I keep thinking about “Spring Cleaning,” but so far not much has happened around here in those regards. I also have a lot of outdoor cleaning to do, but that has to wait until it warms up outside AND the wind isn’t blowing 50 mph. I’m hoping next weekend will work to get the garden and flower beds cleaned out and some sticks picked up, since there are a LOT of sticks to pick up all over our yard.
Something that I have been working on is my cookbook cupboard. Last weekend I opened it up to see if I could fit the new cookbook that Kevin had brought home in there somewhere. I tried to rearrange a little, but there was no way I was going to be able to put it in there unless I cleaned it up a little bit.
I started by taking all the cookbooks and loose recipes out and wiping out the cupboard with a rag. I stacked similar cookbooks together and then put them back in the cupboards. I did pull out about four cookbooks that I was going to get rid of.
I also put in a big pile all the loose recipes that we have cut out that we thought sounded good and also all the magazines that I need to go through still. Just that pile of papers and magazines made a huge difference in the cupboard!
I used to cut and paste those recipes into a 3-ring binder, but I find that I use my iPad and laptop a lot more these days (and Pinterest) in the kitchen, so I decided to scan all the loose recipes into my laptop with our Neat Receipts scanner. It worked great! A few nights this week after the boys went to bed, I just plugged the little scanner into my Macbook Air and changed the location of where I wanted all the scanned recipes to be saved. As I was scanning each recipe, I would edit the name of the recipe.
This did take some time, but now that huge pile is completely gone and it’s all nice and “Neat” on my laptop. I will go in (when I have some spare time) and make folders to organize the recipes even more. Right now they are just in order by their name, but I’d like to have a Chicken, Beef, Seafood, Vegetables, Appetizers, Desserts, etc folders to find things easier.
What have you been doing for spring cleaning? How do you keep all your recipes and cookbooks organized?
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. Neat does not know me at all and did not pay me for this post. I just like to share products that I have that may help someone else!
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