Last week, I was doing a little spring cleaning of my apartment, when I came to a corner of my living room floor that I rarely touch or give a second though to. It’s simply a place to throw the magazines I swear I’ll get to reading someday.

It never fails though. Months (and months) go by and I haven’t given a glance to more than the cover of them. There’s Rolling Stone, Real Simple, Glamour, InStyle, Newsweek and who knows what else.

Part of the routine of piling them on the floor though has to do with what comes after the few months of them being there. It’s a simple little tip that’s more about reusing before recycling. Whether you really love to chill on the couch pouring over the pages between the glossy covers, or you, like me, tend to relish in the idea of having them there, “just in case,” give them a longer life!

For the past year, my coworkers have probably wondered who contributes the stacks of half a dozen Rolling Stones at a time to the pile of someone else’s issues of Entertainment Weekly in the break room. Well, mystery solved. It’s Miss Jacquelyn.

Recycling is so key, of course. But there must be something that made you pick of that Good Housekeeping or GQ. So why not share it? While some of the content may get stale, the pages are not. And honestly, a lot of the content is just as interesting, entertaining or important as it was a couple months ago.

So before you recycle those magazines, why not give them a longer life and share the information that’s in them? If you work somewhere that has a break room for employees, dump them off there. Or think about who might be able to use the magazines you have. Those pricey hairstyle magazines? How about taking them to your salon the next time you stop in for a new look?

Or check with doctors’ offices. You’d be hard pressed to find a doctor’s office where you wouldn’t have time to flip through a magazine or two, and many are glad to take them off your hands. It’s less they have to pay for too.

If you’d rather cut straight to the recycling, consider something more creative than the usual. Contact elementary schools or art centers and see if they have any use for the pages. I know of some teachers who even check with doctors’ offices for old magazines they can have for projects. We might as well help them out, either by giving them to the offices for patients to peruse first, or by taking them directly to the teachers.

These are such simple tips, but make so much sense. And that’s kind of the point. It seems to me that if we’re going to print the magazines, we might as well use them for all they’re worth.