Help me manage my hubby's medical journals/stuff

[Amy@STL]

My hubby is a physician and gets tons of stuff in mail, many of which are a *requirement* in his career to keep uptodate. He hardly gets time to read them,but meanwhile my home is constantly clutterted with periodicals, journals, huge stacks of printouts, etc.
I want to put them away somewhere hidden but acessible to him and something which won't be an eyesore. We live in apartment (with a new baby whose stuff is rapidly taking up room). Ideas please?

Much Thanks!

[Crayfish]

I'd suggest starting big rather than risking starting too small: How about a four-drawer filing cabinet just for his reading material? A wooden one would look fine almost anywhere. Four drawers might sound excessive (or maybe not) but that way you could divide into categories - such as:

- New stuff that needs to be sorted into the "stuff to read" system.
- The "stuff to read" system, for stuff that's waiting to be read.
- Old stuff that's been read and is aging for a month or six until it's recycled.
- Old stuff that's been read but is good enough to be worth keeping for long-term reference.

Or something like that.

Crayfish

[zoebird]

i would suggest a good filing/library styled system. magazine boxes are great. as soon as one comes through the door, you put it in the appropriate box. print outs, go in a box of print outs, preferably by subject matter.

i teach yoga, and while i have no similar legal requirement, we do tend to build libraries. so, it goes something like this:

Magazine subscriptions: Ascent, Yoga Journal, Yoga Living, Shambhala Sun, Tricycle.
Articles in subjects: Philosophy, Postures, Breathwork, Meditation, Misc.

i got a bunch of magazine boxes like yuo can get at ikea or an office supply shop. they are flat packed, so pretty easy to store, and i got them on sale for very little. Then, i went through and put each kind of magazine in it's box, in order by month. then i put the articles in their boxes. put them on book shelves. everything nice and neat, everything labelled and easy to get to.

also, i would store old old issues--as in, from 3-4 years ago or whatever) in my closet up high. i still had them, but they were out of sight.

[lovemyblessings]

Not sure if this is helpful, but my husband is a physician as well and we don't keep anything. He has a few journals that are sent to his office, and everything else CME related is done online. We used to have journals coming out of our ears, though.

[ASusan]

First, I would try to get everything work-related out of the home - to his office. If he's not finding time to read it at home, why keep it there? After that, I would have a designated space for work-related material. Limit it to a bookcase, shelf, closet...depends on the size of your whole house. Don't let work-related things pile up or even exist in family space. I would put a time-limit on the paper material in the home (or in visible space, not packed away). Like, 3 months. Most journals come out 4 times a year, so that would keep the most recent issue out where DH can read it. After that, it goes into storage or his office or...out of SIGHT.
Most journal articles can be found online, so do you need to keep the physical copies at home?

[Amy@STL]

Thank you ladies. I like the suggestions about keeping office stuff out of home!!! Why didn't that occur to me?
I am going to buy a filing cabinet as well. I am eager to put your advice to work!

[chickiebabe]

I second not keeping any physical copies longer than a week or two. I'm a physician and I stopped storing my journals at least 5 years ago.

I immediately toss the junk mail and "journals" - at least 80% of what I get in professional mail is still junk. The journals that I keep up with I stack neatly on the corner of my work desk. If I can't read them at work, I put in my bag and bring home to read. Once it's read, I toss it.

I no longer even take out articles to file and save. It's easy to find an article online if I need to access it again. I'd encourage you to push him to keep only a small neat stack of journals that he needs to read now - just like the rest of life, he has to keep up with "today's work today" because otherwise he will drown in the clutter. I have truly lost weeks of my life trying to tame the paper clutter of journals (not reading them, just managing them) and this system works great for me without compromising my continuing ed.

[hteb83]

Magazine boxes! (Mine are from ikea)

I have lots of journals too - the weekly ones get read and then recycled, the monthly ones put on a shelf until I get chance to read them, and usually kept for about 6 months - 1 year.

[zmom2010]

The biggest thing that has helped me is to sign up to get all the journals electronically, and not in the mail. This allows me to put them in a separate email file if I don't have time to read them right away. MOST of the journals do have electronic volumes now and you don't necessariy (depending on your state) have to keep paper copies.

My home files include: all license requirements (continuing education proof, license renewal card copies, NPI numbers, etc)

Then I also have a legal file for things like malpractice coverage information, coverage proof sheet, legal updates, etc.

A file for all the credentialing information (workers comp, CAQH, Medicare #, private insurance stuff)

Maybe this will help a little. But, your husband is going to have to help you "group" things if you don't know right away.

BTW: I toss all "offers" almost immediately.

Good luck!

[Masel]

I was the assistant in a medical specality library up until 10 months ago. I agree that a lot of the journals he needs are online and he should have access though the organization that publishes the journal or through a professional organization that he might belong to. A key bit of information for obtaining online access is sometimes on the mailing label. It might be useful to keep a file of subscriptions and online access passwords etc. This can also help distinguish from the unwanted journals sent on spec.

If he wants to keep a few print journals for reading on trips fill one magazine box. When a new issue arrives the oldest one goes. (I was going to say on public transport but I see you are in STL like me. LOL)

There is usually a limited time to do continuing eduction related to a journal. Six months to two years.

My DH is a chemical engineer and was keeping two weekly journals. I know how this can be. I hated to maintain his journals since that was my day job. The crazy thing no is stuff from his alma maters which he sees as networking potential.