Are your magazines empty coffee cups?
As a professional organizer, I am always trying to help my clients change how they think about their “stuff.” Magazines are often a hot clutter item.
USUALLY, it is because we buy them or subscribe to them and “someday” we are going to read them.
I get that. Kinda.
Once you pass 15 though, you lose me.
Anyway – last week, I was ready to launch into my magazine spiel with a client when she almost stumped me.
I was looking at stacks and stacks of magazines, which I assumed were yet to be read.
My first question is always, IF you could only buy 3 magazines this week, what 3 would you pick.
As the color drained from her face, I quickly realized these magazines meant more to her than I had anticipated.
So, I doubled back. Which magazines do you sit down and read COVER to COVER as soon as you get them?
She said, “Yes. I read them all cover to cover as soon as I buy them.”
I was in shock – ALL these magazines are READ already?
Yep.
I had to switch gears from finding TIME for her to enjoy what she had purchased or LIMITING her future reading options - to seeing that she had already consumed the content that she purchased.
And then it hit me…
That morning, I was 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Some of you may remember that I posted on Facebook that my first cup of coffee didn’t quite do it, so I stopped by Starbucks and got a tall Caramel Macchiato. Yum.
It was SO yummy and warm. And when it was gone – I THREW THE CUP AWAY. Even though I spent $3.55 on it...and even though I loved it. It was empty. I had enjoyed and consumed the product.
At the end of my story I said, "Your magazines are like empty Starbucks coffee cups."
So then I asked, "Are there any titles you can part with?"
Her reply was, “All of them.”
She literally got rid of 95% of her magazines. With no pain, no guilt, no regret.
Perspective is everything.
{Cool factoid. Starbucks cups are recyclable. Just found that out while searching for the picture above. Click on the picture to learn more.}
What are you holding on to that you have already “consumed?”
