What to do with all those recipe clippings

I have been clipping recipes since I was 12 years old. I loved to go through my mother's Better Homes and Gardens magazines and save the recipes that looked good.  I even made many of them for my family.  

As an adult, I subscribed to lots of cooking magazines. The photos always looked so appealing. But I rarely used the recipes ... primarily because I forgot about them, once I stored them in a box or folder.  Somewhere along the way, I decided to organize them. At one point, I had one huge binder, where I pasted all the recipes. But it was really cumbersome: it was really thick and heavy, there were too many recipes, and there was no easy way to add recipes as I found them, or delete recipes I didn't like.  

That's when I developed this system.  It's not the most creative idea I've ever had, but it works.

Here's what  you will need:

Binders and dividers

I bought a bunch of one-inch three-ring binders. You can buy bigger ones, but they get heavy. The ones I like used to be available at Staples, but they don't carry the one-inch size anymore. You can order them online from OfficeMax.com. They are called Storex Duratech Binders 1" Round Ring. These are attractive and really light-weight. You can use whatever you like, but the important thing is that you can label the outside with the categories inside; i.e., chicken, salads, Thanksgiving, desserts, outdoor cooking, breakfast eggs & cheese,  casseroles & quiche ... whatever works for you. The things you like will take up more room.  I tried to group things together within a binder that made sense to me. But that did not work out so neatly. For example, I put meats and fish in another, but I had too many poultry dishes to fit in with the other main courses, so I put those in a binder with vegetables. The thing is to keep the size of the binders manageable. I put dividers in the notebooks to mark the various sections.

Clear sheet protectors and white paper

Use Standard Sheet Protectors—the lightweight ones come in a box of 100. Some come with black paper inside each one, but I like white...it's cleaner looking and I can write notes on the pages. An added benefit: you can take the whole page out when you are cooking, and the sheet protectors protect the page.

Glue Sticks

These are important. I used to use Elmer's glue. But that is so permanent and you can't pull the recipes out without ripping up the pages. I now use a glue stick instead. All you need is a dab or two to anchor the recipe to the page. The sheet protectors will keep the recipes in place. If you make a recipe and it is not absolutely wonderful, tear it out and throw it away. No need to save recipes you'll never make again.

Try to organize the recipes in a way that makes sense. For example, in my fish section, I will put all the salmon recipes together on a page or more, all the tuna recipes together, shrimp, crab, etc. It will make it much easier for you to find a recipe if you take the time to do that up front.

When you are done, you will have something that looks like this:

I admit, I am pretty nutty when it comes to organization. But I have had so many friends admire my homemade cookbooks that I thought I would share this. You will love yours, too. I promise.

I have to say, when I browse through the recipes, I find myself saying to myself, "Oh, this recipe looks good. So does this one. And this one. This one, too." 

(One more little thing: notice the paper clip at the top. I bought these clips at Staples. They are so cool. The paper clip has a paper tag at the top. They come in a package of assorted colors. I mark the recipes I want to try soon by placing the clips on the tops of the pages of my cookbooks. I can see the tags sticking up when the books are on the shelf, which makes it easier for me to find the recipes when I want them.)