Episode 29 – Tip Tuesday - How to Organize Recipes When You Don’t Want to Go Digital – Solutions to Keep Recipes Easily Accessible and Not Taking Up Tons of Space - Intentional Edit

How to to Easily Organize Recipes

Another listener question answered on this Tip Tuesday Episode of The Intentional Edit Podcast. Find out how to organize recipes when you prefer to print them rather than using your phone or tablet while cooking. What about cookbooks that never get used??? Lauren gives solutions for how to organize your recipes and when it’s ok to purge cookbooks.

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Full Episode Transcription:

Whether you love to cook or hate it, cook a little bit or a lot organizing your recipes so that you can find them when you need them is essential to quick cooking in the kitchen. Hey friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go oh two organizing products for tip Tuesday on the intentional edit Instagram feed for a few years. Now I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with sure episodes answering your questions every Tuesday. If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional, edit.com and submit your questions there. Let’s get started on this tip Tuesday episode of the edit podcast. I’m glad you’re here for another episode of the intentional edit podcast. Today, we are talking about organization for your recipes, how to organize them.

(00:53):

So they’re always easily accessible to you and what to do with cookbooks that you never use. Hey friends, thanks for joy me for another tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast. Today, I am answering a listener question. This question kind of made me laugh because this is a common scenario for so many people, but let’s get right into it. Being that this is a quick episode because it’s tip Tuesday. I’m going to share with you the question that came to me a on Instagram, the question that we’re answering today is hi Lauren. My kitchen is small and I have an entire cabinet full of cookbooks that I never use and never is in all capital. So I think she’s serious, but feel like I have to keep, because most of them were wedding or bridal shower gifts. We have been married for almost six years and two kids later.

(01:43):

I don’t mind cooking, but find my meals from mom groups, Pinterest and YouTube. I prefer to print the recipe and would rather not cook than have to reference instructions on my phone or tablet while I’m in the kitchen. What is the best way to organize recipes so I can print them and use them more than once and what to do with all those cookbooks. Thank you so much for submitting the quest. I can totally relate to this because I can’t stand cooking from my iPad or the computer screen or my phone or anything. Digital. I love the paper copy too. I actually come up with a lot of recipes from experimenting from other recipes and create what I want, what, or I post those on my website and share them with you guys. Or if I just come up with them on my own, I still like that paper copy.

(02:32):

If I find a recipe or I’ve been at someone’s house and had something, and I feel like I really want that and will make it in the future and ask them for a copy of it. Then I do like those out. I keep all of my recipes in a three ring binder to keep them organized. And I’ve pretty much eliminated all, but two or three cookbooks in my kitchen because I just don’t use them. That is the three ring binder is the way that I recommend that you organize cookbooks because today, given the year that we’re in, if you are not on board with the digital recipes where you find what you want and then have it on your tablet while you’re cooking, or you’re having have it on your phone, in the kitchen for you to reference. If that’s not your thing and you want the paper copy, then most likely you are printing it.

(03:22):

And it is on a standard sheet of paper. It’s not a small paper. It’s not a note card in a recipe box. I find that the three ring binder idea with traditional size paper is the best way to keep your recipes organized. In terms of the cookbooks, you have a small kitchen, your cabinet space is something that you should be filling with things that you’re actually using and to take an entire cabinet, whether it’s big or small for cookbooks that are never used is a complete waste of space. I am giving you permission to get rid of all of those cookbooks. Right now, you can go back and listen to any of the episodes, almost that deal with purging or decluttering because people give you gifts and they do not intend for those gifts to be associated with guilt. If they knew that the gift was burdening you or causing you stress or any type of guilt, they would want you to, to get rid of it.

(04:21):

Some people love cookbooks. You can donate them. Someone will be happy to have that at a lower price or for free because they use cookbooks. If something is not serving you, whether it’s a cookbook or anything else, you need to get it out of your house. I say this every, all the time, over and over again, probably in some way in every episode, if something is in your home and you do not use it, need it or want it, it’s time to get it out, remove it from your home and pass it along to someone or donate it to a place where someone that can actually use it can find it goodbye cookbooks. If you’re listening to this and you’re like, well, I have a cookbook and it has one favorite recipe in it, or it has one or two recipes that I use, but I’ve had this cookbook for years and I don’t wanna make anything else.

(05:14):

I don’t intend to use it for anything else. What I did a few years ago is I went through the cookbooks that I had. I photocopied you could also just take a picture with your phone and then print that out. Any recipe that I wanted, that I knew that I used, that I was already using to cook with. And then I could get rid of the cookbook, freed up an entire shelf. For me, it’s not worth saving an entire book. If you only use or two recipes, that’s my recommendation for cookbooks, photograph or photocopy and print out the recipe that you want. If you are a person that likes to have things on your computer or a digital file, then save it, save it by the name of the recipe, come up with some kind of organization for your recipes so that you’re dividing them up into categories.

