Bill Fry Construction - Wm. H. Fry Const. Co. Vanessa - what a great index into practical houzz stories. Many of these feature some very handy products such as those from fellow houzz profile:
http://www.houzz.com/pro/cleverstorageus/clever-storage-by-kessebhmer for a myriad of great storage solutions.
We purchase their products through Hafele (I love their catalog) for most of our home improvement projects: http://www.hafele.com/us/
Happy New Year,
:) Rhoda

Lanie Brown On the pic of the linen closet, does the top door have room to shut with the medicine cabinet built-in the inside of the door?

JAN MOYER Lovely pictures all! But here is the caveat: NONE of them are overloaded, and in fact all are fairly sparse compared with virtually all homes I encounter! I think what louses people up is their inner conflict with desire for neat and pretty and pure quantity. It's true in the bath vanities, the closets, the kids playroom, the linen closet. It is true on dvd's, and in the kitchen with all sorts of "handy" gadgets a real chef doesn't even own. It's true under the kitchen sink, and in those nice cubbies in the back mud hall. It is quantity that becomes the problem. The hardest part is do I need it, do I LOVE it, do I USE it and if I yes, how many of "it" do I need or want? I say this as I have been given the okay to sneak in and toss at least 150 identical black tees belonging to my clients hubby while they vacation, and I install a couple guest bedrooms. The same permission slip does not apply to HER 200 black yoga pants.

kimlindy HELP! I am an AVID collector of design magazines. Do you or does anyone have any creative ideas of how to store them?

JAN MOYER kimlindy
Being in the business, I used to save them too. I then realized I was clinging to a mag, for a SINGLE photo!! . I would sit down on a rainy day with plenty of time, and do some quick flipping thru with an exacto knife. If you must save, save the photos/ portions that appeal and send the remainder of the magazine out the door. Get a big notebook, go back thru all you sliced out, and keep your favorites in plastic sleeves in that notebook. When a new mag comes to the door, do same. You will create your own huge magazine of faves, in one tidy place. Minus 100,000 pages you don't need.

kimlindy that is a great idea BUT I like most of the stories and collect them for the rooms and the ambiance created by the room or the home or the garden. My magazines are European, Italian and French... so still looking for ideas... :-)
If I was to take out the photos I would still have the same space issue... :-(

richly Do you really want the knife drawer so accessible to children?

JAN MOYER kimlindy
So ....... keep them? But here is the thing. Magazines are fairly limitless, information soon becomes dated overload, and "Ideas" become I have so many ideas I cant decide!!! But failing that, keep a year handy and the rest in a secondary spot? My guess is the secondary spot becomes quickly forgotten. Just stack by type/style whatever! so you can read and see the spine. If you have the space, everything that gets on a newsstand can be a keeper, I just found that an awful lot after a couple years can go out the door and not be missed. At all. : )

astraea Another fabulous article for us “practical people”! I’m good in that I manage to relegate my “clutter” to 1 drawer/space in each regularly used room, but I still have 2 problems. One is my innate inability/unwillingness to throw away “useful things” .. even when I’ve accumulated too many of them; like a collection of all the complimentary shampoo & conditioner bottles, soaps, shower caps, etc. from hotels, kept in a couple of pretty baskets in the guest room bath. My recent “solution” is to not bring home any more! The other problem is that although I try to bundle like items (i.e. pens) in catch-all drawers, much of the stuff is one-of-a-kind, which just doesn’t lend itself to any sort of drawer organizer.

@kimlindy - Office & organizer stores have holders for magazines, plastic & fancier. Some are open so that you can see what's there, and others have a cover so you don't. Most hold about a year's worth of average sized magazines. Then the trick becomes developing the routine of going thru each periodically, and getting rid of a few older issues. I keep a year's worth of 3 different magazines; when the racks for each get full .. it's time to get rid of the older ones, NOT buy additional racks (LOL).

barbjmark To store magazines, or my problem, music books, neatly and see what you have, I ordered a free-standing rotating display rack from Siegel Display, http://www.siegeldisplay.com/ My choice has rows of wire pockets and holds several magazines per pocket. I counted 116 music books in mine. It only occupies 2 feet by 2 feet. Siegel Display sells waiting room
and trade show displays of all kinds by mail for about 20 years that I know of them.

terryp @kimlindy - I get most of my magazines digitally and either keep the whole magazine it has enough ideas or take screenshots of the pages I really like. For those odd pages, I keep them in digital notebooks (e.g. kitchen decor). I used to just same them on my computer in folders but now I've been using an app called Evernote to organize the pages in notebooks.

shelbybella @ kimlindy : I too love ' design magazines'..so I tried this solution : I clipped out a lot of the pics that I truly adores, and saved them in to ' plastic pages', the kind that go in a Binder. Labeled the Binders. Any other magazines that I felt I didnt wish to part with ( toss completely) or cut up , I bought beautiful magazine holders for those. I limited myself to three holders. That makes it easier to save only the ones you truly truly LIKE and ' binder the rest'. :) That way, you can save and look at the magazines( or parts of them ) and you will feel more in control of the ' clutter of magazines'..hope this helps you. You can ' edit' these as you wish , and keep them fresh while keeping the older magazines / pictures/ clippings, as well. I saw the previous post about digital notebooks. but I am a ' dinosaur'..I LIKE reading and looking at a book or a magazine ON PAPER. lol

pssmeltzer Does anyone know what brand of refrigerator that is in the first picture of the kitchen?

dcrenne I think @kimlindy isn't actually ready for "help". Just like any addict, she is aware that she shouldn't, but isn't truly ready to let go of her addiction. So, @kimlindy, my advise is to BUY MORE magazines! Just really go to town. Maybe you will hit rock bottom and like the Phoenix, rise from the piles and piles of magazines to a new understanding of what truly constitutes a "keeper" vs a "clipper". Good luck!

maddecorator Kimlindy,
I don't keep magazines anymore, but when I did, I stored them in big binders in chrono order. I used these things to keep them in the binders. It was a good system and very neat and easy to find things. You just need a big shelf on which to place the binders.

msalaneus @Terryp ... EVERNOTE ... Best app ever ... Endless for organizing ...

