What's for Dinner? 7 Smart Ideas to Organize Your Printable Recipes

You're in the mood for something good tonight. Maybe pappardelle bolognese or Greek-style stuffed peppers. Now, if only you could find the recipe.

It's so much easier when your recipes are organized. By having a recipe organization system, you'll know where all of your recipes are and have ease of accessing them. These are 7 ideas you can organize your printable recipes so you can enjoy cooking.

1. Recipe Journal

If you want to give your recipes a personal touch, using a recipe journal is a great idea. Think of it as a recipe organizer and a diary.

Many recipes have memories attached to them. Maybe it's your grandma's lasagna or the first meal you and your spouse made together. With a recipe journal, you can write down the recipe and express why it means so much to you.

Include photos of the food, sketches of the ingredients, of images of the memory or person. As your journal fills up, you'll have a story of your life and food. And a recipe journal is great to pass down for future generations.

2. Tin and Recipe Cards

If you like collecting recipes from many different sources, you probably have a mismatch of magazine cutouts and bookmarked cookbook pages. Maybe there's a board on Pinterest, but you want to access the recipes easier in the kitchen.

For recipe collectors, cards are a great way to stay organized. Transcribe your recipes onto store-bought or DIY recipe cards. Organize and store your cards in a dedicated recipe tin.

Tins keep your recipes neat and organized and in reach. These are trendy now, so there are many colors and patterns for you to choose from. They look great sitting on the counter, so be sure to get one that matches your decor.

3. Recipe Binder

Recipe binders are great for cooks who like to keep adding recipes to their collection. The rings in the binder easily allow you to more pages if you find a new recipe you want to keep. With a ton of accessories, recipe binders provide easy organization.

Just like you would organize a regular binder, you can separate your recipes with tabs. Choose the sections and labels that work best for you. You can even have multiple binders to separate your appetizers from your desserts.

To make your binder kitchen safe, make sure the cover is a material that's wipeable. Use page protectors to keep the paper from warping or the ink from running. You can even get a miniature easel to prop it up for easy reading while you cook.

4. Recipe Flip Stand

If you have a few go-to or favorite recipes, consider putting them in a flip stand. This is a great way to keep recipes that you use a lot within reach on your counter. With laminated slots, you can easily insert your printable recipe cards.

Use tabbed dividers to quickly flip through sections or to find your needed recipe in seconds. A flip stand is also great to go hands-free in the kitchen. It's a great addition to an efficient kitchen.

To make your flip stand extra useful, include a cheat sheet of conversions. Even if you're reading a recipe from somewhere else, you have a place to refer back to that's not far away.

5. Accordion File of Recipes

This works best if you have a lot of recipes and want to keep them in one place. Accordion files are great for the recipe collector that's running out of storage space. Use tabbed dividers to separate the recipes by meal type or cuisine.

If you have recipes in different formats, then an accordion file is for you. This can be a permanent solution to storage. Or temporary as you transcribe your recipes into one format.

Accordion files would also be a great solution for overflow recipes. There may be a recipe you don't use often but don't want to get rid of. Instead of letting it take up space in a recipe binder or recipe tin, store the card in an accordion file.

6. DIY Cookbook

A DIY Cookbook is a great way to compile all your favorite recipes in a personalized and permanent way. You can type up all your recipes and have them printed and bound into a professional-looking book.

A DIY cookbook is a great way to get the family or kids involved in the process. Make it feel like everyone is included by having each member submit a few of their favorite recipes. Mix them up and organize them by recipe type.

These make great gifts for anyone in the family. Include a photo of the person who picked it and a little blurb about why they picked the recipe they did. A DIY cookbook is a useful keepsake everyone will love.

7. Recipe Planner

Mix a day planner and a cookbook, and you get a recipe planner. Recipe planners are perfect for the most organized people out there. If you like to choose your meals ahead of time, then this is the recipe organizer for you.

A recipe planner can help you keep track of the new foods you try and whether you enjoyed them. It can also help you branch out and try new dishes. You can see the trends in the types of food you eat, which can help you plan future meals.

Use the first pages to plan out your meals by the week. Include pages you can tear out for your shopping list. Keep your go-to recipes in the back of the, so if you ever get stuck planning, you have your favorites to fall back on.

Organize Your Printable Recipes

If you love to cook, then organizing your printable recipes is an absolute must. The kitchen can become a haphazard place while you're cooking, but that doesn't mean your recipes have to be.

By using one of these seven methods, you'll have some structure and efficiency in your kitchen. What's the first recipe you're going to try tonight?

Ready to start your recipe organization? Try these printable recipe binder kits.