Hey guys… I subscribe to or otherwise receive roughly 50 magazines per month (dont’ ask). They are extremely popular titles, for the most part:
Newsweek
US News
MacAddict
Bazaar
Entertainment Weekly
Maxim
Playboy
Gear
O (Oprah)
Real Simple
Vanity Fair
Discover
Smithsonian
Americna Prospect
Mother Jones
Premiere
Atlantic Monthly
People
US
Harpers
Many fitness titles
cooking, gardening, yoga stuff
WIred
SMart Money
Fast Company
Architerctural Digest
Elle
Elle Decor
And so on and so forth. Something for everyone, no doubt about it. There’s also a huge pile of car mags of my hunny’s.
I REFUSE to throw them away, EVEN in the recycle bin. It just seems shameful. So I want to give them to someone who will appreciate them.
I had a woman who took them for a school for juvenile delinquents, but owing to circumstances that do not bear repeating, she cannot take them off my hands anymore.
I don’t even remember how I found her. I think I called the local library.
Anyone have any other suggestions of where to begin looking for outfits that might need or want them?
Regarding the Smithsonian…if I were to hunt them down in the garage, I think I could turn up a few years worth for you, from the mid-90’s, but I stopped subscribing for awhile. I’ve only been back a few months.
Thanks all for the tips.
(I’m most fond o fthe idea of throwing them at Dopers heads for the fun of it)
I think I could take the Playboys off your hands to disperse through the piles of magazines around the hospital, but the literary programs aren’t a bad idea? Don’t used book stores in your neighbourhood buy old mags?
Shameless plug…my library has an ongoing used book/magazine sale. The donated magazines are invaluable filling in issues that have been stolen, defaced, etc. The rest are sold–and they sell like hotcakes.
No lie; on an average month the sale of magazines (dime per copy, on the honor system) nets up between $400-$500. The sale puts the magazines in the hands of new readers; the proceeds buy us more books, etc.–and what’s leftover are given to local resthomes, jails, hospital waiting rooms, etc. The whole shebang is run by our Friends group.
I don’t know if your local library has a similar project, Stoid, but it’s sure worth asking. (If not, why not, btw?) It can be a good, simple clearinghouse to put your magazines to good use.
**Hi, I’m reviving this thread because I find myself in the same situation, with hundreds (maybe thousands) of magazines I can’t bear to throw away. They’re too new to be collectibles, too old to be of interest regarding current events, and not interesting enough to sell on eBay (which I couldn’t do anyway because I don’t have a credit card).
I live in the Albany Park area of Chicago, and have no car, so I’m fairly limited in options.
There are a lot of good suggestions here, but I thought I’d give people another chance to throw in more ideas.
TVeblen, you live in IL…Chicago, perhaps? I’m wondering if my local branch does what yours does.
Stoid, what did you end up doing with your magazines?
**
Another good place is the local Urgent Care or doctor’s office… I get weekly allergy shots and luckily, a fellow patient donates her already-read magazines.
My brother is in a group home and it is sector of society that is even sadder than nursing homes, if that is possible. Adults trapped in their bodies from accidents or genetic problems and are virtual prisoners. (At least in nursing homes the people probably lived years and years without any health problems)
I take all my magazines to his group home. Maxim is exceptionally popular.
When I lived at school, I was always trying to get my mom to forward me all her magazines when she was done with them, and she never would. It was quite annoying. I"m trying to make friends with somebody who subscribes to Martha Stewart Living or Real Simple or a home decorating magazine so they can forward their old copies to me, as I am too cheap and too unemployed to buy subscriptions (although I would gladly pay for shipping for a box of magazines every couple of months or so).
Schools are a great idea. Art classes often use mags for ideas (animals, people, etc…). I remember using ancient Ranger Rick mags for animal photos during art class at uni just a few years back - the school was desperate for magazines.
Nursing homes, shelters (for battered women, homeless, etc) all are appreciative of donations.
Oh yeah… I remember when I bought my first house in Wyoming. It had a detached garage. Noticed the walls were cardboarded. After doing some looking around, saw that behind the cardboard were tons of magazines that had been used for insulation… go figure. Even in January and February at -30 degrees the garage was tolerable… It worked…
