What books she started with
A reader, Karen, sent in the photos above to show her thinking process when she began this decluttering project.
She explained, "I STARTED on this. Let's just say I KEEP everything, including cookbooks from when I was in 4-H (see the Teens Entertain book in the center of the picture! , it's probably 40 yrs old I think - Other 4-H books include: Cooking for You and Me, All American Foods, The Young Chef and my favorite, Foods with an International Flavor.)
Kept some books, and will update my recipes that I have in page protectors in 3-ring binders. Some of those need to disappear and be replaced with other recipes!"
She continued though when she showed the second photo, saying, "The funny part is I use the 5 cookbooks that I've helped gather recipes for and have published, as well as my red/white checks Betty Crocker binder and my other favorite is where is mom now that I need her or something like that. All these books and I use 7!!"
I think Karen made a great distinction, because she realized she was keeping things she didn't actually use for cooking.
I'm definitely not telling you to declutter all your cookbooks, and the 7 she mentions she actually uses should definitely be keepers. But the rest should be evaluated as possible clutter to get rid of.
by Paula
I had a lot of cookbooks but found that I only used certain recipes and the books took up too much space.
I decided to go through each cookbook and put a paperclip on the pages of recipes that I wanted.
I then typed up the recipes that I wanted from each book and divided by meat type and then sub categories such as salads, snacks, breakfast, etc.
I then made my own set of cookbooks with only the recipes I wanted.
I gave away all of my store-bought cookbooks.
Photo courtesy of jfiess
by Ferris
after
Ferris from The Hamman Family Blog shared before and after pictures of the drawers that she used for her recipes and cookbooks.
Basically, they'd become junk drawers.
She took everything out of the drawers, and separated it into recipe related items and other.
When she was done she had separated out all of her cookbooks, which she put back into the drawer with the ability to now actually find one of them when she needed them!
Great job decluttering Ferris!
Most people have been putting these books on shelves somewhere in their house, but if you don't have very many and they are relatively small and thin like yours a drawer will work too!
The photo above is from a reader, