Organization

I have a love-hate relationship with organization. In many ways, I am a tremendously organized person. I almost never forget meetings and appointments, I don't double book my schedule, and I don't generally lose things. In other ways, I am a disaster. If you saw my desk at work, the chaos might make you wonder how I accomplish anything. My house is often in disarray and my car is usually a mess.

However, it is the time of year when I feel compelled to organize at least one part of my life. In 2006, my closet got a makeover. In 2007 we bought a shed and completely organized the garage (Hub did most of the work). With 2008 quickly approaching, my goal is to get my recipes organized. While this might not sound like a big job, you have to understand how many recipes Hub and I have. We both like to cook and we both like to buy cookbooks. The two shelves on our baker's rack are completely crammed with cookbooks and there are more squirreled away in the basement. Of course rather than use all of those cookbooks, I constantly go online and print out new recipes to try. Once I am done with them, I usually shove them in other books, put somewhere on the baker's rack, or bury them on the counter, never to be found again. I also like to tear out recipes from magazines and add them to the pile. Because these recipes are all over the place, I tend to forget about them and never make them.

To counteract this craziness, I have embarked on Phase I of Recipe Organization, 2008. Hub and I went to Staples and purchased a sturdy three-ring binder, a package of 200 sheet protectors, and some dividers. I have spent my free time over the last few days gathering all of my printed and magazine recipes, going through them, tossing the ones I will never make, and setting aside those that I like. I am now going online and printing out copies of all of the magazine recipes that I can find. For those that I can't get access to, I am typing them out in Word. Each recipe goes into its own sheet protector (with the picture cut out from the magazine if available). The binder will be organized by category, with the recipes arranged alphabetically. Phew, it is just so much organization that it makes me giddy!

Once this is complete, Phase II will involve going through our cookbooks and donating those that we never use. I am not sure if there will be a Phase III yet, we'll have to see how the first two pieces go.

The biggest upside of all of this work is that I will never again have to ask my mom for the same three recipes I ask for every year.

Cheers!