Secrets of organized families: Insider strategies for getting your house in order – [ParentCenter] Become a discriminating reader. Keep magazines and newspapers from forming mountains by subscribing only to publications that you regularly read cover to cover (be brutally honest with yourself about that stack of year-old New Yorkers, for instance). If you’re hanging on to an old magazine because there’s an article in it that you just have to read, tear out the article and toss the magazine. “You’re left with a few stapled pages that are easy to file instead of a pile of back issues taking up precious space,” says the National Association of Professional Organizers’ Stephanie Denton. Hide videos, DVDs, and CDs. Rather than stacking them in precarious piles, store videos and DVDs in shallow drawers or boxes with their labels face-up for quick identification. Likewise, store CDs in holders made especially for this purpose, or ditch the jewel cases altogether in favor of CD binders shaped like photo albums, which take up less room and are easy to page through. Box up pictures. If you put every blurry snapshot you take into a photo album, you’ll quickly compile a huge but not very exciting family photo record. Instead, buy photo storage boxes and use them to store prints until year’s end, when you can pick your favorite ones and transfer them to a bound album. Keep an album for each year and store the rest of the photos in a clearly labeled box tucked away in the basement or other out-of-the-way spot. Or create “virtual” photo albums and store your pictures online with a service such as Ofoto…
