Tidy-Up Thursday – Organize Your Recipes

Welcome to a new theme here @ WhoIsLaura.com!  It’s Tidy-Up Thursday!

As you may know, I have an organization and time management company, OrganizeNOW.  And, I help others get organized in their home and business, as well as manage their time to get more done!

I have been coaching on organization and time management for 11 years, and living it my entire life!  It’s how I get more done than most people – good solid organization systems, and time management strategies!

So, on Tidy-Up Thursday, I will be sharing organization systems and time management tips that work for me!

Today’s first installment is Recipe Organization!

Since I love to make new recipes, it can get a bit hectic downloading new recipes from the internet, and then keeping track of all the slips of paper.

Here’s what I do to my recipes:

1) Download and print off a new recipe (like the yummy homemade whole wheat vanilla wafers we made yesterday).

2) File the recipe to be tried in my “New Recipes” folder.  For me, I have a specific spot in my kitchen near my cookbooks that I file recipes I want to try.

3) During menu planning, I will go through the pile of new recipes and pick out a few to try that week.  This usually depends on what ingredients I have on hand (since I always look through the pantry and freezer first, and then plan my menu around the ingredients that I have – more on pantry/freezer inventory later!).

4) Once I’ve chosen a few recipes to try for the first time, then, they are posted with my weekly menu plan.  That way I know what I am making and when, and the recipe is close by.

5) We bake the recipes!  Then comes the children taste testers!  If the recipe passes the taste test and I know that I will make it again, then it continues on…  However, if it fails the test, or it is only marginally good, and I know that I am not likely to ever bake it again in the near future, I trash the recipe.  This ensures that only family favorites make it to the final step…

6) Once a recipe has passed the test, then I enter it into my family recipe document.  This is a MS Word document that is just a bunch of squares that are the size of my recipe binder (approx 4×6 – you can adjust your squares to be the size of your recipe binder or file).  I type the recipe into the next blank square and save the document (no, there is no order to the recipes, I just put them in as I go), and then print out the new recipe.

7) I cut out the recipe card, laminate it, and then cut out again.

Then, it is filed in my recipe binder.  The recipe binder is divided into sections (breakfast, main dishes, side dishes, etc.) and I can locate a recipe quickly and easily.  The lamination ensures that when I make it again (and need to use the recipe card), it doesn’t get dirty.

A few notes:

First, I recommend that you TYPE your recipes.  Hand writing on cards is not the easiest thing to do, and often takes longer.  It’s also easier to read a typed recipe.

Second, file your recipes in one of several ways:  For me, I use a recipe binder that is specifically designed to be that way.  It has page protectors that hold 4 recipe cards/page, and dividers for different sections.  There are two variations of this, if you don’t have a specifically formatted binder.  First, you can use a regular 3-ring binder and just type your recipes on full pages and insert into sheet protectors, and divide using regular dividers.  Do not put more than one recipe on a page!  Second, you can use an index card box or recipe box to file your laminated recipe cards, again using dividers.

This is what has worked for me, and instead of being overloaded with recipes, we have simplified the process so that we are still trying new recipes, but we also have a specific permanent place for our family favorites (which always get put into the meal plan every week!).

What do you do to organize your recipes?

To your success,

Dr. Laura

This post is shared at Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, I’m Lovin’ It Friday, and Monday Mania