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This guest post was written by Certified Professional Organizer® Tiffany Engler – St. Louis, Missouri – www.yourlifeorganizedstl.com.
Supplies you will need

Pen
1 – 4 Hardcover 2” Binder(s)
100 top load Page Protector
5 packets of 5-tab sheet protectors

Preparations

Clear off the biggest table in your home.
Gather all of your loose recipes into a box and put the box onto a chair near the table and where you will be sitting.
Keep the supplies nearby, but not on the table. You will need all the room you can get.

Step 1Pick up one recipe at a time and decide what type of recipe it is. Is it a recipe for soup, bread, orHalloween cookies? Once you decide what type it is place it in a pile. Each pile represents a category.
When you pick up a recipe you have three choices:

Add it to a pile you have already created.
Make a new pile.
Recycle it. Strongly consider this option if you can’t read the recipe or you have no interest in eating and/or making it.

Tip: Keep your categories broad. Right now itʼs important to know what you have. If some piles arebecoming very large, donʼt worry about that now. We will discuss large piles. Use the following broadcategories as a guide: Beverages, Potatoes/Rice, Fish, Appetizers, Sides/Condiments, Turkey, Breakfast/Brunch, Sauces/Spices/Herbs, Chicken, Breads/Muffins, Casseroles, Lamb, Salads, Vegetarian, Pork, Soups, Low Fat Entrees, Beef, Snacks, Italian/Pasta/Pizza, Desserts, Fruit Sides, Mexican, Holiday Recipes, Vegetable Sides, Chinese/Oriental, Kid Friendly Recipes. Step 2Unwrap the tabbed sheet protectors and locate the tab inserts. Write the name of each category on the paper insert, with the exception of the larger categories. At the end of this step every category (minus the large categories) should have a label.
Step 3Now take your tab inserts and line them up in the order you want them to go in to the binder. You might start with appetizers,then breakfast, then sides, entrees, desserts, etc. There is no right or wrong way. Go with your instinct.
Step 4Put the inserts into the sheet protector tabs and then put those dividers into a binder.
Step 5Now you can begin to put your recipes into sheet protectors. For example, if your first tab is labeled“breakfast” put all of your breakfast recipes into sheet protectors and put them into your binder following the appropriate divider. Repeat this step until the only piles that remain are your largest piles.
Tip: If a recipe is printed on both sides of the paper then that recipe gets its own sheet protector. This way you can read both sides without having to take the recipe out of its protector. If however, a recipe is only printed on one side then you can put two recipes back to back in one sheet protector. Baseball card protectors and photo protectors are also available to buy – which might be good for some of the small clippings.
Step 6With the larger piles remaining separate them into further categories. For example, if you had more than 30 recipes in the beverages, desserts and holiday categories, you could break them down as follows:

Beverages: juices, non-alcoholic Mixed, wine cocktails, flaming beverages, mixed drinks, and beer cocktails
Desserts: cakes, cookies, pies/pie crusts, cupcakes, ice cream, pudding
Holiday: Christmas, birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Easter

Step 7Use one binder for every large category and label the spine of the binder. For instance, Beverages will go into a blue binder and the spine will be labeled “Beverage Recipes,” Desserts will go into anorange binder and the spine will be labeled “Dessert Recipes.” And Holiday Recipes will go into a red binder and the spine will be labeled “Holiday Recipes.”
Step 8Similar to what you did in previous steps, use the tab inserts to make your labels, insert your recipes into sheet protectors and put the recipes behind the appropriate binder.
Step 9Keep extra sheet protectors in the back of your binders. That way if you clip a recipe from a magazine or newspaper you can just slip it into the protector and move it behind it appropriate divider. Make space in your kitchen cabinets or pantry for your binders. And make sure it is in an easy to reach place.
I’d love to hear how you organize your recipes