Kitchen Organization

Over on Rocks in My Dryer, it's Works For Me Wednesday, the Kitchen edition. She's collecting tips for kitchen organization, and I thought I'd share a couple.

First, I saw the author's own post about her new recipe organization. It sounds very similar to my own, but more complicated! Seriously, she re-typed all of her old recipes in Word..that's way too much work for me (and way too much room for error). And I would lose all the lovely hand-written recipes that I received from one of my bridal showers, including my husband's grandmother's fudge recipe, in her own hand. Hmm...maybe I should post the recipe....or make some :)

I bought a 3-ring binder to store all my recipe cards in. I then found, in an office supply store, plastic sheets meant to store photos--I think I bought 4x6 and 5x7 ones, plus some full-sized plastic sheet protectors. The recipe cards slip into the photo pockets (and you get 2-5 or so per page, depending on size), and are nicely protected from wayward splatters by the clear plastic. No re-typing, re-formatting, etc necessary. As a bonus, the 3-ring binder itself has photo pockets on the cover, so I put my most-used recipe cards (my favorite chocolate chip cookies, my mom's coffee cake, etc) right on the cover. I don't even have to crack the book to cook.

My other tip of the day is as much child-proofing as kitchen organization. Don't put a lock on your kitchen sink cabinet, expecting it to keep kids safe from dangerous chemicals. Pets, maybe, but kids have opposable thumbs. Under our kitchen sink, I store kitchen towels, trash bags, dishwasher soap (we use the individually-wrapped tablet kind), flower vases, etc. All chemicals worse than dish soap are on a high shelf in our laundry room. That way, the only trouble Trystan gets into is pulling out too many kitchen towels.