Organizing Recipes

For a while now I've kept my recipes inside plastic page protectors in a three-ring binder. I usually like to take the recipe I'm using out of the binder and put it up on the fridge while I'm cooking. That way I don't have my recipe binder taking up any precious counter top space. The only problem with doing things this way is that I get lazy and I don't like to put my recipe page back where it belongs. And when it goes on this way for 6 months, you end up with a big stack of pages of recipes, and a big headache anytime you need to find a particular one:

So. It was high time to get things in order. I decided to expand my system to two binders: one for the recipes I use on a consistent basis, and one for those recipes I only use occasionally. I also pulled out some colorful dividers so that I could better organize my everyday recipes.

For meal planning purposes, I have a list of all my main dishes. Then on the clipboard I have my menu plan for the week, and I put my recipes for the week with the plan. My intention is to start putting back the previous week's recipe pages at the time when I plan meals for the coming week. Here's hoping!

Check out Organizing Junkie for other ideas on getting your recipes in order.