Real Simple Magazine

This is a nice magazine but it is most definitely not a magazine about green issues.  It has nothing to do with living a simple life.  It is using the word simple as in making your life easy.  It is very much a traditional magazine along the lines of "O" and "Hallmark".

I received a free trial of this magazine, and after thumbing through the pages of several issues searching for "content," the end result was that I felt like I had been watching TV infomercials and channel-surfing while eating air-puffed cheetos. Unsatisfying and a time-sink.

I used to have a subscription to this years ago. I was attracted to it because it was aesthetically pleasing and I love to read anything home related. I liked it for a while but eventually cancelled the subscription because I felt that it wasn't really promoting simple living at all. As others have pointed out, most articles are suggesting to buy a bunch of stuff. With that said, I have found some extremely useful tips in it that did not require a purchase and have used them. But the majority of the content is advertising so I had to let this go. I pick it up  and have a look at it when in line at the grocery store though.

Truth be told, I've only looked at two Real Simple magazines...but truth be told, that's all I need to see.  First of all, if I want a print magazine (which by nature uses a fair amount of resources in terms of paper and ink, as well as shipping emissions), I don't want it to be jam packed with ads. Real Simple is thick.  And full of ads.  But it's funny...I have a hard time telling which is an ad and which is an "article" because the articles are basically about buying stuff to keep it "simple."  Now...I don't mind reading magazines about consumption.  I admit it, I'll read Vogue to look at the pretty clothes.  But I really can't stand the fact that simplicity in this case is all about buying stuff.