A Recipe for Decluttering: Kitchen Paper

Posted on: October 30th, 2007 by Julie Bestry | No Comments

“This recipe is certainly silly. It says to separate the eggs, but it doesn’t say how far to separate them.”

~Gracie Allen


I like to imagine that Gracie Allen’s kitchen was much like her on-screen persona: charming, but a bit addled…with mismatched paper scraps fluttering around her like so much snowy flaked coconut.

Even when we eliminate all the things that don’t belong in our kitchens, our Food HQs are often littered with clipped and copied recipes, cooking magazines, regular and diet-related cookbooks, and more. Kitchen clutter is often a sticky mess, preventing us from ever finding the perfect recipe when we want or need it.

The toys and clothes that surround us may no longer be age-appropriate, size-appropriate or lifestyle-appropriate. Similarly, we can outgrow cookbooks, diets and recipes that once fit us so well. It may be time to part amicably with Macrobiotic for a Groovy Life or 172 Ways To Lose Weight With Grapefruit. To downsize your own cookbook collection, ask yourself:

Have I used a recipe from this cookbook in the past year?

If you use the cookbook heavily, even in just one season, keep it. If you seek it out frequently but only for the same one or two recipes, copy out what you use and set the cookbooks free. And, if you can’t remember the last time you opened it, the book has become a stranger in your home—send it away. Your options are to:

• Donate the cookbook to your local library book sale or a book-related charity (or even Harvard)
• Sell it at a local used book store or online
• Store it elsewhere than your kitchen. If you have the bookshelf space elsewhere in your home, store extraneous cookbooks as you would history or reference books.

In the future, test-drive a cookbook to see if it’s a good fit by borrowing it from friends or the library before making a purchase.

For the piles of loose recipes clipped out of magazines or copied after tasting a friend’s culinary triumph, select one recipe at a time and follow these simple rules:

1) SEPARATE DREAMS FROM REALITY: Will I ever really cook this?

We have to be honest with ourselves and realize that if the fanciest thing we cook is spaghetti, we’re not really going to be dabbling in egg drop soup or meringue flamb from scratch. If your lifestyle is such that you, your spouse and your kids aren’t home until 15 minutes before stomachs start rumbling, cookbooks concentrating on dishes that require all-day loving attention just don’t fit your lifestyle.

If the photos with those recipes are truly dazzling but out of your reach, create a “Dream Recipes” folder to keep in your files along with dream vacations and dream decorating ideas. You can preserve the dream without cluttering your kitchen.

2) DIVIDE AND CONQUER: Under what category does this recipe fall?
Pretend you’re a cookbook editor and come up with some major categories, and then add the ones that fit your family’s dining style:

  • Appetizers
  • Salads
  • Entres
  • Desserts
  • Ethnic meals (sub-divided by region)
  • Holiday food
  • Picnic meals
  • Allergy-free recipes

Once you have a healthy stack for each category (and are certain you’re really going to attempt to cook each item), you’re ready for the final step.

3) PUBLISH YOUR OWN COOKBOOK:

Buy a fat three-ring notebook and a box of transparent, plastic sheet protectors and slide the recipes into the sheet protectors. If a recipe is continued on the back of a page, you’ll be able to see the front and reverse easily; if the recipe is continued on another page, place it back to back with the prior page. The sheet protectors keep the recipes from getting damaged or sticky and can be easily cleaned with a sponge. Use simple subject dividers to separate the categories.

If you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, consider this pre-made Cookbook Binder Tabs Kit from OnlineOrganizing.com.

And don’t forget, the Internet can often replace printed recipes. For example, sometimes you can just type a short list of ingredients into Google, and you’ll be led to various recipe options. You can also search for recipes at these helpful sites, often by recipe name, category or just ingredients:


Keep the recipe clutter to a minimum — you’ll have more space to cook and dine well, and you’ll have more time to enjoy your meals and dining companions.

Say goodnight, Gracie!

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