Jan 29 | Household Tips
Are you struggling to find a way to efficiently keep your recipes organized? You most likely have cook books, random sheets of paper, index cards and magazines lying around with your prized recipes. But, when it comes time to actually cook something, you have to dig through all your books, papers and magazines to find the recipe you want. It doesn’t have to be that way!
Here are a three ways on how to organize recipes:
Use Index cards
You could take the time to copy all your recipes onto index cards. Or you could tape the ones from magazines onto the cards (then ditch the magazine to help tackle your paper clutter!). Organize them alphabetically or by category in a recipe box like the one pictured above above.
Use a Binder
Make use of a three ring binder and sheet protectors. Simply place recipes you’ve printed, cut out or received from friends and family into the sheet protectors. Organize them by category then once it’s time to cook or bake, remove the recipe from the binder to have beside you while you work! The sheet protectors also double as a “splash guard”.
Use your Computer
Type, download, or scan your recipes, then again, organize them by category into a bunch of files right on your hard drive. As I mentioned in the post about taming paper clutter, an online program such as Evernote, may help you to organize recipes as well. Or if you’re using Pinterest, pin all your favourite online recipes (or ones you’d like to try) for visual reference! The only problem with using your computer is, when you want to use a recipe, you have to set your computer on the counter (only if you have a laptop, of course) or print out the recipe.
Using a couple or all of these recipe organization ideas may work best for you. I currently have some recipes on index cards, in a three ring binder and on Pinterest. This is what’s working for me right now. Although, I’m going to take a look in stores to see if there are any photo albums or recipe binders that would work for me to put all my index card recipes into. I wouldn’t mind doing away with my recipe box!
What works for you when it comes to recipe organization? Do you have any tips to share?
Jan 26 | Household Tips
I know I said I’d only have 5 days of organizing ideas using objects that you likely have on hand already, but egg cartons have so many uses, I had to share!
Use an egg carton to organize little office supplies, like paper clips.
Organize baby socks in a visual manner using an egg carton. (or use the carton to give socks as a gift.)
Use egg cartons to store Christmas ornaments safely.
If you only have a few sewing items, store them in an egg carton by creating a little kit!
Organize your jewelery using egg cartons!
I’m sure there are a ton of other ways to use empty egg cartons. Care to share your ideas?
Jan 25 | Household Tips
Both cardboard and plastic shoe boxes are super versatile when it comes to organizing. Here are 5 ideas on how to put them to use in your home!
Use a shoe box to hold little baby socks, accessories and shoes in a dresser drawer like I did!
Organize your ribbons and create an easy dispensing system with a cardboard shoe box!
Create a DIY Christmas ornament storage box using a shoe box!
Plastic shoe boxes are a great way to organize your freezer.
Organize your change table by using a few boxes.
Jan 24 | Household Tips
Are you drowning in paper clutter? Or feeling overwhelmed not knowing how to deal with everything? Here are some tips on how to rescue your home and your sanity from the piles of paper that surround you.
Tips to Tame the Paper Clutter
Have one place
Have one place to put all your papers (one area and one area only), until you have time to deal with them. For us, it’s a small wicker basket that I keep inside a cabinet. Everything goes in there. Bills, magazines, receipts, notes, etc. Or you could purchase one of those three tiered desk filing systems and set it up like this:
- One tier as an inbox – When you’ve just received mail or magazines or brochures and you don’t have time to sort them, this is where they go.
- One tier as an “Action” box – Bills to be paid, reports to be reviewed, and other papers to be acted upon go here.
- One tier as a “Reference” box – This is where the papers that you need to keep on hand for reference for ongoing projects are kept.
Try Evernote or a notebook
If you’re anything like me, you may jot down quick notes or ideas on random pieces of paper that you find close to you. You’ve most likely misplaced those “important” pieces of paper countless occasions because you never had a specific place to put them. For example, I currently have this week’s menu written on a piece of junk mail (I’m keepin’ it real) that will most likely be recycled before I have a chance to make the first meal because it looks like junk mail rather than something important. But, if I had taken the time to write the menu in a proper notebook, I would probably still have that menu to reference. Instead I’m stuck trying to remember what I decided to make, costing me more time.
If you’re into going digital, I’ve heard great things about Evernote. It’s a free program that allows you to save your ideas, things you like, things you hear and things you see. The neat thing about Evernote is that you can search your notes by keywords or tags to find the things you need when you need them. Evernote even works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there.
Go Electronic
If possible, set up all your bills/investment reports/etc to be delivered to you electronically. Obviously, if you have things set up this way you won’t be receiving papers to deal with!
Use a Binder for Manuals
Nowadays, many product manuals are available online, but for those that aren’t, consider keeping them all in one binder for easy reference. Take a look at this post for more details on this system.
Try the scanning and shredding method
If you have a bit of time and a scanner, you may want to consider scanning the documents that you need to keep on hand then storing them on some sort of hard drive. I recommend keeping 3 copies; one on your computer, one on a backup drive, and one in cyberspace (ex: Dropbox). Once you’re sure that all pages have been scanned and stored properly, shred the papers.
Since most people don’t have time to devote to paper organization as soon as something lands in their hands, here are some suggestions to help you get things sorted out in a quick manner once you do have the time:
- Pull out all of the reading material – Pull out the catalogues, magazines, newspapers and brochures. Read and recycle what you can since these can take up a lot of room.
- Go through the things that need action – Take out all the bills, invitations, permission slips and any other papers that need you to take action. Hunker down once a week or once a month to get them done.
- File and shred as you go – pretty self-explanatory!
Here are some examples of filing systems that may work for you:
How long to keep important papers
It would be nice to do away with every single paper, but that’s just not practical. There are some papers that you must keep on hand for tax and other purposes. Here are a couple of websites that will help you determine how long to keep particular documents:
I hope this post will help to get your paper clutter under control! This is still a work in progress at our house, but I hope to get a better handle of things this week during my file/shred sessions for the Get Organized in January event!
Did I miss any great tips? Care to share what works for you?
Jan 24 | Household Tips
Save those toilet paper rolls! They’re useful for many organization tasks, but here are 5 ideas to get you started!
Wrangle extension cords by putting a toilet paper roll around them.
Cut a toilet paper roll to use around wrapping paper.
If you use a hanger to hold your scarves, use a toilet paper roll to keep the scarves from sliding off the hanger!
Keep your pens and pencils in order by using toilet paper rolls in a shoe box!
Not necessarily an organization idea, but you could “organize” your garden seeds and get them growing in toilet paper rolls!
Have you got any brilliant ideas for using toilet paper rolls ?
