Real Simple (1-year auto-renewal)

Product Description

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A few years ago, many women realized they were stressed out, carrying too many responsibilities, and working too hard both at work and at home. These women decided to make their lives simpler. Real Simple magazine focuses on the simple lifestyle movement. With articles about easier ways to care for your home, your family, and yourself, its goal is to make your life smoother and stress-free while introducing you to the best ideas and products.

Real Simple magazine's philosophy of simplicity is reflected in its layout style. Clean, uncluttered pages allow you to focus on articles and ideas. You'll find articles about reducing stress, simple makeup and hair techniques that look fantastic, easy recipes, organization ideas, uncluttered décor, and ways to remove burdens from your life while retaining all its fullness. Pets, kids, cooking-no matter what you need to simplify, you will find it addressed in Real Simple.

Buying guides are a common part of this magazine, covering products in all price ranges. Real Simple magazine offers tips on spending your money in smarter ways and sometimes road-tests popular new devices to see how well they really work. Real Simple also includes issues on holiday entertaining and other special events like weddings, maintaining its simplification philosophy throughout.

In essence, content, and style, Real Simple magazine is the Zen of periodicals, seeking out different ways to help you calm down your crazy life. If you need some lifestyle simplification, it might be the right magazine for you.

Product Description

Real Simple is for smart, busy women who welcome creative solutions to their everyday challenges. They trust Real Simple for help entertaining, organizing, shopping, working, connecting with friends, or making time for themselves.

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Product Details

• Format: Magazine
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Publisher: Time Direct Ventures
• ASIN: B002PXW1IE
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (459 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24 in Magazines (See Top 100 in Magazines)
  • #4 in Magazines > Home & Garden
  • #4 in Magazines > Lifestyle & Cultures > Women's Interest
This magazine subscription is provided by Synapse

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

532 of 560 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Recommends High-Priced Unnecessary Items March 5, 2009

By Lisa Shea HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I am a strong proponent of living a simpler, less stressed life and I was really happy when I saw an entire magazine was dedicated towards the simple life. After reading it, though, I think what they meant to say was that this is the way to spend money and feel better about yourself.

An idea for avoiding dishes? Buy lots of coffee filters, line your mixing bowls with them and throw them away when you're done. This turns us into a disposable lifestyle, not a simple one. Need to figure out if a window is sunny enough for a plant? Buy a $60 device that (I kid you not) plugs into the dirt, records the sunlight for you and then plugs into your USB port to tell you what it saw. There's an article on an interracial marriage which doesn't sound simple to me, and while it's cool, it doesn't help me learn anything about living more simply.

How about dressing simply? They want you to buy an $85 pair of flats and a $68 belt. Maybe a $70 pair of shorts.

Some articles are helpful. How can you spot a fake bill? Might be useful to know. Other articles miss out on basics. They talk about how a pound of sugar was 12 cents in 1960 and is now 52 cents - but they say nothing at all about what it WOULD be adjusted for inflation. Is this higher than before? Lower? Nobody knows.

There are good tips in here. Go to your library and use their vast resources for free. Negotiate with your health care provider for lower costs. Use local playgrounds for exercise and fun. Bring your lunch, don't eat out. Even so, you turn the page and they're suggesting $200 blazers as cool items for the simple household - blazers that, honestly, most of us would only wear once or twice given its color and what it would go with in a given season. Never mind the $400 giant black jumpsuit.... Not simple.

I'm not saying simple has to be boring or drab - but there is a big difference, in my mind, between recommending a simple item of clothing that could be worn every week without an issue and recommending a $400 splurge on something that would rarely be brought from the closet. That belongs more in a "splurge fashion" magazine, not a "real simple" magazine.

So while I appreciate some of the tips here, there was too much emphasis on buying things - especially things people simply don't need. I feel the magazine falls into this category itself. Read more ›

137 of 143 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Being simple is a lot of work . . . January 7, 2002

By Sharon Huston

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I'll admit it -- I buy every issue of this magazine. The title, however, always calls up a wry grin. The simple lifestyle the book advocates isn't all that easy! To achieve it you'll have to go buy the materials for the magazine's simplifying project, then re-arrange your house so you have a place to work on the project (which naturally requires purchasing even more things) and then finally you'll have to find the time to actually complete the project. Of course, to find the time you'll have to buy a new wall calendar and clock and Rolodex. I think the magazine has hit the American pluse on the button -- spend limited money and time to help better organize limited money and time, all while reminding yourself how beneficial and FUN all this work is. Oh, and don't forget to turn your repeated shopping trips to Target into "quality time" with your two-year-old in the process. So what do I do with the magazine? I'll go home after a tough day at work, and enjoy a cup of off-the-shelf non-gourmet herbal tea (cracked coffee mug, water heated in cheap saucepan with missing handle) and fantasize about leading the kind of lifestyle the magazine portrays. I read about gifts to buy the boss (as if!) and about knitting scarves, and all those premanufactured pastel "lifestyle accessories." The latest issue has advice on picking chocolates. I have one word on the subject -- Hershey's. The whole magazine is far outside my salary, and the total opposite of my garage-sale Western-omelet-at-Denny's lifestyle. It's escapism, pure and SIMPLE.

145 of 153 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Real Simple? April 20, 2007

By Gil

Subscription Term Name:1 year

Don't get me wrong..I love the two hard cover books, Real Simple Solutions and Real Simple: The Guide to Organized Living. They are gems. However, the magazine simply betrays it's words. As one rater stated, it seems like the reader is cajoled into buying un-needed expensive products, and my god..the magazine is cluttered with ads and inserts, plus it is very hard to turn the pages and read. I realize ads are necessary, but this is extreme, especially for a magazine that supposedly promotes a less complicated and cluttered life for it's readers.

516 of 571 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Real Simple is simply about buying stuff June 23, 2003

By A Customer

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I subscribed to this magazine for a year and enjoyed my first few issues, but I soon noticed that all of the ideas for "leading a simpler life" involved purchasing expensive products. You might as well just flip through a Pottery Barn catalog. They both offer the same fantasy -- "What a stress-free, genteel life I could lead if only I had closet organizers and all-white furniture!" Eventually I simplified my life by letting my subscription run out.

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Long time subscriber April 19, 2009

By Christopher J. Deangelis

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I subscribed to Real Simple from the first issue for several years. At first it had some great unique ideas, and some really cool decorating ideas. Then, shortly after the second year, they seemed to run out of ideas. Unfortunately, they kept publishing anyway. The ideas rerun so often, if I flip through one now I find the SAME recipes (ravioli lasagna) and SAME tips they had the first year. Huge disappointment. If you are interested, don't commit for more than a year!

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Real Simple Vs. Voluntary Simplicity December 16, 2003

By A Customer

Subscription Term Name:1 year

I subscribed to this magazine believing that it would have advice relating to scaling back and living better with less. However, this magazine is definitely geared towards women who don't mind paying $200+ for "the perfect white shirt" and are strugging to create a savings plan with six-figure incomes.

That being said, I love the recipes, the meal planners are excellent, and the organization tips I've found useful too. A fun magazine, as long as you don't take it too seriously.