You should never underestimate the helpfulness of Meridian readers.

Last week when I asked readers what to do with their old church magazines, I expected I'd get a half dozen responses and have an easy week this week. Ha! There is a box full of letters — enough for at least two weeks of columns on the subject, rather than the one skimpy column I had expected. Let's see what our creative recyclers had to say.

What a timely topic!  Looking at the large basket full of Ensigns at the end of my couch this weekend, I had this very conversation with myself.  Realizing that the space in the garage that holds the remains of the last times I have sorted the basket is taking up more than its fair share of room, I have almost decided to:

1. Donate them (where?),
2. Leave them lying around the break room at work (stacks and piles of them), or
3. Put them in the recycling bin (all those lovely pictures and stories). 

Now I have the perfect excuse to wait on that project to see if anyone comes up with a better plan.  Lead me, guide me, walk beside me!

Tess in Las Vegas

Your wish is my command, Tess. These suggestions are bound to help you!

It does seem almost sacrilegious to destroy old copies of Church magazines! There must be so many people who would benefit from them. For instance, what about donating them to a prison or correctional facility? What about libraries, nursing homes, or other institutions where reading material is in demand? Sounds like this might be a pretty simple way to share the gospel!

Kathy Grant
Gilroy, California

A prison or correctional facility seems like a terrific idea, Kathy. You've got a captive audience there (no pun intended!), and they may be much more likely to read magazines than would people who are caught up in the frenetic pace of daily life.

I keep all my Church magazines at home for one year and then bring them to the meetinghouse library for members to use at the end of January of the next year.   I keep the special issues, like the recent one on Jesus Christ, in my personal library.

Roni from Philippines

Thanks for writing, Roni. It's always good to hear from people in far-flung parts of the world so we can remember that no matter where we are, there are church members who are leading similar lives to the ones we live.

On behalf of the American men and women fighting on behalf of our freedoms and liberty over here in Iraq we send you and your Meridian readers greetings and best wishes from the City of Baghdad!     

Here is what I would recommend doing with those old Ensign, Friend, New Era magazines:

1. Donate them to the waiting rooms of hospitals, doctor's offices, dentist offices, senior retirement centers, car repair centers, vet offices, or public/school libraries, and so on.  These make good reading materials and also are a great missionary tool.
2. Give these magazines to new member converts, inactive members, part member, and even Golden Contact Investigator families who may not have access to computers and the Internet. 
3. See if the local branch, ward, or stake library can use these church magazines for reference materials.
4. Send these magazines to church members serving in the military overseas.  Military members love mail and news from the Church. 
5. Old church magazines make excellent enrichment resource materials for Sacrament meeting talks, Sunday School lessons, Priesthood lessons, Relief Society lessons, Primary lessons, Primary talks, Young Women lessons, and so on.  Go through each church magazine and pull out talks, pictures, quotes, and other valuable information from each magazine.  Set up files in your filing cabinet and place the various articles and pictures in them.  For example, set up files for Joseph Smith, Faith, Family History,
   Repentance, Visiting Teaching, and other topics  Then when you or your kids need to
   prepare for a church lesson or talk, you have resources already to go to. And you can also use these files when preparing for your weekly Family Home Evening lessons also!  This way you have handy resources at your fingertips.
6. Use these magazines as a resource when helping new immigrants learning to read and understand English who have emigrated here from other countries.  Many libraries and schools also have a great need for people who can help teach, tutor others, and help them learn how to read English better. There are tons of short stories and articles in the
   various church magazines that can be used to help others learn how to read. 
7. Take them to church members who are shut ins, disabled, elderly people, members in hospitals, members unable to purchase the magazines, and others. 
8. Set up a table in the chapel foyer and have members bring their old magazines and issues of the Church News and set them on there.  Then allow other members to take them as needed.  
9. What about just saving these old church magazines and storing them safely and well protected somewhere?  In 20 years, 50 years, 75 years, 100 years or longer these church magazines will become antiques, collectables, and will allow our family descendants to see just what type of church magazines we utilized in our time.  For example, just think how much an original copy of the first edition of the Book of Mormon is now worth!   
10. Use these church magazines as giveaway items on a table at church open houses, especially when we invite in investigators or the general public to come to our church. 

David Schory
Baghdad LDS Servicemen's Group, Baghdad, Iraq

PS.  Do something great and wonderful for the men and women in your branch, ward, and stake serving in the military overseas!  Send them a one year subscription of either the church magazine or the Church News !

Here is a photo attached of our LDS Service Man's Group in the International Zone, Baghdad, Iraq. These are just some of the modern-day Stripling Warriors protecting American liberty, freedom, and democracy over here — and also helping to build a safer democratic Iraq for tomorrow! Click to Enlarge. 

Thanks for writing, David, and thanks for the picture. We'll just have to guess which one of these handsome fellows is you.

Here's a list of things to do with church magazines:

• Find someone who doesn't get them and give them away.
• Check if nursing homes want them. See the activity director, who might make collages of them — or just take the pictures.
• Leave one on a bus, or park bench or other public place. You never know who will pick them up and read them! (Don't put too many on benches. It's littering!)
• Take out the pictures, to file in a box you make to use for FHE lessons, talks, Primary, collages, and so on. FILE, not pile!
• Keep some of the most important articles in a file, as it works to lend a few pages to someone interested — and when you ask for them to be returned, you get to ask how they felt about the article!
• Put bunches of the small pictures in envelopes, to lend as quiet packets for kids sitting around you in at church.
• Make a larger "quiet book" using pictures in plastic page protectors for your grandkids or share at church.
• Frame some of your favorite pictures.
• Make a collage of those pictures you love, to decorate your home. Let your grandkids or neighbor kids make collages to put on their walls.
• Keep a box of kids' magazines, to put in a quiet bag for your grandkids' visits.
• Keep the New Era by/under the bed where grandkids will sleep when they visit your house.
• Send some on "missions" to missionaries from your ward, or just the pictures in plastic page protectors for their walls.
• Put them in a box each time you have a garage sale and write "free — with no advertisements" on it. These magazines are missionaries!
• Take some to work and ASK coworkers if they would like to have them take some old ones on airplane trips, reread and then offer the magazine to seat mates to keep (missionary work!).

Jane Wadsworth
Oakely, Idaho

Great ideas, Jane. It never occurred to me to give them to missionaries from our ward, but they may not have copies of their own to read. You've got some other terrific suggestions, too!

I too love my Ensign and have stacks and stacks, but finally there comes a time that we could do something good with them. I suggest as we have many friends that once in a while you find an article that could help one of our friends in their lives and we could show them the article and give them the book to keep. We love our friends too and we could share with them the wonderful magazines we have. Just a suggestion.

Zan Toledo

It's an excellent idea, Zan, to read the magazines with an eye toward friends whose lives may be touched by specific articles, and then giving them away with for that reason. Yet another idea I'd never thought of!

[One hour later] Okay. The missionaries assigned to our ward just showed up, and I told them about the idea of giving people an issue that has an article relating to something going on in their lives. Sister Risley from Oregon said, “One down. One thousand to go.”

Hey — as far as I'm concerned, even getting rid of them one at a time is a step in the right direction.

Since the Ensign articles went online I've started the liberation of a lot of shelf-space by saving a file of useful art and particular articles that have been important to me and chucking out what's left.  The official church art library is actually very limited for all the different topics and stories in the scriptures, so it's really handy to have the many paintings of additional events in them that are published in the magazines to use as visual aids in lessons. 

There were also some fantastic photo essays on church history sites like the Kirtland Temple in the late 1970's, which you just can't find anywhere else, and frustratingly the photos on the church website are shown very small and can't be enlarged. 

Older Ensigns tended to have more intellectual and educational series on topics like the Protestant Reformers and early translations of the Bible. These are a really good read and particularly helpful now the new missionary discussions begin with a large emphasis on the Apostasy, which is thoroughly documented historical territory rather than the doctrinal issues we are usually well informed about and confident discussing. 

We need to really know what we're talking about beyond shallow generalisations about Christianity collapsing in chaos in the Middle Ages or reasonable well-informed Christians will have us for breakfast.  Articles like those are a great starting point to help us raise our game. 
 
Peter Bleakley
Welling Ward, England

Not wanting to be someone's breakfast, I really appreciate your suggestions, Peter. As someone who has a great need for church-related artwork (for Meridian covers), I can attest to the lack of photos in the church website. Until the church website gets up to speed (with better sized art and a bigger variety of it, along with copyright information), going through old church magazines could be a big help.

I had over 10 years worth of Ensigns , New Eras and Friend when I needed to clean them out and I didn't want to throw them away like I had in the past.

This time around I spent a couple of nights going through each magazine and tearing out pictures that could be used by my married kids for their own "Gospel Art Kit." I saved the Mormon Ads for possible lesson helps for FHE or any calling. Last year we used them at girls' camp. We put them in plastic covers and hung them all over the cabin, even changing them daily.

