challenge met

So. Now I have a cabinet which is neat and tidy (as opposed to what it used to look like). In addition to one very ugly vent pipe (when I own my house I am SO going to paint that thing pretty colors!), it holds a small assortment of cookbooks and more importantly- my newly organized binders. There are three of them, and they feature the following:

• side dishes and main courses, categorized by main ingredient (poultry, beef, pork, pasta/non-meat, and soups/salads)
• dips/dressings/sauces, bread/pastry, desserts, and beverages
• activity and craft ideas (things to make, decorating/household ideas, games/activities, and holiday ideas)

Each is organized with labeled dividers, so I can find what I need quickly. Everything is inside clear plastic sheets or photo pages (these work great for the small clippings from magazines or for recipe cards). I have extra plastic pages on hand so I can add to the binders when I find new recipes or ideas. As we try new ones, I plan to mark them with who liked them so I won't forget, and if they don't prove to be really excellent I will just remove them from the binder. There are just too many recipes and ideas floating around out there to hold on to the ones we don't love! I have also started taking the sheet I am using out of the binder and taping it to the cabinet so that the book is out of the way and I can read my recipe easily as I cook. It is easy to re-file it once I am finished, since everything is labeled.

My menu planning sheets are in the front pocket of the Main Course binder so they are handy when I get ready to plan our meals each week. I also found a nice perpetual calendar in an old Martha Stewart magazine, and have it filled out and placed at the front of the activities binder. This way we will be able to glance ahead and see what birthdays we have coming up when we are feeling in the mood to make something.

I have already started to feel the impact of having this area of my life organized! It makes things simpler and more enjoyable, and there will be no more time wasted digging through that cabinet searching for a recipe. Hooray!!