How to Organize Recipes



I'm now using several recipe binders

I recently re-organized my recipes. My goals were to declutter, create a more usable system, address the to-try recipe issue and create a better holiday recipe system. Here is how I addressed each issue:

 

Declutter: I started with a serious declutter of recipes. Yep, I got brave and actually threw recipes away. Once I had decided which recipes to keep I put them into sheet protectors.

Create a more usable system: I was filing all of my recipes in one really big notebook.  It was really bulky and it was very hard to flip the pages.  I had tried to get around it by having a smaller notebook for frequently used recipes but I never could remember what recipe was in what notebook.  I ended up splitting the recipes among several smaller notebooks, organized by category.  I re-used some old binders and added scrapbook paper covers to make the books pretty. My theme was greens and assorted polka dots. I used the same green stripe paper on the spines so there is continuity on the shelf. I used my label maker to do the category labels.

Using the same paper on all spines makes the notebooks look neat on the shelf

 

Address to-try recipe issue:  I was keeping my to-try recipes in a separate place from my other recipes. Problem was, I was rarely motivated to go through them and I am sure there are some gems lurking there.  I ended up filing my to-try recipes with each category – example: to-try soup recipes are filed in the soup section of the recipe binder – so I can easily see all of my recipes choices at once for a category. I wanted to keep the to-try recipes separate from the tried & true so I filed them at the beginning of the section in special folders. They are filed in pocket folders – Avery binder pockets #75312

Create a better holiday recipe system: I used to have a section for holidays but I felt they deserved their own binder. I also rounded up holiday stuff that was lurking in other places – example: I had a whole bunch of notes on Christmas cookies that I was shifting from each year’s Christmas folder to the next – and added that to the holiday binder.

 

I have been using the new system for a bit over a month now and it’s definitely easier to find recipes and try new ones.

How do you organize your recipes?