If you’re anything like me, you have recipes in many different formats stored in several different places. I have years worth of recipes – as technology has changed and formats have changed – that need to be put into order. Today, we’re going to gather all of those together, cull them down, and then put them into a usable system. It sounds like a lot, but it’s pretty simple and it won’t take very long.
Step 1: Gather All of Your Recipes
Gather all of your recipes together in one place. Recipes you store online we’ll deal with separately – we’re just talking about paper recipes.
Step 2: Sort by Category
Sort all of your recipes into piles by categories – appetizers, main courses, desserts, etc. Whatever categories you want to create based on the recipes you’ve collected is totally fine.
Step 3: Recycle Unwanted Recipes
Go through each pile and recycle those recipes that you don’t want or need. We’ve all looked at a recipe in a magazine and clipped it only to have never made it. Get rid of the ones that are just taking up space – think of it as making room for new recipes that you’ll make and love!
Step 4: Set up Binder
I recommend you store all of your paper recipes in a binder. If you prefer to put them on index cards and keep them in a box, that’s fine. The binder works for me because I have more recipes that are in larger and inconsistent formats and the binder can accommodate those. There are so many recipe organizers out there so find what works for you. The basic, all purpose binder is my choice.
For binders, I like these Samsill ones.- they’re part of Samsill’s Earth’s Choice line of products. These binders are USDA certified and made with at least 59% biobased material and come with a cover made with up to 25% plant based renewable plastic So, they’re really nice and durable, but you can also feel good about buying them!
Samsill Earth’s Choice Biobased Durable 3 Ring Binders
Samsill Earth’s Choice Biobased Durable 3 Ring View Binder
I like to put dividers in my binder for the different categories of recipes. Here are some nice ones:
Blue Summit Supplies 8-Tab Binder Dividers
If you have recipes on index cards or in other formats, you can put them into plastic sleeves that fit right into your binder:
Samsill 100 Super Heavyweight Sheet Protectors, Clear Page Protectors
You can put your index cards right into these plastic sleeves:
Samsill 4×6 Recipe Card Protectors
If you don’t want to use the sleeve protectors, I just staple the recipes to an 8.5 X 11 piece of paper and three hole punch it. (I’m old school like that, I guess.)
Once you’ve put all of your recipes back, you’re ready to go! Your newly streamlined recipe binder will have you cooking up a storm. Try a recipe you rediscovered from this process! Please snap a picture and show us your work!