$9 = Happiness

I have only been really into cooking for about a year and a half -- since I got my mixer -- but I have been collecting recipes for awhile. I rip them out of magazines (Food & Drink and Real Simple, mostly), get them online (www.allrecipes.com) and a lot of writing them down over the phone with my parents.

All of these recipes ended up in a single folder that recently has been getting out of control. It became ridiculously hard to find anything in it and every time I opened the drawer, recipes would spill everywhere.

So a few days ago, I spent $9 at the dollar store and just over an hour at the dining room table and have finally organized this beast of a recipe collection.

How did I do it?

• I pulled out any recipe I thought I would never actually make 
• I sorted the rest into sections -- meat, pasta, brunch, dessert, salad, soup
• I got two floppy binders, 10 dividers and 50 clear plastic paper protecting sleeves (I'm sure there's a more official title for those)
• I put each recipe in a sleeve (these can be used on both sides)
• I used the dividers to organize the sections

I can't tell you how much better I feel about this. It's just so neat and organized and easy to use while I'm cooking. 

Do you have any great ideas on how to organize your recipes?