I have started doing this also...after collecting magazines for years...I have been going through them and tearing out what I want, then they get passed amongst a group of friends who also tear out of the magazines, and then if there are still patterns left in the magazine, they go to the next guild meeting, or if nothing left but ads, the magazines get recycled.
The only magazines I am now keeping whole are "special additions" like the quilt shop magazines, totes and bags issue, the new primitive quilt magazine, and most of the Quilts and More magazines as I love just about everything in them, and too hard to tear out with different patterns on each side of pages....may as well keep the whole magazines!