Organizing Favorite Family Recipes

In the bottom of my pantry lays a pile of cookbooks, sheets torn out of magazines, computer print-outs and other recipe or food-related information.  I don't use the cookbooks that much, but I am a magazine tear sheet junkie!  I see something I like in a magazine, and I tear it out - recipes, design ideas, things to buy, even the color of a wall in an ad.

So I decided to start organizing these sheets.  I started with the recipes.  We are creatures of habit at our house.  We tend to eat the meals we really like over and over again.  So for the recipes I don't have memorized, I have to dig through the pile and find the magazine sheet/computer paper/scrap it's on.  So I bought a binder and took all of the recipes that we like the most and eat the most, punched holes in them and put them in the binder.

I tabbed them out according to what they are - breakfast, lunch/dinner and dessert.  I will get more detailed the more recipes I collect such as breads, soups and side dishes.  But for now, this works.  In the front pocket I stashed other info I need - quick kids' lunch ideas, my handy "What to buy organic" list, my superfoods list and my basic shopping list of things that never change week to week.

After taking a break from organizing I couldn't resist taking a peak into the new Better Homes & Gardens magazine that came in the mail the other day.  And look what I saw!  Good to know there are other like-minded binder lovers out there!!

My next binder project will be my design binder that has fabric samples of our furniture and curtains, paint chips from every room and wood/metal finishes that we have.  This will be a much smaller binder I can fit into my bag when I shop.  It will also have a list of must-have items for the house and the dimensions I have to work with.  I'm still on the hunt for the perfect cabinet to replace the ugly wire shoe rack we're using!!