves that go into a 3 ring binder. You get these at Staples, Walmart or anywhere you can purchase office supplies.
2. After completely reading the magazine, get your scissors ready!
3. Cut out the article, recipe or directions for the craft you want to keep and insert it into a plastic sleeve.
4. Put it in a 3 ring binder.
5. If you start to get too many in your binder, purchase some dividers with tabs and label them according in groups. (For recipes you might choose entrees, appetizers and desserts. For craft projects you might divide them by holiday or craft medium (yarn, paper, etc.)
6. Enjoy finding exactly what you are looking for!

If you are hard wired into your computer, do the same thing as above by simply scanning the article or recipe and placing it into designated folders by the appropriate subject: Crafting, Recipes, Organizing Articles, etc. Each folder can have sub folders to help keep you organized. Think of it as scrapbooking your most cherished articles!

It’s much easier to look through one 3 ring binder or several folders on your computer, rather than have to go through a stack of magazines to find that recipe you need for tonight’s dinner!

Written by Jan Stotlemyer, one of the owners of Closet Factory Washington DC and Baltimore.