<p>worrywart - I have to admit, I didn’t shop around looking for the best price for the plastic sleeves - I bought two packages at Staples while shopping for my kids’ school supplies last year (2006), and I still have a lot left. I think there were 100 sheets in each pack, but I’m not sure. What I do is glue the smaller recipes I’ve clipped onto both sides of a sheet of computer paper, so I can have between 4 and 10 recipes on one sheet of paper. They take up a lot less room that way.</p>
<p>Great Lakes Mom - I love the idea of your “illustrated” cookbook - I wish I had done something like that when my kids were younger.</p>
<p>Another thought for those (of us) lazy recipe collectors-- I have several large ziplock baggies where I keep recipes by category-- I have bags for: salad dressings, chicken, one-dish meals, desserts, Thanksgiving, veggies, mixed drinks and Passover/Jewish recipes. Some weird categories maybe–but they work for me.</p>
<p>When I am using a particular recipe, I put it on top of the stack but still in the baggie–then nothing spills on it.</p>
<p>I am reading this with interest, as I just printed out 2 new recipes which I tried last night. One was a hit with only half the family (trashing that one), and the other was a dessert recipe which I kept. I keep jamming slips of paper into my favorite cookbooks, which gets messy quickly. Thanks for the ideas. Now I just need to follow through and organize.</p>
<p>I like the notebook ideas, but I know that I am more of a baggie person, LOL.</p>
<p>I have too many cookbooks and alot of times when I want a certain recipe can’t remember what cookbook it’s in so I tend to run to the computer and google the name of the recipe and the key ingredients I remember. Of course, then I have to print it out and certainly don’t want to discard it so I stick it in one of my many cookbooks. I now have many cookbooks with printouts of random recipes in them. I also have a hard time parting with my taste of home magazines so put them in magazine storage binders but never look through them.</p>
<p>I like the stuffing in a box and storing for five years. That works for mail that I can’t figure out what to do with and company is coming so I box it up…</p>
<p>Hi Kathiep, LOL! The boxing is my H’s method of storing. At one time we had lots of boxes in our basement. He has recently cleared some of that out! We somehow accumlate “wires”. I mean extension cords, and other wires. I don’t know what they are all used for! Many of them end up boxed. </p>
<p>My recipe filing is similar to yours, Kathiep.</p>
<p>My sister once said I should box up all my clutter and tell my guests that I’d done my Christmas shopping early.</p>
<p>Flylady? Never mind, I don’t need any new recipe sources/addictions.</p>
<p>Bethie, I think the computer is the way to go, although that brings its own hoarding pitfalls. On Wednesdays, I go through the NY Times recipes and save ones I like in PDFs. Then, if I want to cook one, I can print it out (and transfer it to my bulging recipe folder. The same with Splendid Table recipes.</p>
<p>As for the bulging recipe folder, you could try a variation on the “if you haven’t worn it in the last season, throw it out” organizing school. You know, “if you haven’t cooked it in the last, oh, two years, throw it out.” Or, in my case, “if doesn’t have at least one food stain on the recipe, throw it out.” I know the pristine recipes in the my folder are losers.</p>
<p>MASTERCOOK</p>
<p>[MasterCook</a> Recipe Management Software @ CDKitchen.com](<a href=“http://mastercook.cdkitchen.com/description.html]MasterCook”>http://mastercook.cdkitchen.com/description.html)</p>
<p>It’s a computer program for storing recipes and I’ve used it for 7 years. Easy to use and great way to share your favorite recipes with friends. It takes a little work to get your favorites typed in but I often find that if there is a recipe in a current magazine that I like it will also be online on their web page and I can cut and paste it into Mastercook.
