Getting Organized :: The Recipe Binder

This summer I am doing my best to take steps to get more organized...in every area of our lives.  Except cleaning.  Still waiting on a house elf for that one.  Some of the changes I'm making are huge, some are tiny, but in the end, they are all helping to make our lives feel a little less chaotic.  I want to share my ideas with you over the summer, in the hopes that you will find inspiration for organizing, or perhaps share some organizing ideas with me in the comments section! 

Getting Organized :: The Recipe Binder

Until last month my recipes were a jumble.  I had a recipe box, and the recipes that were on larger pieces of paper were haphazardly stuck into a binder.  And I had a rather large collection of recipes I wanted to try at some point but had forgotten about because they were crammed in the back of the crazy-messy binder.  I needed to figure out some way to clean it all up and make it more user-friendly.  I started to look for a recipe binder.  I know I could make my own, but I wanted something nice that would hold up well in my kitchen, and big enough to hold all of my recipes.  I found just what I was looking for on Amazon.

The CR Gibson Bon Appetit Deluxe Kitchen Binder

I adore this binder.  It was just under $30, and the price tag made me hem and haw abit before purchasing, but I'm so glad I decided to do it.  I think it is well worth the cost because it condensed all of my favorite recipes into one place.  It comes with lots of features.

12 tabbed dividers (Brunch, Side Dish, Appetizer, Salads, Main Course, etc)

It also came with cute 5x7 recipe cards and plastic pocket pages to hold them (I also ordered replacement plastic pocket pages because I had soooooo many recipe cards).  I love this system so much more than my recipe box!  And by the way, I took this opportunity to ditch some recipes, those that just weren't keeping were pitched.

The binder also came with 8.5x11 plastic sheet protectors, which I used to store my full-page recipes, and I used a few to seperate all of my "need to try these" recipes.  I made a section for main dishes, side dishes, desserts, etc.  I have found this much easier to go through when I am looking for a new dish to try.

The binder also had this clasped folder in the back.  I use it to store my top secret recipes ;)

I have found meal-planning to be much easier since I organized my countless recipes into one big binder.  And I think that this binder is going to hold up well over the years so that I can pass it on to one of my children when they are old enough to start cooking for me.

How do you organize your recipes?

**disclaimer:  this is not a paid advertisement.  the company has no idea i am raving about them, i am not getting compensation.  i just love my new recipe binder!