Decluttering and Magazines!

So....I'm into downsizing and decluttering my home and thirty plus years of accumulation is a lot to go through!  I'm currently working on the spare room  -- or what was meant to be my room as opposed to the room my spouse uses for a home office.  Instead, it's been where everything has been tossed for almost 10 years.  There is a queen size futon bed I purchased from our oldest daughter when she moved to England to marry a Brit.  It had been her sofa and bed in her Capital Hill studio apartment in Seattle.  I thought it would make a great guest bedroom piece of furniture but takes up almost the whole width of my spare room and is not that comfortable -- especially compared to one my daughter purchased a couple of years ago from IKEA for her guest bedroom.  Since our guests all stay at our local daughter's home, we don't really have a need for a guest bedroom so my goal is to clear out the room and reorganize so my son and grandson can move the futon out of that room and I can place an ad to sell or give it away!

One of my discoveries has been some old magazines.  I found a couple of Real Simple magazines today from September and October of 2012.  I love Real Simple magazines and they seem to call my name when I pass a magazine stand so I subscribed for a few years.  However, in looking through these old issues, I discovered lots of pictures -- particularly of current fashions -- but nothing much of substance that I wanted to save so they're going into the recycling bin.  There were 3 or 4 pages of ideas that I might try in decorating my home but the fashions are no longer in style. 

I did save some clever Halloween costume ideas from the October issue that I'll pass on to my daughter since she and the two children still at home dress up for Halloween each year.  There were a few recipes that I cut out but my husband and I switched to plant-based no oil, no dairy, no eggs, no meat, etc. a little over a year ago and most recipes from popular magazines don't fit in our new way of eating.  Sometimes I can adapt a recipe that looks good but I've probably already saved more recipes than I'll be able to try in my lifetime!

My favorite magazine used to be "Good Housekeeping" and, as a young wife and mother, I subscribed to it and looked forward to its arrival each month.  However, when they stopped including short stories throughout and a novel at the end, it lost its appeal and I stopped my subscription.  By then I'd gone back to school, finished college and a master's program and was working.  I still miss those short stories and novels, though!  pazt