Monday, November 25, 2019

Less is more - day 25

I don't normally hang on to magazines for very long, but Taste of Home and Homeschool Today magazines have felt hard (for me) to get rid of over the years.  

The reason Homeschooling Today magazines are hard to get rid of is only obvious to another subscriber (or maybe a subscriber wannabe).  They are full of great ideas for home educators who enjoy pulling together their own curriculum.  They also have sections that focus on the fine arts and literature, so a person who's interested in doing so, could actually pull their curriculum for these subjects directly from the pages of the magazine. 

I have no idea if Homeschooling Today is still this amazing resource, but that's why I've saved these. 



I think I'll check with a friend who's in one of the co-ops we used be part of, to see if she thinks there might be some takers.  If so, I'll place them at one of their gatherings with some other freebies.  If they don't get taken, the next plan is to place them directly into our home recycling bin.  At which point, I'll remind myself to not save things just because I think someone else may want it some day. 😕





I know it's not necessary to mention this, but being that this week will be busy with various things, not the least of which is getting ready for Thanksgiving, I've managed to pull together all the rest of the posts for this month.  And they're ready to roll out! 

Truly...  getting rid of begets more getting rid of and we've managed to collect a pile of things to get rid of that still haven't been shown.  As of this writing, they're actually already gone (or are heading out soon).

I spent some time on Sunday taking the photographs and finishing up the posts.  So this week, while you'll see posts appear here daily (I hope), I'm actually errand running, grocery shopping appointment keeping, cleaning, cooking...  all the things the rest of you are likely doing.

Anyway, I thought I'd just be transparent about all the posts this week because I'm sure some would wonder how I can do all this decluttering during what's typically a busy week for folks.  

When this month is over I'll recap and share some thoughts I have about this challenge.  We're on a roll here and I fully expect it to continue beyond this little 30-Day Minimalism Game.  👍  Not the daily posting, but the getting rid of.  😉



Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone!



13 comments:

  1. It's great how you've embraced the decluttering! Oh Taste of Home...how I love thee. I wish I could get their magazines here in Canada! I've written to them with no avail lol...I don't think I could get rid of those! Happy Thanksgiving Becki! :)

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    1. I thought of you, Rain. I suspected that you'd love the Taste of Home magazines. :)

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  2. I would have been the one to keep all the homeschool magazines. One of the hardest things I ever did was get rid of my teaching stuff. I taught for 31 years. Our school system was a great one. It is beginning to crack and who knows I may be homeschooling grands down the road, but it was a good system and I was happy to teach there. I had such a hard hard time getting rid of my stuff. IT is a tear jerker of a post if I ever write it.
    I have loved following along with it. I really should do this myself after Christmas.

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    1. This makes me feel better. Wait 'till you see some other upcoming posts. :)

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  3. Magazines are really difficult to get rid of, particularly special ones. I finally winnowed mine down to only one type and the rest got re-homed awhile ago. I thought for sure I would regret getting rid of pretty ones ('Inspirations' for instance) but I truly haven't missed them. Enjoy your turkey-day festivities!

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  4. I used to keep old encyclopedias and similar, thinking they'd come in useful, but according to an episode of QI they say that facts become corrected over the years and of the original encyclopedias the majority of facts in there are now out of date and have been corrected or amended or clarified...I wonder if that is the same with old Home School magazines, could those 'facts' have changed over the years? For example, Pluto no longer a planet, the number of oceans changing, Triceratops was actually just a juvenile Torosaurus.

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    1. That's a very good point, Liz. I tend to think the content that I find valuable isn't really likely to become obsolete (literature/language arts and fine art study), but the methodology of teaching these subjects certainly could (and likely has) changed over the years. I'm actually toying with removing all the art study articles (which is what I find really unique about these) and just recycling the remainder of the magazines. It would allow me to depart with them in baby steps anyway. I'll figure that out this weekend - after our Thanksgiving. For now it just feels good to have decided to deal with them. Somehow or other. :)

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  5. I still have all of my Taste of Homes and every season I swap out the ones for the current season. October/November is stacked on a lower shelf of my bakers' rack right now, and at the end of this week I'll swap them for December/January. The other issues are all stacked quite neatly in a bookcase.

    Country Woman magazines were very hard for me to purge. I kept most of the December issues, but kept only a few issues beyond that. I literally had tears running down my face when going through those, but felt that I had no choice. I needed the space for other things. Rather than sending them to the dump, I did send them to a thrift store and I hope someone else was blessed by the good things in them.

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    1. What a great idea. I think after this Thanksgiving week, I'm going to do that. Pull out all the Christmas season Taste of Homes. That will surely get me in the mood to cook some new things from them. Thank you so much for sharing that, Mrs. T!

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  6. Have a great turkey day with your loved ones.

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    1. Thanks, Stef! We're having Italian! Lasagna & Chicken Alfredo. And other goodies, too. Mmmmm

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  7. Glad you came clean! LOL! In more ways than one! :)

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