I’m back and ready to organize this week! Here’s an update:

• My first client has been maintaining the work we did in her bedroom, and best of all, she’s made progress in other areas of her house. Yeah!! I’ll post before & after pictures of her home as we finish each room.
• Savannah passed her test for her ice skating class! She’ll be starting the “Basic 3″ class sometime in March. She’s very fast going backwards!
• Phoebe learned to say “no” and to SCREAM when she’s angry…all in the same week. Lovely.
• I’m currently reading a book called Sidetracked Home Executives by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. It’s the book that inspired Flylady to do what she does. I borrowed it from the library, and I’m really enjoying it so far.
• While I was down last week with the migraines, I got inspired by a few of my favorite shows to work on some small projects. Two of my favorite TV shows right now are “neat” and “Mission: Organization”. They always have great ideas!
• This week I’m finally tackling my recipe disorganization!

I’ve been frustrated by my collection of recipes for a long time now. I have recipes ripped out of magazine, entire magazines with pages dog-eared, recipe cards, and of course, a collection of books that grows every year. They’re taking over my kitchen! I really love baking, but cooking is another story. I have a sweet tooth so that’s a big reason why baking is more enjoyable for me, but also, I have a 7 yr old so that makes cooking a lot more challenging. Kids are picky! Mine is anyway. As I try different recipes in my books I always note whether or not we all liked it, if it could have used some tweaking, whether it was worth the time to cook it, etc. There’s probably a dozen dinner recipes that all 4 of us really enjoy and that I try to cook on a regular rotating basis. I finally got the right idea on how to organize all of this mess on a blog called Forever Whenever. Thanks for the idea, Kim, and for permission to post it here Take a peak at her site to see more pictures and ideas.

The basic idea is just a 3-ring-binder with dividers to keep all your favorite recipes in one place. There’s also room for the take-out menus! Yeah! My goal is to be finished by Friday, but here’s where I’m at right now…

First I gathered all my loose recipe cards that were shoved into a drawer and all of my magazines.

Next I gathered up my new dividers, some cardstock from my scrapbooking stash, page protectors, a glue stick, and a Sharpie. I used the dividers for Menu, Dinners, Breakfast, Dessert, and Take Out. I may switch those up a bit later this week if it doesn’t work out quite right. Then I took my messy cards and glued them right onto the cardstock. Of course I remembered to keep like items together, like two chicken recipes on one page, not a casserole on one side and a cake on the other. I did all of this while catching up with my DVR. Isn’t multi-tasking great? After I finished my show, I wrapped everything up and put it away where I was. I slid my take-out menus and my ripped-out magazine recipes into page protectors and put them behind the appropriate divider.

This is another look at what I was able to accomplish in the time it took me to watch The Amazing Race last night. The pile of magazine scraps and cards is what I was able to get rid of with the use of my new binder.

Quick and easy! While I’m working on this project this week, I’m also going to purge through my cook books that I don’t really love or that I rarely use. I don’t need this taking up valuable real estate in my kitchen!