I saved the short scripture stories with pictures and the game pages from the Friend magazine and sent those to my kids for quiet Sunday activities for the grandkids. When my kids were Primary age we always photocopied the game pages so each child could do the page, it saved a lot of bickering. By the time I was done tearing stuff out that we could all use, there wasn't much left to throw out.

Sherri
Michigan

Inspirational posters for girls' camp is a new one on me, Sherri — and it's an excellent idea. Thanks for sending it!

I feel the same special attachment to the Ensign magazine and for years they filled my bookcases in covered soap boxes.  Since they are now all available on the internet I have finally realized that the bookcase can be used for books.  Now I save one year of the magazines and then thumb through the old ones to see if there are any pictures that are worth saving since the internet has only text and not pictures.  Usually the inside of the front and back covers have beautiful pictures which I file in my Gospel Arts picture kit to use at home or in a class.

Best of both worlds in Midland, Michigan 

Thanks for writing, Michigan. Those inside covers are photographic treasure troves. I appreciate the reminder!

A very wise daughter of mine taught me something about paper.  I have a habit of taking notes in church meetings, and then never wanting to throw the paper away, because it has a scripture reference on it. My daughter said, “It is a reminder; it is not sacred.  When you're done with it, throw it away.”

The same idea applies to Church magazines.  I once prided myself on having a copy of every single issue — until I realized that not even meetinghouse libraries keep them for more than 8 or 10 years, and the librarians tell me that there is less and less call for them (in this area, anyway), because everything is available online.  Someone else is storing it for me!

I may keep Conference issues for several months, but I do not keep most issues more than a month or two past their publication time.  I live along the Wasatch Front, so there are not a lot of places to provide a second life that do not already have access to the magazines.  When we lived out of state, I could sometimes find nursing homes, hospitals, or care facilities that would take the old issues.  But not even the Deseret Industries wants back copies — they have more than they can use, too!

I have no problem recycling other magazines — not even the National Geographic.  And now, since I have allowed myself to realize that all of the information is still available to me because of the Internet, and that having several years' worth of Church Magazines in my storage is not provident living, I recycle mine.

Maggie in Utah

Thanks for giving us permission to get rid of these, Maggie. You have a wise daughter. It has taken me mumblety-mumble years to understand the freedom of getting rid of things we are no longer using. How smart of her to have learned it at a young age!

I go through my magazines about twice a year.  Since we get the Friend , New Era , and the Ensign , our magazine rack starts to really look full about halfway through the year.  I too hate just throwing them away.  I do take comfort in knowing they have been well loved and read more than once by all of us. 

This surely won't solve the problem when so many magazines pile up, but the last time I went through them, this is what we did to get one last use out of them.

Our family sat around the table and cut pictures out for a family poster.  We were creating a “dream board” of what we want for our family.  We have pictures of families kneeling in prayer together, attending church, reading scriptures, playing games, and so on.  Our poster is embellished with captions and we have it posted in our family room to help remind us of our goals.  We'll do this the next time we clean out the magazines as well.  But answer me this — how do we dispose of the poster now without any guilt?  Just kidding!

Shannon R.
Las Vegas, Nevada

What a great idea, Shannon! And in case you really do decide to dispose of that poster, our next two readers will tell you how to do it:

Since we can get all past issues online, I only save two years' worth, then send them to the recycle bin.  It is much easier to look at back issues online.

Theresa Parkinson
Leader Saskatchewan, Canada

**

Over the years I have done many things with old church magazines depending on where we were living at the time and the ages of our children. I have donated them to Deseret Industries, given specific issues to friends (member and non-member) or put them in the recycle bin. I have cut them up to use the pictures for Family Home Evening, church callings and for quiet books for sacrament meeting. I have cut out selected articles to give to friends, mail to missionaries or file for myself for future use. Having the magazines available online and as podcasts has made me feel confident that I can revisit a great article or talk if I want.

Arnon from Arizona

That's the ticket, Theresa and Arnon. If you put the magazines (or Shannon's family poster!) in the recycling bin, your decluttering can help save a tree. Mega cool.

Yesterday for sharing time I put together a collage of families doing things together to illustrate how families strengthen each other. All the pictures were removed from old Ensign and Era , which is what I have saved them for. The Primary kids like to see new illustrations because the blue box of Church pictures are used over and over

Primary Teacher

You make a good point, Primary, about children wanting to see new pictures instead of same-old, same-old. I once babysat a girl who couldn't have been older than four. She sat mesmerized by a cartoon show. When a particular Bugs Bunny cartoon came on, she rolled her eyes and said, “Not that one again!”

