One Declutter member wrote:
This is my area that needs the most improvement! Magazine articles, newspaper articles, etc. Why do I keep this stuff? How do I let it go?????????
I responded to her as follows:
Why and how? These are two important questions, and they're more general than you think. One could ask these questions about clutter in general--and personal habits in general, too.
I'm not trying to give a full answer here, but just thoughts for your consideration. Magazine articles will be my examples.
It seems like subconscious emotions have a lot to do with why we keep things, acquire things, and have trouble dropping bad habits. Specifically, fear (and worry) are strong and very common invisible motivators!
I have no idea whether fear motivates you to keep your magazines, but you'll be doing yourself a disfavor if you don't at least consider the possibility.
Could you be afraid of missing out on important information that you will never see again? If so, your assumptions are probably wrong. First of all, all the information and advice in popular magazines are readily available on the Internet. Secondly, how many articles have you already read in your lifetime which have really impacted your life? How many ideas which you have read in magazine articles have you actually tried out? If the answer is, "not many", than you will not actually miss the magazines that you toss and the subscriptions that you cancel. Just search the internet on those topics, or wait for a future issue--the topics will return!
Could you be afraid of missing out on fun experiences? For example, are you keeping magazines related to hobbies you wish to start or restart someday? Or travel you wish to do, designs you wish to create, or recipes you would like to make? You're probably so busy with your current hobbies, leisure activities, and work you enjoy (in or out of the house) that you don't really miss those experiences as much as you think you do. This is the main reason I clutter, I think. It's a kind of fear, although it might not seem like one.
Could you be afraid of not improving your lifestyle? Are the articles you are keeping related to health, diet, exercise, psychology, or self-help? In that case, the articles will be useless to you until you actually get around to applying them. Either tear out the most pertinent articles and put them in a well-marked box in your storage room until you are ready to put them into practice, or toss them, remembering that the Internet is loaded with advice on all self-help topics.
Could you be afraid of tossing items which you paid money for? (Magazines aren't cheap!) Well, you can't go back in time and unbuy them. Just cut your losses and move on. Otherwise, you are compounding on the error of buying junk by keeping junk. (Here, I'm assuming that you don't get around to reading the magazines, and that they're just taking up space--or, that you've already read them, and are afraid to toss them, even though you never use or reread them.)
While the specific questions were on magazines, the issues I've raised apply to clutter in general and to bad habits which we have trouble breaking.
Basically, if keeping the items makes you feel guilty, you are probably motivated to keep them by fear and worry.
On the other hand, if you actually read the articles, enjoy reading them, and reread them, they are worth keeping. For example, maybe you are keeping a travel magazine because it has an article on Italy, and you wish you could travel there. You occasionally pick up the article and reread it for pleasure, daydreaming all the while. In that case, IMHO it is your feelings of guilt that are the clutter, not the magazine article itself.
If you actually reread and/or apply the articles, keep them. Life was meant to be enjoyed! If, on the other hand, you are motivated by fear and worry, free yourself from your emotional baggage and your physical baggage. Life was meant to be enjoyed!