I have used many reasons for hoarding many many copies of many many mags (The Word, Q, Uncut & Mojo among others):

They will become collectors items and I will cash in big-time. This has never happened;

I will dig old editions out and read them fondly with the benefit of hindsight highly amused/saddened/disappointed/surprised by the turn of history in the interim. I have never done this;

I will spend hours of time discussing my hoard with my like-minded chums (or perfect strangers up the pub)gleefully exchanging tales of the most memorable features/reviews/letters to the editor. Nah.

It will impress gorgeous young women I meet and invite to my emporium of musical memories on a Saturday night. Throws head back and laughs the laugh of the man who.....

Help me........

I used to have Q from my late teens, it was the first English magazine I read, but I threw them away. Hold often do you want to read old articles proclaiming Liam to be a golden god?

Also had old issues of Uncut. At the same time we grew tired of each other The Word showed up in my hometown and the case was solved.

I pass mine on to people who say they can't find them where they live. Word goes to a friend in Indiana, Fortean Times goes to an attorney in Kentucky, and World Explorer goes to my secretary's son in Ohio. It feels like I'm spreading the good books all over the country.

But living in a small terrace house in Reading for the best part of 10 years made me value space over clutter!

Rather than recycling, you could pass them on to someone who could get use/value out of them. Some of mine went to the local GP surgery and others to the Oxfam record shop - the latter seemed happy to take all my old copies of Select and Word and put them out for sale at 49p each. Now I'm in Dunedin (NZ) and there is a deposit box near the public library that asks for used books and magazines for seafarers - they recently got the first 12 months of my overseas subscription editions.

Almost complete, but to be honest I agree with The Californian - they need to go I guess.

If you are a subscriber you get sent an electronic copy. Read the paper copy, recycle to best friend or surgery waiting room and file the electronic copy somewhere safe for future reference. Hey presto! No clutter.

About 10 years ago, I gave all my Qs /Empires / Mojos to Cancer Research because I finally realised that keeping several huge piles of magazines which I would never read again was a bit silly. It was liberating, and they seemed to get rid of them at £1 ish.

I keep The Word for a few months - there's often something I want to go back to. Then I pass it on to friends or it goes in the recycling. Same for Uncut - although it doesn't usually keep for as long. I pass Private Eye on to my mum.

I subscribe to Autosport and The Word and buy a number of other titles intermittently. I tend to just chuck them in the recycling or leave them on the bus or train in the hope that someone else will pick it up and enjoy it. Of course, you may say that counts as littering, but there are usually about 100 copies of the Metro strewn around so it makes little difference.

but I've kept the first few issues of Q and Mojo.

I've kept all of my copies of The Word, naturally. In fact I liberated some hardback book sleeves from work which are now functioning as Word binders. I might paint the logo on the sides so they look extra flash...

'Nuts' back issues.
But I recycle 'Zoo' - the articles don't bear a second read.

Viz goes in the recycling bin. I don't hoard stuff. I hate clutter.

Blimey.. Is that all I read now magazine-wise? It must be. Blimey.

Each month I buy Word, Q, Empire, and (blushes) FHM. As I finish them I stick them in a small pile, and then pass the pile on to my dad, who enjoys them. He then passes them onto another of my family sometimes, or just puts them into the recycle bin.

is a full of my wifes clutter. Material, magazines from Oprah to Homes and Gardens, beads, buttons, various sewing paraphenalia, clothes, books on patchworking, Cath Kidston, fucking Cath Kidston and her twee floral shite, more clothes, more material, ornaments, russian dolls, then there's the kids stuff, loft and shed full to bursting, her sewing corner overflows so much she can't fucking see her sewing machine never mind fucking sew, so don't talk to me about clutter! I have a corner with my pink guitar (does it make sense now?) my books and a shelf for current magazines that when full is emptied ready for the next half dozen or so. And relax...........

I'm afraid of confronting the superhuman piles of magazines in storage boxes around the remaining cubby holes in our house.
I think the GLW blames them (and the CDs, records and, particularly, the books) for the expensive need to extend an already comfortably appointed home for three people.
So if you want various Celtic Views (O'Neill era), Pro Cycling, Cycle Sport, Cycling Weekly (last three years), Uncut (up to about 2003), assorted Mojo/ Face/ Loaded/ GQ/ Wired, contact me.
If you want a huge volume of early era Q, well my oul fella has reliably informed me there's a full set in the loft of his house he couldn't come to throw out.
Wonder where I get it from?
That precludes the mountains of newspaper clippings... don't start.

I used to keep a chest full of old NMEs, Select, Vox in my folks attic but had to recycle those when they 'downsized' a few years ago since there was no space for them at my place. I never looked at them anyway, just putting off deciding what to do with the darn things. I've no qualms about sending old mags to the blue bin now. I do keep a small handful, and might hang on to some of my Word Subscriber editions.

Now what I'm amazed about with all this talk of crisis in print media is that Magazines make so little use of their archives on-line. Being a relative latecomer, I'd happily pay a small fee to for e-editions of old Word's so I could catch up with the ones I missed or look up an old article...anyone else?

Read then bin. Get over it.

so therefore I am totally justified in holding on to my complete MOJO collection.

Also, sometimes I pull out the issue from exactly 10 years ago and see what's lasted. The answer as usual is not much.

I did throw out all my Keyboard magazines a couple of years ago. Haven't missed them at all

PS I only discovered Word about a year ago and they are collectibly collecting themselves on the shelf below Mojo.

This is less of a problem than it used to be as I realised the other day that, apart from my 3 subscriptions, I haven't bought a magazine since Borders shut down.
In the next couple of days the company I "work" for is installing machines that scan to a pdf as easily and, according to the brochures, as quickly as photocopying so I'm seriously considering slicing the spine off a few magazines and putting them in the sheetfeeder before dropping the mags in the recycle bin. I foolishly bought a handscanner back in about 1992 (DOS only!) with the intention of digitising and OCRing all my old NMEs!!! I think I was a bit ahead of my time, The future may now have arrived

when you actually work in magazines? My professional life is measured out in nearly 200 gently curling issues of the same title. I could never throw them out.

What does Mr Hepworth do? Are there vast continents of Smash Hits, Q and The Word tottering in sunless corners of his house?

That's how I foubnd my way here. a friend from the local used to pass his read copy to me. I now subscribe and do the same.

.

.

Doh!

Well it looks like I'm certainly not alone in this situation.

Using a bit of sense and objectivity leads me to the less than startling conclusion that these accursed things have to go once read. That leaves space for more music. Have you seen my vinyl collection? Now there's a worry.

with Q and Mojo and Empire et al from the 80s and 90s. I'm getting them down this Easter and, after a leaf through, am going to stick them in the VI form Common Room of the school I work in. No reading material in there at all, shockingly; mind you, I'm not sure that those cluttered Q covers of the early days will go down that well. Seem to remember Hucknall's mug dominating one in the first year or so.

I send my copies of The Word to the Editor of Q, so show them what a quality read looks like!

I'm afraid to say that Word, like everything else, goes into the recycle bin once read. I live in a two-up-two-down which isn't substantially wider than me, so I can't really afford any clutter.