(06:05):

Save it there. Then when you cook, you like to have the tablet or the computer or the phone in the kitchen. You just open it up. It’s on your screen and you have it that way. If you are like me and the, a person that wrote in this question, then you don’t have to save it on the computer. You can, if you want a backup, but print it out once you’ve photocopied it. And then we will be adding it to a three ring binder. Let’s talk about that three ring binder. I keep mentioning many years ago, I probably have the same notebook or binder going on in 15 years. It’s just a regular three ring binder, kind of a sturdy one. I believe mine is one and a half inches, maybe two. I put page protectors in there and tabs. The tabs that I purchased are big enough for so that you can see them on the edge of the page protector.

(06:56):

And then I have categories. You can get as specific as this as you want, just like a good cookbook would mine are very simple. I think I have things like dinner, breakfast, soups, salads, breads, desserts, something like that. Maybe I’m missing one or two. It can be basic if you want them to be very specific. If you love to cook and you want to have your categories be very detailed, you could divide up your dinner, recipes into things like maybe chicken dishes or beef dishes or meats could be one and casserole could be another side dishes. Oh, I think sides are one of the categories in mind. How you think about cooking, especially if you enjoy cooking and you have a lot of go-to recipes that you move between, divide your cookbook up, get the number of tabs that make sense for you. And then you print off all the recipes that you use when you have, have page protectors.

(08:00):

It makes it really easy to add more, add one to the other side, or add some extra page protectors. And then you can gather more recipes and add those to the ones that you already have. Like I just mentioned my, my three ring binder recipe book is probably 15 years old. I don’t know. Maybe it’s only 12 or 13 years old. I’ve had it for a very long time. I add to it. Whenever I come up with a new recipe, I print it out. I stick it into a page protector in the appropriate tab. I can get that as easy as possible. Sometimes I wanna try a new recipe and I’m not sure if we will like it or not. So I put that in the front of the notebook, in the pocket. Once I’ve tried it, if I’m going to keep it, I put it into the page protector in the appropriate category, behind the tab that it goes with.

(08:49):

And I keep it because I want to use it in the future. If we tried that recipe and it wasn’t that great, then I just put the piece of paper and the recycling and I don’t need to deal with it anymore. If someone gives you a cookbook in the future, go ahead and try the recipes in it. Look through it, see what you like, keep it for a season, maybe a year. When you find recipes that you like in there, you can print them off at that time and stick them in your three ring binder notebook. If it’s a cookbook, that’s great and you love it. And you find there’s a lot of recipes in there that you are using. It’s okay to keep it going from a cabinet full of cookbooks that are never used to five or six cookbooks or two or re cookbooks that you are referencing all the time and finding use for is beneficial to you.

(09:41):

And you’re using those cookbooks. So there is a benefit to that. It makes sense to keep them. I’m not telling you get rid of all your cookbooks and put everything in a three ring binder, get rid of the cookbooks that you have had for years. You know, you don’t use someone else can benefit from using them because they actually will use them. You just keep the ones that make sense for you to keep the rest of the recipes. I find the best way to organize them is in a three ring binder with tabs to separate categories and page protectors. I hope that answers your question. And you enjoyed this tip Tuesday episode. If you are listening and you have questions, you wonder about how to get organized. Something in your house is stumping you or frustrating. You, you are thinking about specific products for organization or how to come up with a solution because something in your home is not working.

(10:34):

It’s not functioning. You are becoming overwhelmed and frustrated by whatever it is that has to do with home and life. Go to intentional, edit.com, click on the button that pops up. It says record. Now it’s a little gray box and leave me a message so that I can answer it here on the podcast. I will answer it on a future episode so that you can start implementing that system in your life to have a solution and feel lighter and simplified. Stop struggling with that. Move on to improving that in your household. Thanks so much for listening for, to this tip Tuesday episode of the intentional edit podcast, I’ll meet you right back here later in the week.

(11:21):

That wraps up another quick episode of a tip Tuesday. If you want to be featured on intentional edits, tip Tuesday, go to intentional, edit.com, click on the podcast page in the menu bar, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll find a button that says record, tap that and record your question or share what is currently overwhelming to you. What is going on that you need help with? I want to know I needed to know your struggle so I can share actionable solutions to help you create simplicity in your home. If you are having this issue. I know other people are having it too, and we wanna help as many people as possible. Head over to the podcast page of intentional, edit.com and record your question for me there.

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Favorite Organizing Products

Amazon | The Container Store

Where to Shop

Organizing

The Container Store | Target | Bed Bath & Beyond | Walmart | Marshalls | Ikea

Design & Decor

Wayfair | Joss & Main | West Elm | Crate & Barrel | Pottery Barn | Urban Outfitters

Deals

Marshalls | Nordstrom Rack | Old Navy | Ikea | Amazon | T.J.Maxx | J.Crew Factory

Fashion

Nordstrom | Banana Republic | LOFT | J.Crew | Lululemon | Nike | Saks Off 5th | Abercrombie

DIY

Home Depot | Sherwin Williams | Michaels | Ace Hardware | Amazon | Etsy

Crafty

Michaels | Ikea | Etsy | Home Depot | Target | Amazon

Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!