I use plastic sheet protectors in a three ring binder. For clipped recipes, I paste them onto a regular sheet of paper if they are one sided, if they are two sided, I scan them and print them out and then paste on paper, insert the paper back to back in the page protector and am done.

Rita, this is what I was thinking too. You can get double the amount of page protectors if you buy Staples brand instead of Avery.

I do the same as Rita. And every now and then I go thru the binder and get rid of recipes I've decided not to make. I also have been saving recipes on my computer and I don't print any of those until I'm ready to make something.

I save all my favorites online or in my head..

I did make a family cookbook a number of years ago when Tastebook was still in business. It includes a wide range of recipes including some from my dad's head (which he and we are all grateful for now-- as he lost a good part of his memory and instincts for cooking when he had open-heart surgery last summer)

There was a time when I kept cutouts from magazines etc-- but I never put the time into organizing them well.. and well, they were mostly from bon appetit, gourmet, NYT, sunset and cooking light-- and they are all available online now.

Bluebell, I save most of mine on my computer too as PDFs in a Recipe folder. I print out when I'm ready to make it. Although sometimes I just run back and forth from my laptop to my prep area. Also, inkjet ink runs when splashed with wet ingredients.

I have so many recipes for roast brussels sprouts from when they became a thing. Now it's just intuitive, so I can probably toss them.

And Dedtired's experience was mine too!

Ugh, recipes are my downfall! I've being doing like you, and putting them into ring binders for many years now. I use those clear plastic sheet protectors that are made for the binders, though. I just slide my cut out or printed out recipes into them. But, as I love to cook, I now have way too many binders! I do have good chapter dividers in each of them, but under each chapter are so many recipes, it takes me a while to find what I want. Before Christmas I purchased an online recipe storage program called Paprika. Sadly, though, I haven't put a single thing into it, as yet! What's holding me up is getting it also onto my laptop, which will then stay in the kitchen area for easy access. And then transfering a thousand recipes into it. And organizing them all (Sigh)!

I also have many recipes on my Word Press Healthful Eating blog site. It's a private, secure site just for our clinic's patients. But, as nice as it looks, it would be hard to keep a thousand recipes organized ! If I recall, the Paprika program allows you to do a search by ingredients, etc. Someday, when I get mine done, it will be invaluable!

Hey Bunny.. do you have a tablet? A tablet on an easel in the kitchen might help for those that are available electronically!

Funkyart, I have an iPad and sometimes I do put it on the window sill right above my prep area to watch podcasts while I'm cooking. But I really prefer a printed recipe that I can put my messy finger on, or use a steak knife like a ruler as I'm going down a list of ingredients.

I use plastic sheet protectors, and then I remove them from the binder when I am making the recipe. The sheet protectors keep the recipes from getting ingredients spilled on them, and so they are particularly useful. I have some tab sheets so that I can organize recipes by type, but I haven't gotten very far with that, although I do have breakfast in one section and desserts at the end. I have two fairly large binders that are pretty full, and so I do need to get them more organized by category. I save all the recipes in Word documents, and so I can always find them on my computer when I need to, but I dislike printing them out twice, if I can avoid it. I have more on the computer than I have printed out - I only print out the ones I use - not the ones that I might use.

Lars, we pretty much do the same thing, including taking the protected page out of the binder while using a recipe. I think I'll put my clipped recipes on a plain sheet of paper, grouped by category. Maybe use some semi-sticky stuff that lets you remove something when you don't want it anymore. I'm sure there's stuff like that to be had.

I periodically peruse my recipe folder on my computer. But I also like a more tactile, page-turning experience of physical recipes, even if I haven't made it yet.

I was never a big collector of recipes until a few years ago when Pinterest was introduced. There are so many great finds that I finally created several boards to save them to and when I find something interesting, I save it to it’s appropriate board. I cook the board recipes alot but seldom print them out, instead I just follow the recipe from my ipad.

Several years ago, i started using the website Eat Your Books, which is like a giant search engine for your cookbooks, and also many many magazines and blogs. AND your personal recipes, whether online or offline (on paper). It's just an amazing resource.

Each year, I put the physical recipes in binders, organized by category. I add them to EYB, and then I can locate them when I want them (like tonight's 9-vegetable hot and sour soup, which took all of 15 seconds to locate in the Soups section of my 2014 binder!!)

I take a picture of clipped recipes and store them in iCloud. I no longer have any printed recipes (except multiple cookbooks). When I want to make something, then I print it out. When I'm finished cooking, I generally throw the printout away because it's got food stains on it. Okay, I know it's not an environmentally friendly way to do it, but I seldom cook from recipes anyway, so I'm not creating too much waste.

