Several years ago, I went through all my magazines that were older than 3 years old and started pulling patterns. I put them in plastic sleeves and filed them alphabetically - seven 3" binders later -- I also made a list of them on my excel program on my computer (do that with my quilt books too) and that does make it easier sometimes to find the pattern I am looking for. However, I will never used all those patterns and now the magazines have been destroyed. Now, I am binding my magazines together (FedEx shop does them) by year. If there are some patterns that say to download for more information, I do that and include it in the group. I like being able to pull a years' worth of my Fons and Porter magazine down and look through it. I think it helps the magazines last longer, my tastes do change over the years and I can lay them flat on a copier when I want to copy a pattern. I copy my pattern and keep it with my sewing project to protect the original copy. I can write notes on it as I go along and decide later what to transfer to the original in the binder.