Easy and Enjoyable Recipe Organizing Systems

When you’re cooking up a storm this season, maintain kitchen recipe organization with a system for all your recipe resources. Keep track of recipes you love or want to try, select your menu and make your shopping list in a snap. Whether you’re enhancing your existing method or starting from scratch, try these smart solutions to make cooking simple and enjoyable.

Build a Recipe System from Scratch.
Cooking for special occasions may be a big task, but finding recipe ideas doesn’t have to be. Create your own organizational system with these ideas for collecting and organizing your culinary inspirations.

• Recipe Binder: Get your recipes ready and use a handy three-ring binder system with section separators to keep track of tasty treats. Store loose printouts, magazine articles, and recipe cards you want to try in plastic page protectors. Once you’ve tried a recipe, place it on a separate page where you can make notes and include pictures of the dish.

• Perfectly Proportioned: It’s important to choose a recipe box big enough to hold a growing collection of recipes. Create your own box with our smart recipe card tin craft or simply use a medium-sized accordion folder. The expandable folder can accommodate your accumulating assortment and can hold items of different sizes. Use the built-in tabs to separate your recipes any way you choose, such as by type, course or occasion.

Enhance Your Existing System.
If you already have a system that works for you, maximize the culinary possibilities with these organizing tips.

• Recipe Index: Make referencing recipes from your cookbooks and magazines easier by creating a simple index system. Think of it as your very own cookbook card catalog, and set up the basic system like this:

• If you have a recipe from a book or magazine that’s a family favorite or come across a recipe you would love to try, create a recipe index card so you can find it easily in the future.

• On your card, record the recipe name, book or magazine name it came from and the page number.

• You can also add any other details you want to remember—like occasions it would be good for—on the recipe index card.

• Use cards that will fit in your existing recipe box and keep the box close-at-hand in the kitchen.

• Rating System: Keep track of tasty favorites with your own rating system—such as a scale of 1 to 5—to help you decide for future dining. When you try a recipe, make personal notes about changes you made, cost, time or good occasions to use it. You can also create a referral system and note other dishes that make good accompaniments. If the recipe didn’t work as well as you hoped, take notes on how to improve it for future attempts or just toss it. Simply add these notes to your recipe index cards.

• Color Code: Never lose track of a recipe again by using a color code that works for you. Choose different colors for recipe types—main course, side dish, and dessert—or just for recipes you’ve tried and ones you want to try. Use clips or book tabs that match your color code to mark pages in your cookbooks or magazines. Take an extra step and create recipe index cards for each of the dishes to make it even easier to find recipes in the future and you’ll be doubly organized! Note the color on the recipe index cards or use cards in a corresponding color.

• Cookbook Nook: Create a nook and keep cookbooks or magazines in the kitchen so recipes will be easy to access once you’ve indexed them. Only keep cookbooks you use regularly on hand in the kitchen. Sentimental cookbooks that were given as gifts or are family mementoes should be kept in a separate spot where they won’t take up precious kitchen space, but are still available for reminiscing.

Tip: Try adding shelving over your most used counters or add bookends on top of your refrigerator for an out-of-the way, but close-at-hand storage solution. Pass along any unused cookbooks to a new cook, or donate them to your local library or charity.

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