Update January 2018: I have written a follow up article on this on different ways to store the newspaper clippings: 

How to Organize Newspaper or Magazine articles that you wish to read later

Some of us like to preserve old newspaper articles. After reading, we feel that some articles may be too good for the recycle bin and so we set aside the article for ‘future reference’.

As time pass by, these ‘useful’ articles quickly work themselves up to a little nasty stack in the corner. Effectively, they become an eye-sore and when we want to look up some articles, we are confronted by a huge collection of paper that are fast turning yellow.

Newspaper clippings that I was saving for later

Stacked newspaper becomes clutter and is not a conductive item in your living space. Reason being is that they tend to attract dust, some insects, smell and well…stagnant and negative energy. I have even tried to cut them out and stick them to printed business prospectus- but after a while, they have a stale smell.

Even though you do not believe in feng shui or positive energies, just ask yourself, do you feel re-energized looking at that stack of paper each time?

Untidiness and disorganized objects create chaos- and when we look at them, somehow it makes our mind more muddled and less confused. So I would like to make a suggestion for those of you who feel you must have some kind of record to store expired newspaper articles:

Start a blog and record it

Most major newspaper have online versions that you can google and refer back to them again. I read The Star, the Malaysian local paper and have no problem finding the online versions- except for the few instances when there’re not there.

Last month, I decided to clear out the stacks of newspaper that I have been keeping for a while. I did the following:

1. Logon to Blogger.com and create a new blog called http://resource-ideas.blogspot.com/
2. Take out each stack of my articles, and google them- usually type the paper name and the first few lines or the title or article- and they usually appear in the search results
3. Put into neat little categories- you may add a few lines to briefly explain the article to freshen your memories
4. As the title got longer, you may create sub-titles of your favourite topics under different posts. So about once a week or a month, you can reupdate the blog with new entries and delete old ones.

Neat right? I cleared piles of newspaper articles that way. I actually felt mentally lighter and even a little victorious after getting rid of the pile that had became everyone’s eyesore.

You can also use the blog to record online articles that you came across while surfing the net. With neat little categories, it makes it much easier to search for items that you want.

Hope this help in the battle against clutter and a more paperless living.