Children are smarter than we give them credit for. They get eye fatigue just as we do. If we can find fresh ways to illustrate old concepts, they'll be a lot more likely to pay attention to the lesson than they will if we give them artwork they've already seen a hundred times.

As a frequent business traveler (I am an airline pilot), I save up my Church News to read "on the road." Then I leave them behind for the maids to see when I leave my hotel room. I have left them in hotels in Europe, India, Japan, Dubai, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Australia, and so on. I do the same with the Ensigns , though I do hang on to the Conference issues for a year or two. 

Bill Toft
Memphis, Tennessee

You make a good point about the hotel rooms, Bill. Speaking of air travel, I used to think about leaving copies of the Book of Mormon on planes, until I saw how thoroughly those planes are cleaned after every flight. The same is true for airport waiting areas. But leaving magazines in hotel rooms may have better success. Thanks for the suggestion!

Good grief!  Put the magazines out with the recycling and enjoy the new space on your shelves.  There is no sin in recycling paper, no matter what's written on it.  I save the conference issues because we use them in Relief Society for Teachings for Our Times on the fourth Sunday.  Other than that, once read and when the new Ensign comes, the previous month's Ensign goes into the recycle bin with the newspapers.  No guilt at all. 

The Friend , on the other hand, is full of such good ideas and activities, that THAT'S the magazine I have a difficult time getting rid of. 

Yours for less emotional attachment to our things,

Linnea Capps
Damascus Ward, Frederick Maryland Stake

**

I throw mine away without a second thought.  We are taught to have a house of order and I can't have any chance of that if I give in to my packrat tendencies.  Even before they were on-line I just kept the current month and the conference issue until a new conference issues replaced it.

Taking care of my home has been a constant struggle in my life and learning to let go of clutter has blessed me immensely.  Subscribing to www.flylady.net has helped me along more than I ever thought possible.

Liz in Santa Monica

I just love these letters that give us permission to throw the magazines away. A dear friend just cleaned out my office, and for the first time in six years I can see my floor. A lot of us need permission to throw a lot of things away. It's a liberating concept. Thanks, Linnea and Liz!

Here's someone who agrees with me about my newfound lesson in freedom from clutter:

This topic has come up several times in discussions with my family and this is what we decided to do. Because of the internet and lds.org we feel we are able to access any talk that we are interested in or want to go back to and read. And because there is a search engine in lds.org, you can certainly find the talk you are looking for much faster than thumbing through thousands of magazines. 

There are some issues of the Ensign that I keep for a couple of years and that's the Conference issues. I go back and read them over and over again so they can be saved for a while. I've noticed that our church house library doesn't even save church magazines anymore. The internet really has changed a lot of things!

I have become very mindful of clutter in the last few years and getting rid of thousands of magazines was very freeing.

Valerie from Riverton

Well said, Valerie. Thanks!

I spent many evenings this winter cutting or tearing out pictures, select stories, and activities from the Friend , New Era , and the Ensign to put in loose-leaf notebooks for each of the families of my children for their children's use during church meetings.  Since I had all the issues from 1972, it took hours and hours but I certainly didn't feel guilty because they were being put to good use!

Carla from Colorado

Great idea, Carla! And if you would move back to Virginia, I might even help you next time you start a project like that. You are missed.

I accumulated and held onto Church magazines for years — including schlepping them through various cross-country moves — thinking that some day they might come in handy. Then, preparing for yet another move, I realized I had never used them. So I threw them all out. Never missed them.

Since then, the Church has made all articles from the Ensign , New Era , and Friend — going all the way back to 1971 — available and searchable online, and so there is no real reason to hold onto these issues for any given length of time (my wife and I tend to only keep roughly 6-12 months of back issues), unless you're the type to cut them up for scrapbooking/presentation reasons. In fact, if you're willing to wait and/or you're environmentally concerned, you don't have to subscribe to the Church magazines at all — you can simply read them online. 

Bruce F. Webster
Parker, Colorado

Bruce, I like your idea of not even subscribing to the magazines, but reading them online.  My own subscription to the Ensign sits around the house still wrapped in plastic.  I may be better off reading them online, because my life is spent at the computer instead of on a sofa where I would do the magazine reading.

Okay. That's it for this week. We've got tons of letters to continue this column, so take the time you would have spent writing letters about church magazines, and instead go follow some of the suggestions for recycling yours. Your house will be happier for it.

Until next week — Kathy

Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct;
they are matters of education, and like most great things,
you must cultivate a taste for them.

Benjamin Disraeli