Where do you keep your gardening magazines? If you're anything like me you'll have been accumulating them for years. I don't subscribe to any one magazine in particular, but I do buy them fairly regularly. Throwing them away is out of the question (as you may have gathered from recent posts, throwing things away is not my forte) - you never know when the information might come in useful. And anyway, after a few years you've forgotten what they said and can happily read them again.
But if they're going to be useful, you need to be able to find the information that you want when you want it. How often have you desperately flipped through reams of magazine because you know that in there somewhere there's an article on the topic you need? Not a problem if you do subscribe - the magazine may publish an annual index, or even provide a fancy folder to keep them all in. But if you're an impulse buyer?
My solution is to put them all in large folders, filed not chronologically but by month. So that I have all the June issues together, all the November issues together, and so on regardless of year. And the folders get labelled and decorated with some pictures cut out of old seed catalogues, and popped onto my bookshelves.
Now I have to admit that the photo shows the folders from a while back. At that stage each folder covered three months. I've now arrived at the point of needing a separate folder for each month. But the principle is the same. And at the beginning of each month I can take down the folder and flip through all the magazines it contains looking for useful information for that month's gardening. Because if there's one thing that all gardening magazines have in common, it's that they tell you what you need to be doing that month. And it will often happen that a magazine from five or so years ago has an article on a plant that, at the time, I wasn't growing but which I want to introduce this year.
But if they're going to be useful, you need to be able to find the information that you want when you want it. How often have you desperately flipped through reams of magazine because you know that in there somewhere there's an article on the topic you need? Not a problem if you do subscribe - the magazine may publish an annual index, or even provide a fancy folder to keep them all in. But if you're an impulse buyer?
My solution is to put them all in large folders, filed not chronologically but by month. So that I have all the June issues together, all the November issues together, and so on regardless of year. And the folders get labelled and decorated with some pictures cut out of old seed catalogues, and popped onto my bookshelves.
Now I have to admit that the photo shows the folders from a while back. At that stage each folder covered three months. I've now arrived at the point of needing a separate folder for each month. But the principle is the same. And at the beginning of each month I can take down the folder and flip through all the magazines it contains looking for useful information for that month's gardening. Because if there's one thing that all gardening magazines have in common, it's that they tell you what you need to be doing that month. And it will often happen that a magazine from five or so years ago has an article on a plant that, at the time, I wasn't growing but which I want to introduce this year.
It doesn't completely solve the problem of indexing. But I know that if I'm looking for an article on Poinsettia, I'm far more likely to find it in the December issues than in June.
Month by month filing is, for me far more useful than chronological storage. At which point I can hear my husband snorting in the background : You mean it's a better option than leaving them all lying around the bedroom floor ..
But what about you? How do you store your gardening magazines?
10 comments:
You're ahead of me, mine are sorted by month but then just left in a big stack in the office. I didn't buy mine, picked up a huge boxful of Gardener's World mags from someone on Freecycle www.uk.freecycle.org/ I also picked up a crate of plastic pots as well, really useful site to keep an eye on.
What a fabulous idea ... such a simple idea that works so well. Will have to get my magazines organised according to the month of publication ... isn't it always the simple solutions that are the best.
I don't have any, not any more, and we can't buy english magazines here... and subscriptions are so expensive abroad. But I'll read my Mum's when we go back!
I have been going through mine, getting ready to sell the house and move. If there are good articles, I will pull them. I am finding I haven't looked at so many of the old magazines, they are just taking up space. When my grandmother died we found she had almost every single National Geographic that was published.... augh.!!! Great magazine, but too many to keep.
I have every copy of 'The English Garden' since issue 1 stored in a big wicker basket and have the odd browsing afternoon in the winter. Other than that I am now ruthless with gardening mags and usually pass them on to other folk for a read. Your system looks most sensible and I imagine avoids some scrabbling about :)
You are brilliant! I wish I had thought to file mine by month. That makes so much more sense then chronologically.
Sue, I like your way of keeping magazines, especially by month. That makes sense to me, especially for those that you don't subscribe to. Very organized. Maybe my husband wouldn't mind so much if I put this method into place in my home. Where do you purchase the binders?
This is a good idea, Sue. I think I may do as you have suggested when my collection of gardening magazines is getting too big which I can't tolerate anymore :)
What a fantastic idea, especially categorizing by month, as I would have categorized by magazine. Needless to say, this system puts my "pile system" to shame.
Thanks for that idea!
I'll do it like this!
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