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Friday, January 14, 2011

Recipe folder


There is a lot of organising going on around my house at the moment.  How cliched of me for January right?  I guess it is a cliche for a reason.  I actually love organising and find it fun and relaxing.  Not that I live in organised bliss unfortunately.  I have another 3 people (and a dog) who bring their own challenges to my utopian view of a clutter free, organised and peaceful home.  Oh yeah, and my family history of keeping just about everything because 'it might be useful'.  Thankfully this last tendency is nearly cured.  Three international moves in 4 years will do that to you!


One of the things I have reorganised is my collection of printed, clipped and handwritten recipes.  I have tried different methods for sorting all of these before (including folders with categories etc.) but seeing one of my best friend's recipe 'bible' folders with everything in plastic sleeves but with no apparent system for categorising was a revelation.  I love her recipe folder.  It is massive and is full of the sort of love that only a well loved collection of recipes that really feeds a family comes to have.  The kind with food splotches on pieces of paper and little handwritten notes by her whether it is saying how much she loved the recipe or how she adapted it.  So, in the spirit of copying being the finest form of flattery I decided to make my own and combine all my different folders into one (exhibit A above).


I find that, after a while, I know exactly where to flick to get which recipe so the lack of categories is not missed at all.  Now I can enjoy my printed out recipes next to the handwritten ones my Mum or sisters have given me and they nestle alongside favourite ones cut out of magazines.  I love it!


Of course, I had to pretty up the folder.  I bought a new folder (by some miracle I didn't have one the right size on hand) and a bunch of plastic sleeves.

I then cut out a piece of scrapbook paper the right size to fit in the spine and printed out a label to stick on top (see first picture at the top of this post).  I am enjoying it already...

8 comments:

  1. I absolutely need to make one of these - and I totally agree, I love the handwritten notes and personal touches! :)

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  2. I love it...I am going to do this as well.

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  3. I love it! And I know that yours will stay organized. By the way, I kind of have an organizational system to it. Sweet stuff is in the back. ;)

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  4. Ooooh...I started a recipe binder when I was 9 (yeah, I was the weird little girl who read Laural Ingalls and started her own hope chest!) and I still use part of it. I replaced the binder when I got married, but the new binder didn't have the right sections for how I organize my recipes (how can you survive without a Breads section?!) so I frankensteined it together. LOVE.

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  5. @{NiceGirlNotes} - the handwritten notes are my absolute favourite part.
    @em - ha ha, I totally never noticed that... ;-)
    @Aunt LoLo - Sigh, I still want to be in Little House on the Prairie (well, I managed the living on the Prairie part!).
    @Lynette (who happens to be my beloved sister) - have you done it yet??

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  6. NO, not yet but I have bought everything I need for it. Maybe this weekend.

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  7. I soooo do this too! I now have so many recipes I have printed, I have about 5 binders in diff. categories!

    Sad, I know!

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  8. I've been doing this for several years as gifts for my bffs who are newlyweds! It's a great wedding present! Now, I'm working on one for myself! ;-) Glad someone else is gettin' the idea out! It sure beats writing everything down on recipe cards.

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