recipe organization?

pwmatt

pwmatt

Cathlete
How do you folk organize all the recipes you find in the paper, magazines, etc. I end up having magazines hanging around the kitchen just cause I want to make a recipe someday. I also have printouts from the computer and cutouts from the newspaper. It's such a mess and I can rarely find anything when I actually do want to make it. :( Give me your best tips all you wonderful organizers. :) Thanks!
 
Phillis-

here is how I do it.

Start with a large 3 ring binder. Get dividers and label them as follows: appetizers, soups/stews, breads/ rice, veggies/ salads, poultry, beef/pork, seafood, meatless/ pasta, desserts, cookies/ holiday menus (although I do not eat meat, my family does and I cook for them)

Get plastic paper protector pages with 3 holes in them and slip your recipes into plastic pages and file under the correct divider. The plastic helps to keep the recipes clean while cooking.
 
I'm not as dorky as my family says I am!!! I do the same thing & they all pick on me for it. It really helps to have a place to find all those clipped out recipes.
 
Me too

I also have a small bookcase in the hallway to the kitchen with all of my cook books in it (both mine and my mother's.) I also have a couple of little folders with clips that were too small to really hole punch and put in a binder. Also, you might want a section for "favorites" the one's you make the most often. For me its stuffed shells, lasagna, meat loaf.
 
I LOVE to clip recipes and have wayyyyyy too many! :D Here's what works best for me:

I bought one of those "travel" hanging folder organizers. You know the kind that looks like a little box and when you open it up theres a place for you to put hanging file folders? I labeled each hanging file: appetizers, desserts, main course, etc. I even went so far as to get real nit-picky and went with other categories like low-fat main meals, low-fat desserts, crock pot recipes, kids cooking, etc. (what can I say? I'm anal! haha) Then I just plop the recipe page or clipping in the appropriate hanging file. When I need a recipe I can go to the file quickly and flip through it easily and use the one I need. When I try a recipe and I LOVE it and know it will get used again then I write it down into my main recipe book.

I've tried the binder system myself and didn't like it because I used the clear page protectors and I found it annoying to turn the pages because they sort of stuck together and then there was the annoyance of hanging to take the recipe out of the page. For me, I like the hanging file system better because I can quickly see what recipes I have and pull out the one I need.
 
DH uses a photo album, the kind with the "magnetic" pages. It is organized with dividers. When he has a new clipping, he just puts it under the plastic layer and it's good to go! And the pages are easy to turn and wipe clean if they get splattered with anything.
 
I can't stand clutter and papers all over the place, so whenever I see a recipe in the magazine or newspaper I will look for it online and if I can't find it I type it out. Then I have a recipe folder on my computer and I organize it into pasta, baked goods, fish, chicken, etc... This really works well for me and saves on printing things out and buying binders and plastic pages, etc... When I make something, I just set my laptop on the table and go. I could see how this wouldn't work for everyone though.
 
berry99 said:
I can't stand clutter and papers all over the place, so whenever I see a recipe in the magazine or newspaper I will look for it online and if I can't find it I type it out. Then I have a recipe folder on my computer and I organize it into pasta, baked goods, fish, chicken, etc... This really works well for me and saves on printing things out and buying binders and plastic pages, etc... When I make something, I just set my laptop on the table and go. I could see how this wouldn't work for everyone though.
Click to expand...

Ditto!

(blah blah blah, my message was too short...)
 
fargomom said:
I LOVE to clip recipes and have wayyyyyy too many! :D Here's what works best for me:

I bought one of those "travel" hanging folder organizers. You know the kind that looks like a little box and when you open it up theres a place for you to put hanging file folders? I labeled each hanging file: appetizers, desserts, main course, etc. .
Click to expand...

This is what I have too! And if I find a recipe in a magazine, I try to find it online as well, and print it out, so all my recipes are on printed , same size, papers.
 
Thanks for the ideas ladies!!:) I will be getting a binder and some plastic pages very soon. This is the perfect chance to purge some of those recipes that I'll never use! :):)
 
Boingo1 said:
This is what I have too! And if I find a recipe in a magazine, I try to find it online as well, and print it out, so all my recipes are on printed , same size, papers.
Click to expand...

OOOHHHH ... i'll have to try that. :p Appeals even more to my OCD nature! haha.

(I have also scanned some recipes found in magazines checked out from the library,
another way to get them the same size) :D;)
 
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