With so many great recipes out there — magazines, blogs, and don’t even get me started on Pinterest! — my recipe folder was getting a little out of control. Let’s be honest, it was pretty much a disorganized pile of recipes I’d printed or torn out of magazines, shoved into a two-pocket folder, and then forgot about because sifting through the pile was too intimidating.
No longer! I finally got my recipes organized. There are many different systems that people use successfully, but mine was inspired by this pretty box:
It originally held greeting cards, but I glued on a new label and ta da! Now it holds recipes!
It is a mini version of a file box. All I had to do was determine how I wanted to divide up my recipes, and then make labels accordingly. Here are the labels I ended up with:
- Meal planning
- Breakfast
- Appetizers
- Salads
- Soup & chili
- Side dishes
- Pizza
- Mexican recipes
- Asian recipes
- Italian recipes
- Seafood
- Meat & poultry
- Cookies
- Other desserts
- Gift ideas {for food-related gift recipes}
I wrote the labels out on small pieces of paper and then paper-clipped them to the dividing tabs … I think the paper clips add a nice pop of color, and I also like that I can easily swap out the labels if I want to, allowing this organization system to grow and change along with me and my recipe stash!
I feel so much more excited to cook and try out all these new recipes! And my organization system is easy to add to with any new dishes I come across. This system is pairing well with my meal-planning whiteboard. My next goal: Sunday food prep! {Inspired by Lindsay @The Lean Green Bean.}
Here are a few other great posts about meal planning and recipe organization:
- Deme did a fantastic series @Fresh Coat of Paint
- I love this post by the always-inspiring Andrea @Simple Organized Living
- Jen has a great post and even some printables @IHeartOrganizing
How do you organize and keep up with your recipes?
Day-By-Day Masterpiece 
I love your box, it’s so cute. But for me, the little slips of paper and paper clips would be a disaster waiting to happen, with little slips of paper mysteriously gone and paper clips popping out all over.
Thanks Amanda! Yeah, I can see that being a potential problem … I’ll have to check back with you in a few months as to how the labels are holding up! 🙂 I’m sure taping/gluing them on is an option, too! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.
what a cute box! i have a large crate with big binders in it. i have SO many recipes. the recipes are in plastic page covers… i have more than i can use in my lifetime! haha
Thanks Sarah! Wow that sounds amazing!! Haha, so many recipes, so little time … 🙂
I like your system! If the paperclips get problematic, sciplus.com almost always has some kind of amazing deal on blank adhesive labels.
We use a recipe binder made entirely from repurposed materials, which has been working very well for us. But we don’t put recipes into it until we’ve tried them, so there’s a stack of “recipes to try” held on the cabinet door with magnets…. I try to go through it every so often and consider tossing out recipes that have been there for a long time because that probably means we’ll never get around to trying them!