A few of the magazines I receive are full of delicious recipes (I love the food network magazine!). Instead of keeping the entire magazine, and in an effort to save space, I would tear out the recipe and file them away in these hanging files….

Then when I felt inspired to try something new, I would dig through the files to find something yummy to try. It did help to have them put away. But there were problems with this solution…

* I had reached a whopping 6 magazine files full of recipes. Would I ever really get around to trying that many?

* When I did have that inspired feeling I mentioned, digging through the hanging files was an annoyance. Not very easy to find something specific I remembered tearing out…Like this great french toast recipe I found months earlier.

I mean, look at this mess…

Please tell me I’m not alone in this one?!

With school out and summer officially upon on us, I now have some free time to cook with the kids. Time to get this pile whipped into shape!

A few weeks ago I found these awesome magazine files in the Target $1 spot and loaded up before they disappeared…

I love how bright and colorful the files are. And I really love their low cost – Just a single dollar!…

The files are simple to put together – I quick 1, 2, 3 and you’re in organization business…

For this project I also used manilla folders, washi tape and my label maker with clear label tape…

I found the easiest way to sort through my large stack of magazine tear-out’s was to lay manilla folders down on my table top…

And I labeled each folder with a food category on a post-it note…

Then I spent about 15 minutes sorting through the recipes and tossing anything that was uninteresting or a duplicate. done!…

Now that I had my categories and all of those yummy recipes sorted, I created pretty labels for each folder using washi tape and a clear label…

First folder done! Oh, there’s that perfect french toast recipe I was searching for…

Now all of my breakfast “recipes to try” are easily within reach…

I continued the process – adding washi tape and a label – to each folder until the job was done…

Little tip – I found that I only needed to use the left and middle tabbed folders. Since that right tab wouldn’t be seen in the magazine file, this seemed to work best for me.

I filled 2 magazine files with recipes to try and I can’t, well….Wait to try them!…

All I need to do is pull out my magazine file…

Lay it on its side…

And quickly grab the category/folder I need. Finding any recipe is super easy now! Even if I feel like trying a new chicken dish and need some inspiration, all I have to do is grab the “chicken” folder and I can try something new!

Here is a complete list of my recipe categories, in case you’re interested. I started with my own categories but added several as I went through my large stack of tear-outs.