I kind of do the same thing. My mom and grandma had lots of magazines and loose patterns, to organize and eliminate trash I started to go through them with her to select the patterns that she likes and throw out all the ad pages. I put them into plastic sheet protectors that have the 3 hole punch and then put into a three ring bnder. I try to put the picture side facing out. then if she wants a certain pattern she just pulls it out of the plastic sheet and then can slide back in when done.
I do like the rolodex file idea for the patterns that you have saved the whole magazine!