Winter Wrap-Up: Part Two

The next thing I crossed off my list, finally (!) was to get all my recipes in one place.  I started a recipe binder about 13 or 14 years ago and it has been an ongoing process ever since.

My original binder was pretty simple. A one-inch binder with the cover that you can customize, each recipe on it's own page, a title page for each category.  Well, then I got more recipes.  Pretty soon they didn't all fit in a one-inch binder anymore.  So I got a bigger binder.  Then Pinterest was invented.  Now, my recipes don't fit in that binder anymore either.  Suddenly, I had recipes stuck to the fridge, inside the cabinet doors, in a file folder and stuffed inside the covers of the binder. So I started a second volume.

In case this sounds like a lot of work and you wonder why on earth I would do this, there are two reasons.  First off, I screw up every single thing I make off a standard recipe card.  I blame the tiny print and all the flipping back and forth.  Secondly.  I'm really OCD about organization.  I like to know where my stuff is at all times.

Here's my original binder.  

And my original dividers.  Not much dividing happening at a glance, but it was the best I could come up with at the time.  (Pretend there aren't tabs peeking out from behind.  I'll get to that in a minute.)

The new dividers. (I totally stole this idea from I Heart Organizing, an awesome blog for compulsive organizers like myself.) I kept the old ones too because I still like them.  This gives me an at-a-glance way to head to the right section of the book.  And these dividers have these neat pockets in them for my loose paper recipes.  

Volume Two.  I had lots more recipes for goodies than I thought.  Clearly, there are no diabetics in my house and we are not on any sort of low carb or paleo diet.   Give me Bread!  Lots of Bread! 

 This is how I set up the second volume.

Some of my favorite pages. Just to give you an idea of what the inside of the books look like.

Natalie likes to make pages now too.  

She brings her own stickers and ideas to the table and creates away!  This is one of her pages.

 I mentioned the cool pockets in these tabbed dividers earlier.  I like these because I have lots of recipes cut out from magazines or printed off of blogs.  I don't automatically put all of them permanently in the book.  I make them for the family.  Then I ask if it's a make again meal or a not so good meal.  If it gets a make again rating, then I make it it's own little scrapbook page in my book.  If not, then I toss it and pretend it never happened.  

The tabbed dividers are made by Avery and I got mine at Wal-Mart.  The pages inside the book are all inside regular old clear plastic page protectors of various brands.