Organizing Recipes 101 (with Pictures)

Women have asked me how I organize my recipes. This is something that is important to me. What good is it if I have tons of recipe books, but never look at the recipes? I do have lots of books...I don't always have time to go through them to pull out recipes.

These are only a few of my recipe books. These happen to be my favorites.
So how do you keep track of all your favorite recipes amidst a ton of books?

I use a recipe box...yup..it's that simple. A 4 x 6 recipe box. This is mine:I created this box because I didn't have room in my kitchen to store all my recipe books and running up and down the stairs to the basement everytime I wanted a recipe was not convenient...good for exercise, but not convenient.
Here is what I did...
1. Purchased a really cute box
2. Purchased 4 x 6 index card
3. Purchased stick on tabs to make my own dividers
4. purchased some peel and stick laminate sheets
5. downloaded a free template for recipes for my "Word" program.
6. Made a list of divders i'd want to make for my recipe box..Breads, breakfast meal etc.

I created my own dividers for my recipe box. the reason I did this is because I mill my own wheat. So I have tons of different types of bread recipes that are only for fresh milled wheat. Also I have tons of muffin recipes, so I wanted to keep them seperate. I was able to personalize my box by doing this. I decorated each divider with a scripture that I liked...I then laminted it and stuck on the index tab. It was that easy.

The reason I chose to laminate the cards? Because when i'm cooking , I make messes. It's easier to wipe off the card then to have to worry about re-typing it because I can't read what's on it.
I then went through each book, starting with my favorite books. I typed up all the recipes that I liked or wanted to try. I wasn't worried about typing up recipes that I might not get around to trying...I have plenty of room in the box. I then laminated each recipe card...for the same reason as above.
Once I went through all the books it is really simple to stay on top of it. Everytime I get a new recipe book. I go through it right away and pull out the recipes that I want to try. This is great because I can give the book away to someone else or let someone borrow it if it's a book that I know I'll want.
With the new baby coming...I'm going through my books again and adding any recipes that I may want to try or ones that I was too lazy to type up in the past.
When I'm doing my monthly menu, using the recipe box is so convenient. I just go to my breakfast section...pull out the recipes I want to use or try that month...add them to my menu and then add any ingredients that I need to my shopping list.
You don't have to be as meticulous as I am. Keep in mind that when I started this project, I had two older young adults..so I had time to do this.
You may want to write your recipes...you don't have to decorate your index tabs and you don't have to laminate them. These are just the things I did.
Here is a list of the sections in my box to help:
Baby Food
Breads
Breakfast
Desserts
Holiday - These are holiday recipes like cranberyy chutney, etc.
Lunches
Main Dishes
Muffins
Raw - These are great recipes that are raw/vegan, raw fudge balls etc.
Smoothies
Snacks
Soups
Misc.

Happy Eating!!

In Christ,

Laura