Vc01, I'll have to check out Eat Your Books. That does sound like an amazing resource.

For recipes, I definitely like them on paper. It's easy to make notes, use colored pens, etc.

I have a binder for my recipes. If I cut it out, I tape it to a sheet of paper, maybe one that's already in the binder with related recipes. If someone else is cooking, I can slap a post-it on it with notes for timing, etc.

As a visual-spatial kind of gal, I look for specific recipes by what they look like lol. For example, I know that the Funny Soup is in DMIL's handwriting, the romaine salad is a magazine cutout, and the Baked Alaska takeoff is photocopied from a holiday book, with my notes added.

I used to have a folder of magazine recipes like mentioned above. I stopped subscribing to magazines so that cut back on most, but occasionally I’ll flip thru a magazine and see a recipe I want to save. I’ve found that I can almost always find the recipe online by typing on the recipe name on the website of the magazine. Then I can print the recipe from the website and save it in binders (yes, I have them too). If I’m at a doctor’s office flipping thru a magazine, I’ll take a picture of the recipe. Then when I get home, I use the photo to find the same recipe online.

I have several binders with tab dividers to categorize the recipes. I also have a Cooking Folder in my browser that has subcategories where I save links to recipes I see online. Sometimes I will print recipes and put in my binder. Other times I just use my iPad in the kitchen to pull up a recipe rather than print it. I try to hold off on printing a recipe until after I’ve made it - if I like it, I print it and put in the binder. That way, if the link ever gets deleted, I still have a hard copy for the tried and true recipe.

I've been using binders for years. For the few clipped recipes I paste them on a sheet of paper before inserting in the sheet protector.

Catticus, got a link to the baked vidalia onion spread? 10/10!!!

Can't help you, Bunny. I've never been organized enough to keep good files. I read recipes and cooking books and articles all the time. I have dozens of dogeared cookbooks, I clip recipes from newspapers and magazine s, I save them in my tablets. I get.recipes from friends. And then, alas, I wing almost everything I cook.

Baking is different. I follow those recipes carefully, and I can usually find what I'm looking for!

I keep my sewing stuff much better organized, though no one would believe it to look at it. :-)

10/10 is the date, but it is really good.

https://savoringtimeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2010/10/baked-caramelized-onion-spread.html

10/10 is the date

Hee hee.

Thanks, Catticus!

I take a picture of all the little bits and pieces of recipes and upload it to my computer. When I get a page full of little bits and want to print it out then I just print out a page. But I don't print things out very often anymore. Most of the time I just take a picture of a recipe in a magazine or online with my phone and bring my phone into the kitchen and follow the recipe in the kitchen off my phone.

I have a drawer of recipes that I really need to organize into a binder with page protectors. I also have linked to some of them online, on Favorites under a Food file. Or if I've made something I really like, I've blogged about it and then go back and re-make the recipe again and again.

Yes, I still have cookbooks. I use them to stir up ideas, randomly looking through. The Internet is better for searching when I have something specific in mind.

I can’t recall the last time I opened a cookbook — even though I have about a dozen sitting on my kitchen shelf. I have printed-out recipes in a binder (no sheet protectors) that I use, as well as recipes saved in Pinterest — for those I just refer to my phone or iPad. Oh wait, I also have a small box of recipes on index cards. Obviously not a master of recipe organization! I only actually use a recipe maybe 1-2 times a week.

I have lots of recipes and still copy the ones I like with my notes onto index cards. Others that I've cut out of magazines or printed end up in my notebook under plastic sheets, the book divided into categories such as breads, salads, etc.

Annie, that looks a lot like my binder did the last time I organized it. It's the darn magnetic (i.e., sticky) pages that will no longer release recipes I don't want anymore.

I don't know what you mean by sticky pages...these are plastic pockets. I use a glue stick to put dots on the corners of the recipe and stick them to a sheet of paper and then slide them into the pocket. The old recipes seem to peel off fairly easily if I don't want them...

I have several color-coded file folders marked for broad categories of foods (red for meats, green for vegetarian, yellow for breads cakes, desserts): Chicken and Poultry; Beef and Lamb; Pork; Seafood; Vegetarian Entrees; Vegetarian Sides and Sauces; Breads; Cakes (I'm a big cake baker); and Other Desserts. I have a separate file folder for Thanksgiving recipes, along with a collection of Thanksgiving menus through the years (back to the 90's) and notes about how the turkey turned out on particular years! We always put our turkey in the Weber or Green Egg, and cooking times and results vary according to the ambient temperatures and conditions.

