How I... Organize My Recipes

I've been attempting to cook and bake for awhile now. I'm not very good -- somehow I always mess things up. I have been collecting recipes for the last few years anyway though. I first started with photo albums and put all of my recipe cards in the albums. I hated rewriting recipes from the internet onto a 4 x 6 recipe cards...most of the time it didn't all fit. Plus, I liked the pictures that came along with the internet print out. So I decided to create two recipe binders -- one with entrees and the other with the rest of the recipes (side dishes, appetizers, beverages, etc.)

Here's what I created a few years ago...

These two binders I bought from Staples. They're made by Carolina Pad.

For my category tabs I used decorative tab dividers that I bought at Staples. They're Carolina Pad as well. I put the tab dividers inside page protectors (I got that idea from Prudent Baby) so they stuck out further than the rest of the pages. It was kind of difficult to do, because you have to make a slit in the side of the page protector for the tab to stick through. If you make the slit too big, the divider will slide around.

One thing I didn't like about this was how flimsy the tab dividers ended up becoming. They were made out of something like card stock (not sure?), so after awhile they started to get crappy.

Printed recipes just got hole punched and inserted into the binder.

Recipes from magazines were inserted into a page protector with a piece of colored paper behind so that I could put another recipe on the other side without it looking funny.

Smaller clipped recipes were taped to a piece of paper inside of a page protector.

I used scrapbook letter stickers to label the front of the dividers and wrote on the tab dividers with a silver Sharpie.

I just wasn't crazy about the way that this binder was looking now-a-days. The binder, being plastic covered, started to crack/rip. I wasn't crazy about the tab dividers not being easily turnable. I also wanted to redo my categories. So I decided to just redo the whole thing.

Here's what my recipe binders look like now...

I bought these binders from Target. They're made by GreenRoom. They were kind of pricey, but it was exactly what I wanted and they seem really durable. Plus, they're really cute. =]

I bought these Avery Big Tab Pocket Insertable Plastic Dividers from Staples. I wanted these so I could put recipe booklets into the pockets and I love Avery tabs -- they're very durable. I bought the 5 tab dividers. They also make 8 tab dividers.

I have this huge stack of colored paper and luckily I have each color of paper to match my tabs.

The categories I used in the brown binder are: appetizers & snacks, beverages, bread, desserts, and side dishes. I used an Avery template from their website to type up and print on the tab inserts.

The categories I used in the cream binder are: beef, breakfast, fish, one dish meals & stews, pasta, pizza, poultry, sandwiches, and soup.

I didn't cram the clipped recipes together this time. I wanted to leave room to write notes about the recipes on the sides.

And as for the recipe albums, I still use those. I subscribe to Betty Crocker and Pillsbury cooking magazines. The recipes that come in the magazines are 4 x 6 sized, with a picture on the front and the recipe on the back. I also just received a bunch of hand written recipes from family at my bridal shower on 4 x 6 recipe cards.

How do you organize your recipes?