Joyful Abode

I love Real Simple magazine. Really. It’s always filled with tips for how to declutter or better organize your home. It has home decor tips and lots of pretty pictures. BUT it’s filled with advertisements. So much so that it’s difficult to find an article, even if you know what page it’s on (since the ads don’t have page numbers on them).

Anyway, I taught my latest Real Simple magazine a lesson. Before I even started to read the magazine, I pulled out all of the subscription inserts (hello! I’m already a subscriber) and every single page that had an advertisement on both sides. I obviously left in the pages that had an article on one side.

Witness the aftermath:

Easy clutter control, indeed! I was able to read through my magazine without being bombarded with tens of pages of ads all in a row between articles… much nicer.

However, the magazine is pretty slim without all of the padding.

I recently subscribed to Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It feels like such an old-lady thing to do, but I’ve been reading old issues at work during lunch, and there are some great ideas in there! Delicious recipes, unique decorating ideas (no, really!), and really good articles. I may just let my Real Simple subscription expire this year. Goodbye!