I put my clipped or printed-out recipes in the file folders, and go through them periodically to toss unused or duplicate recipes. It's not the prettiest method, but it's the best one I've hit upon. I have a large collection of cookbooks as well.

I don't know what you mean by sticky pages.

Annie, they're called magnetic photo pages, really just tacky/sticky. It was a photo album I never used for actual photos, which is a good thing. Thin magazine paper (with text on the side that went on the sticky surface) would often become permanently stuck over time. I think I'll use something in the corners, just to hold it on the page.

Magnetic pages

I use these. They also come in a 4x6 size.

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/706173/Office-Depot-Brand-Photo-Pages-3/

And these:

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/491658/Office-Depot-Brand-Heavyweight-Sheet-Protectors/

And these:

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/574978/Office-Depot-Brand-Insertable-Extra-Wide/

In notebooks.

I put mine in a binder but inherited a file box full of clippings from my mom, so now I put newer ones in there or in my binder, depending. Every month I pull a few of mom's clipped recipes out and try them. If we don't like them I throw them out. It sort of makes me feel close to my mom, although she rarely cooked. My dad was such a picky eater I think he squeezed all her cooking mojo out. She saved enough clippings to keep me busy for a lifetime. I used to save mine on my computer but sadly lost them when it broke. That's when I switched to printing them and putting them in a binder.

We're having some really rainy weather here in the Bay Area so it was a good day to start my Recipe Book Redo. I bought a new binder, page protectors, dividers, glue stick (repositionable). I'm strangely attached to some old recipes I've never even made, but I still like the photo and they feel like old friends. I'm going to get rid of them anyway.

I'm strangely attached to some old recipes I've never even made, but I still like the photo and they feel like old friends. I'm going to get rid of them anyway.

It actually feels good to finally let some of them go. That stack in the first photo above was what I culled that day. No sense taking up space if it's obvious I'm never going to make or wasn't that crazy about in the first place.

Catticus, I hear ya. There is a typed index card from the 70s called "Mom's Gazpacho." I loved it when she made it in the early 60s. It was fresh and new and the perfect meal in the heat of summer. If I ever made it myself, I don't remember. Still, I'm gonna keep the card. Now "Mom's Meatballs" is something I make all the time (chili, curry, sweet and sour, so darn good).

The binder I bought is aqua, a color I don't really fancy, but the other colors were worse. On the inside cover is one of those large clear envelopes with a tie closure. At first I thought, what do I need that for? And then the light bulb: All those clippings until I get around to trimming and filing.

I confess--I have way too many recipes! I do keep them fairly organized in three different binders. The largest binder is for "tried and true" recipes, divided by category and placed in page protectors. Another binder is for tried and true desserts. The third binder is where I keep my "sounds really good and I want to try" recipes. Once I've tried a recipe--if its a keeper I put it in the appropriate binder. If not, I toss it! Every once in a while I go thru that binder and toss some recipes that no longer appeal to us.

Catticus and Bunny--I definitely understand being sentimental about old hand written recipes. My most treasured recipe is my Grandmother's recipe for her dill pickles. Of course, mine are never as good as hers were!

From the comments it appears hard copies are very popular which kind of surprises me. I take photos of recipes and email them to myself, then place them in appropriate folders. I much prefer this to the old binder system I used to have.

I got a little bit verklempt when everyone started talking about throwing away their recipes. I threw away a recipe that I thought I had copied and then found out that the copy did not happen and never could find the recipe again.

It was for a vegetarian meatloaf and it was a walnut based one. I probably couldn't even eat it nowadays as I can't eat any wheat but I still miss the exact taste of that recipe. It was in the Vancouver Sun newspaper or something like that. I really do follow recipes to the letter and don't remember them well without the written word so to speak.

Before I moved out of my parents home I hand wrote all my favorite recipes from "home" into a three ring binder recipe book. As life went on I taped recipes from newspapers/magazines in this book. At a wedding shower I received a 'photo album' with 5x7 cards with gifted recipes. Most of the scotch tape has now given way. Most of those recipes were never even tried. When I started printing off the Internet I collected the all in a plastic folder with two pockets. It's a pain to dig through. These days I don't print I just cut and paste into a file on my lap top which sits in my kitchen. As found recipes pile up I can organize them easily into files. I too have a memory of a recipe my mother used. Chicken and probably tomato soup based. In those days mom cooked mostly by opening cans so no doubt the rice we ate it with was minute white rice. Something I have never purchased. I have searched the Campbell soup companies web site for it but have yet to come up with something close. :(