Jodi Coburn Here is the correct link to the paper pileup article

maddecorator I should add that those magazine holders for binders work best with stapled or thin, perfect-bound magazines. For thicker magazines, file boxes work very well, and there are some beautiful ones out there, such as those from Punch Studio.

Just Me @astraea - Ronald McDonald Houses gladly take contributions of hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, etc., and distribute them to guests when the rooms are cleaned/refreshed. Just a thought if you like to bring them home. :)

Faith Towers Media Thanks for the great ideas.... I especially like those home office tips. Here are a few other useful ways to reinterpret existing storage space: http://designfixation.blogspot.com/2013/01/organizing-ideas.html

trasgorshek Kimlindy, I just read the other day to take cereal boxes and cut diagonally then cover them with paper to form office storage boxes that sit up so you can read the spines of the magazines. That's what I'm going to start doing with mine, then I will be able to make sure all the storage boxes match...just a little OCD showing. :) We fly through cereal and its a great way to recycle.

j0dy Thank you!

kimlindy I want to thank EVERYBODY for such great ideas.. I live overseas (not in the US) so will look at the websites with the storage ideas and try to adapt them here... I like the cereal box idea.. and think that I can build some closets to store them...
Have a great day.
Kim

astraea While the idea of donating little things to charity sounds great, spending $5 on gas & an hour to drive back & forth to the closest Ronald McDonald house, just to give them what probably amounts to less than $5 worth of hotel freebies, doesn't seem "responsible" overall.

Just Me Totally understand. I tend to collect them for quite a while and only drop them when I'm driving by.

A. Peltier Interiors I am sure these articles will get a lot of readers. The last article about purging and de-cluttering after the new year really struck a cord with readers. I was amazed at how many people struggle with this. If only they could capture that feeling you get when you have de-cluttered and organized a space. Its like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders, and you can think again!

hollywoodland When I moved into my current house 7 years ago, I clipped all my favorite design articles from my magazines and put them in binders marked "House" and "Garden." I've looked through them exactly once, so this year I'm getting rid of them entirely. Since I have 25 steps to the front door and additional stairs within the house, I have a built-in reason to avoid clutter. Nothing comes in that doesn't really need to: I sort mail at the mailbox, which is on the street level, and get most of my magazines in digital format. Unworn clothes and shoes go to the thrift shop several times a year, and I'm proud to say I have more closet space now than when I moved in. The trick is to realize that everything that enters the house will eventually have to leave it.

artissima Let's de-clutter...and share with the Other

Cordini Help "De-clutter" and organize better with Cordini!!!

ploefff @kimlindy: How about this for diplaying a selection of your collection and then storing the rest like this: http://ploefff.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/stak-pa-stroppetur/

kimlindy BRILLIANT!! THANK YOU!

jlbrowncpa This whole article was fantastic!!

davisbj So many great ideas! I've enjoyed reading them on this rainy day in Texas. I'm going through all my magazines and, wow, is that a chore. But, I'm getting that job done; tearing out pages I "think" I'll use someday.

JAN MOYER I think the real chore in all of this stuff is losing the fear isn't it? The fear that there will never be another magazine, another great pair of black pants that you don;t really wear, another whatever. But here's the big rub: There always IS another! Like the sun rises in the east, there is yet another! And that of course is the big problem. There is another great photo of your kids, another super idea in a magazine, another great sweater. So most of the conflict comes from that one simple thing and it is fear. Possibly it follows that to conquer the clutter is to conquer the fear, or maybe that should be reversed? Either way, with a little luck, the fear of drowning in any category of stuff is a good motivator? Maybe..... : )!

shop4stuff I struggled with magazines as well. I used to collect them and then realized that I rarely if ever ever looked at them and when I did, I had changed my design sense or they were outdated. Now if I think there is a really good idea, I tear out out pictures and put them in clear horizontal tray files labeled for example "clothing inspiration or design inspiration" or whatever. I limit it to two files. You can also pin them on a bulletin board. I go through them periodically and toss outdated stuff. Pinterest is making magazines almost obsolete now for those of us visual people. And keeping your pins take up NO space. It also helps to read "Clear your clutter with feng shui" . It will make you want to give away everything but your children.

jeanettchka When you visit the dentist, doctor, or other business with a waiting room, take 2 or three magazines to read and leave them there for others to enjoy. Most waiting rooms' magazines are very limited in subject, boring, and/or outdated. Helps to keep them from piling up in your house.

Katie McCready If you can part with them, magazines are also always welcomed at women's shelters and transitional homes, seniors homes and of course, schools. Teachers are always happy to have magazines for art projects. I am the worst for collecting magazines but the need for space and order has forced me to cull the collection a few times a year.