I have all of my magazines stored by magazine and date. I'm getting quite a collection, and have decided to stop renewing subscriptions, and only get a couple now, and those will soon end. Any time I need a quilting magazine "fix", I go on something like eBay and buy a collection for cheap. Have gotten magazines that have gone out of business years ago -- lots of fun there!
When I see a project I'd like to do, I take a photo of it with my phone, and then transfer it into I-Photo on my computer. There's a place for both name and description under each photo. I use that to save the name of the pattern and magazine, and the date. Since I have everything stored in order of issue, it's not hard to go back and find the pattern.
My I-Photo pictures have their own folder, and they are organized according to type: bed quilt, lap quilt, wall quilt, baby quilt, table runners, decor and "other". To check out the projects, I just need to scan my I-Photo and look at all the photos!
My husband says that this is "obsessive-compulsive" behavior. I just think I'm well organized. LOL!