Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

First, I limit myself to two magazines -- the ones I actually use a lot. Not just like - but use. I read others but I don't keep them anymore. I store the keepers in magazine cases on a baking rack. I discarded the rest by giving them away -- try Freecycle websites in your area. (You might even be able to sell some on eBay.) If there were recipes or articles I *really* wanted to keep, I clipped them and pasted then into a loose-leaf notebook. If you are really loath to damage the magazine, you could scan them instead. (My clippings pre-date scanners!) If you haven't opened a magazine since 1986, give it away. Be honest: if you haven't opened it in last 20 years, what the odds are that you will open in the next 20? And you could probably find the same or similar recipe in one of the magazines you keep, if you could find it among the stacks and stacks of others.

The only way to control the volume is to set firm rules: limit the # of titles you keep. Set aside a fixed amount of shelf space for them. When you exceed it, archive the ones that are keepers and recycle the rest. And be brutally honest with yourself ... do you want to keep because you will use it or just to keep it? If you won't use it, give it away to some one who will.

I admit, it's not easy at first. I found it difficult to part with my piles & piles & piles of newspaper food sections and magazines but they were wreaking havoc in my pantry and my husband was *seriously* annoyed. Once it was done, it really felt good, liberating almost. I could actually *see* what I had kept, can scan through them easily and they look neat. And frankly, I haven't missed having any of those old newspapers or magazines yet!

I pared down my subscriptions. For instance, I let Bon Appetit and Gourmet go because they are generally monthly advertisements for diamond encrusted watches and yachts. Don't need either of those (Dahling, I hate it when my bread dough gets in my diamond encrusted watch...And I get seasick).

I culled my collection and gave mags away at my little restaurant in Colorado. Customers loved flipping through them while waiting for food and were very pleased when I said it was OK to take them home.

I kept all my Novembers, Decembers and issues where any of my tips or recipes were printed. Also, I kept "theme" issues I thought were pertinent, i.e. Canning or Summer Fruit or Bread Baking, etc.

The only mags I now sub and have never discarded any are:

Fine Cooking
Cooks Illustrated
Saveur
Everyday Food

I have a mess of Cooking Light mags and really love how their food is presented. I'm trying to eat more healthfully and share that with those in my life.

I have Martha Stewart Living mags which are great for recipes and household tips. I use MSL's like any reference book - use what I need and ignore the rest. (Beekeeping? No thanks.)

As far as storage - I love those extra large mag boxes you can get just about anywhere. You can get really dolled up versions ($$$$) or the cheapies.

Oh and BTW, it's noteworthy to mention, my library consists completely of cookbooks. I'm a notorious one-trick pony.

As far as the shelving, I'm at a loss. I've seen some really beautiful bookcases at office supply stores specifically for books but they can be pricey. There is always the alternative of building shelving into the walls of your library. (That would be my particular dream but it's not for everybody.)

Hi piglet, I'm kinda like you, I can't bear to throw away printed materiel with the exception of junk mail. Try getting some three ring binders, then you can usually find inserts that allow you to "hang" your magazine in the binder, I found mine at a staples office supply. fairly cheap.

A couple of years ago, I realized that I had to get drastic with myself. I had piles of cooking mags that I'd collected over the years. I'd subscribed to practically every cooking magazine know, and couldn't bear to throw them out. So I called in the troops. Well - Troop. A friend of mine who is wonderfully organized. She was amazed that it had taken me this long. She sat in my living room and was brutal. Had I read any of those in the last year? No? Then toss 'em. How about in the last 6 months? Toss 'em. How about the last 3? Same. Then, have you made a recipe from any of the remaining? Not those? Put them to the side. Now, add them to the toss pile. I can't tell you how many magazines I dumped that day. And I continue to live by her words. If the new one comes and I still haven't done anything with the old one, and know that really, I'm not gonna, no matter how pretty the picture looks, I toss.

I also recently culled my cookbook collection down from over 200 to around 50. Of course, now I'm restocking with new cookbooks. But even then, my rule is if it goes past the 2 long shelves I put up in the kitchen for the cookbooks and the one shelf in one of my regular bookcases, nothing comes in unless something goes out.

I have to say, it's quite freeing, and I am eternally grateful to her.

Wow! Y'all rock! It sounds like some folks are more disciplined and less sentimental than I am. I'm afraid I was less direct in asking my question than I had intended—sorry. I was actually wondering whether anyone out there who hoards magazine has managed to do so neatly, and how. At the turn of the last century, it was common to have magazines bound into volumes, but that would be too nerdy even for me. Yet the three-ring binders and the digitization may not be. It sounds like I just need to get organized.

I do not intend to throw away my magazines, because (weird as it sounds) I regard them as artifacts. I am an academic writing a book that involves food, and it's been really handy to be able to work an old Bon Appetit or Gourmet into an article or lecture. In both cases I've wound up drawing upon random things like advertisements and articles. I wouldn't have been able to do so had I only clippings.

I used to keep whole magazines (not only cooking magazines) when I liked particular articles. Now I cut the relevant pages out with a knife, place them in a plastic 3-ring sleeve and put them in a binder. Occasionally I clean them out.

I have a huge cookbook binder that I've had since I first moved out of my parents' house. I also have a ton of recipe links on my computer, some of which I print out for the binder. Sometimes I go through the binder and make myself tear our recipes that I've never made and think I'll never make. Sometimes if recipes are going it I make myself remove others.
Thing is, I rarely use recipes, or I use them as a guideline, yet I hold into these pages. I know that if I threw the entire binder in the garbage I wouldn't miss it. Still, I keep it- even though I'm more likely to google the recipe.