Magazine File Folders | Family Economics

By Cathe Holden

Magazine hoarding. Are you guilty of it? I used to be. Home decorating magazines, craft magazines, decor catalogs. You get the idea. How could I possibly throw out such great inspiration? I may need it again one day! But finally after realizing that I never really delve back  into them because it was too much trouble to try to find an idea I once saw and have no idea which magazine or issue it was in, I took charge.

I spent one entire afternoon and evening tearing out ideas from my stacks of magazines, page by page. Ideas that I wanted to try one day, ideas that inspired me in a different direction and created Files of Inspiration that I pore through often.

So if you have been stacking magazines and catalogs with the hopes of revisiting them one day, set aside some time and follow these easy steps towards creating a simple and neat little library of inspiration specific to you.

Purchase inexpensive pocket folders from the school and office section of your favorite discount store. Choose multiple colors for easy reference, or one color for all for a more uniform look when done.  Grab a few more than you think you’ll need, chances are that you’ll need them, as you will likely think of new categories as you go.

Begin by tearing out pages of magazines you want to keep, you may choose to carefully remove pages with a craft knife for less ragged edge. Have a stapler handy for combining multiple pages of an article. As you tear, place pages in a separate pile if there is only a small section of that page you wish to cut out. Once all your magazine pages have been torn out, trim out the images or articles from the extra stack you made. Place your magazines and catalog discards out for recycling.

Label your folders by category. I have included some label blanks for you to use. Simply print and glue, or print onto full sheets of label stock, trim out and adhere to folders as shown folding label around the spine of each folder.

A few of my own folder categories are:
• Living rooms
• Bedrooms
• Kitchen & Bath
• Studio/Office
• Landscaping
• Sewing
• Crafts
• Kid Projects
• Holiday Decor
• Entertaining
• Recipes
• Art & Design
• To Read
• To File (for tucking tear-sheets over time that will need to be sorted 
and filed)

Lay all labeled folders out, side by side onto a table and begin sorting your tear sheets. Placing each sheet or cutout on the labeled folder that best describes the inspiration, but do not cover up the folder label, as it will make sorting easier as you go.

Once sorted, tuck each pile of tear sheets into the pockets of the folders.

Place all of your neatly labeled folders into a magazine holder, shelf organizer or simply line them up on your bookshelf for your favorite inspiration at hand.

Then, the next time you finish a magazine or catalog, instead of  stacking it somewhere, tear out your favorite pages and place them into the folder marked TO FILE. Then, every month or so, file your tear sheets into the appropriate folders.

Label template for download.