[Day 18] Recipes: Kitchen Clutter Clear Out
Welcome to Day 18 of the Kitchen Clutter Clear Out. Our focus is on recipes. I’m talking about recipe cards, recipes you’ve torn out of magazines, and recipes printed off the internet. Most of us collect A LOT of recipes. You are not alone if you have piles of recipes you’ve saved. Those piles are creating clutter and make it difficult for you to find specific recipes. It’s time to clear out recipe clutter.
A few years ago, I hosted a “get your recipes organized” workshop in my home. The participants brought bags filled with their recipes and sorted them on my kitchen table. We also shared recipes with one another. F.U.N.!
If you would like to turn your piles of recipes into an organized collection you can easily use and enjoy, follow these steps.
- Gather all the recipes you have printed, copied, or torn out of magazines.
- Start sorting and eliminating the ones you no longer want.
- You may think you want them all but take a closer look. Does the recipe even sound good when you read all the ingredients? Are the ingredients common and inexpensive? How long will it take to prepare and do you have the time? Will all your family members like the recipe?
- As you ruthlessly edit your pile, sort the “keepers” into categories e.g., chicken, beef, vegetables, and desserts. Now you have categorized piles and you are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!
- Find a 3-ring binder or purchase one that will fit all your recipes or use one binder per category of recipes. Binders are my favorite tool for organizing recipes.
- Use sheet protectors to hold your recipes in the binder and tabs to divide up the categories, if needed. When you use sheet protectors you eliminate the 3-hole punching step and your recipes will stay clean and dry while cooking.
- Label the binder’s spine “recipes” or with the name of the category of recipes, “desserts.”
Ahhhh, no more piles of recipes! If you use a different system for your recipes, I would love to hear about it!
Simply,
Jill