Next fall when my d moves to an apartment I will send her with copies of all her favorite recipes - or maybe just buy her a copy of Mastercook for her computer.</p>
<p>Here is what I do…</p>
<p>the local Home Goods store has a small stationary section…and they sell these “pretty” stationary & file folder kits… it has a decorated base and it comes with note cards, paper and 6 or 12 letter size file folders. </p>
<p>I have purchased a total of 3 of these sets…and I use a different folder for
each of the different recipe categories…
Drinks
Appetizers
Breads
Breakfast
Chili, Soup, Stews
Salads
Sandwiches, Wraps, Pizza
Beef & Pork
Poultry
Seafood
Dinner Menus
Vegetables
Cakes
Cookies
Other Desserts (pies, cobblers, etc)
Miscellaneous Recipes
Miscellaneous Diet info (allergies, Weight Watchers etc)</p>
<p>I print stuff out all the time and then put it in the appropriate folder… it makes it easier to then pull out a paella or a chowder or a neat puffed pancake recipe…</p>
<p>I have a lot of cooking magazines that I keep thinking I will get to and pull out what I want…but, I haven’t gotten to that…</p>
<p>I am afraid that if I were to die tomorrow, people will know I had a bit of an information overload problem… </p>
<p>I do love books, magazines etc and we have waaaayyy too many of them…</p>
<p>I have the same problem with magazines. What I do now is put post-its to mark good recipes. It’s a small help!</p>
<p>Same here with magazines. I have post-it-noted a percentage of those I have and stopped buying them.</p>
<p>Yet another recipe hoarder, here! I’ve pretty much given up on serious organization. I use those clear binder slips and tape small recipes on a sheet of paper; then use the kid’s notebook dividers and sort them by course. It helps me,but it’s not perfect. Somehow the challenge to find the recipe is part of the fun!! I also sometimes write page numbers on the inside cover of regularly-used cookbooks, making the search just a bit easier. </p>
<p>One thing to suggest/encourage others to do: I’ve so enjoyed having my mother’s cookbooks and recipe files. As her only daughter, I just packed them up and took them home and I’m SO glad I did. Her handwritten comments make me feel so close to her! She occasionally jotted down an ingredient change or the occasion for particular meal and those anecdotes are SO her. When I first married, she wrote step-by-step Thanksgiving meal directions for me…How to roast a turkey, etc. For me, those cards are priceless today!<br>
So, here’s my suggestion: Get in the habit of jotting down a few comments or anecdotes on some favorite recipes, so that…one day your kids might also experience those warm, fuzzy feelings when you are no longer around. Somehow, a computer printout pales by comparison!<br>
…Just a thought!</p>
<p>I have a worse problem! Not only do I have too many recipes, but I’m just tired of cooking! Or, more specifically, I’m tired of planning what to cook. If someone would just give me a week’s worth of meals, that everyone would happily eat, I’d cook them. But I’m tired of figuring it all out and find myself out of ideas. I guess I’m ready for someone else to do it for me. Anyone else with this problem? Any solutions?</p>
<p>I’ve also been a hoarder, of recipes, cookbooks, and cooking magazines including 10 years worth of Fine Cooking, Gourmet and Cooks Illustrated. I’ve come to realized that the internet is always faster when I need to actually make (as opposed to reading or fantasizing about) something. Epicurious, Cooks Illustrated, Firecooking, and Food Network will all let you store “favorites” online, and Epicurious seems to include almost every recipe I’ve ever made (they say they are from Gourmet and Bon Appetite). With Epicurious you can actually group recipes and “publish” cookbooks for friends and families!</p>
<p>Every 7 years or so, we move to a new state. You’d think that’d help reduce the paper piles, but it doesn’t. Besides, BethieVT, you’re already in the BEST state with 3 perfect seasons (summer picnics, fall foliage, skiing). Ignore “mud season” but the rest is perfect. </p>
<p>My mom fills her New Hampshire barn with boxes of this stuff. I don’t know what we’ll do when the inevitable moment comes. So good for you to keep up!</p>
<p>Shrinkrap - you are so right. I have dozens (maybe more) of cookbooks, cooking magazines, clipped recipes (both in and out of my binder) - and yet when I need a recipe, I find myself searching online just because it’s quicker. I just don’t get the same satisfaction from reading recipes online as I do from reading through the books and magazines.</p>
<p>I like to think that my hordes of recipes are a testament to my optimism? I am going to make that neat appetizer…I am going to try that special drink concoction…this salad will be a big hit…and all those parties I expect to go to where I know I will have to bring something special…</p>
<p>I have had the honor/pleasure/responsibility of emptying out 3-4 houses so far in my life…my parents, in-laws, friends etc…I will eventually do a full pass thru what we have here…but, I am NOT going to deprive my own boys from their tour of duty thru our stuff… there are definitely boxes in our attic that came from their grandparents’ homes… </p>
<p>My only clutter advice for anyone out there is do it before your community goes to a Pay Per Bag trash system… because you will PAY!!</p>
<p>martharap</p>
<p>I’m with you on the menu planning ennui. It was harder when my son was home (I try to find any crumb of a positive on not having him here) because he and my husband have opposite eating preferences. But, yeah, I wish someone would hand me a weekly menu. Lately, the hubby is on a tofu kick and I’ve found some Chinese recipes that even make it taste good.</p>
<p>When I’m home alone, I find I’m delightfully easy to take care of. Very low maintenance.</p>
<p>My problem is also keeping everyone happy. I have one who wants low carb, two people do not like cheese, one prefers marinara sauce and the other does not like red saue (ie: wants something like a vodka sauce). It goes on and on.</p>