Organization

Once again, time has flown and it's been almost an entire month since I last posted. I can't believe how busy it's been--each day has so much more that needs to be accomplished than time to do it in. So before another month has again slipped by, I'll share this post I started some time ago about a way I've found to help me be just a tiny bit more organized.
I like to collect recipes. I try to be choosy about the ones I cut out, but some of the magazines I subscribe to have so many tasty-looking ones that it's hard to restrain myself. For years I've tossed the ones I've clipped into the empty scrapbook I'd planned to use to organize and display my own personal collection of favorite recipes, but that project has yet to happen. So every time I've wanted to use a recipe from this stack, I've had to sort through the entire collection before I found the one I was looking for.
So one day as I was unpacking cookbooks, I grabbed a bunch of folders I'd found in another box and started sorting. I divided my recipes into categories that work for me: chicken, beef, pork, ham, pizza, etc. I prefer this kind of division rather than the more general main dish, side dish, etc., that you sometimes see. I like to make my grocery lists a week in advance and I do so by picking recipes based on what meat is on sale, or what I want to use from the freezer. So now if I want to make say, some kind of pork chops, I can check my pork file and see if there is something appealing for this week in it. Some of the folders are already too full and need to be subdivided. The dessert one, especially, would like to be divided into cakes, cookies, and so on.
One thing I would do differently, however, is to put the labels on the left side of the folder instead of the right. It's hard to see which folder is which as I pull them from the shelf. But it has been such a handy way to organize. I've already started using those recipes more often.

Another thing I did while unpacking was alphabetize my spices. That's something I never thought I'd do. But when I found that 1) the only shelf that would hold all of them was a deep corner cabinet and 2) I counted them and found I had more than 50 different spices, I knew I'd need some help. Nothing slows dinner making like standing in front of the spices, lifting each one in turn to find that one you're after.

So I grabbed some little baskets that I'd found in the same box as those folders discussed earlier and alphabetized the spices into those. Did you know there are quite a lot of spices that start with the letter C?
These are some things that work for me. It's interesting how each place you live can make you see your possessions in a different light, make you realize different uses, or that maybe you don't need something after all.

I truly do hope to get back to blogging more regularily..soon..hopefully..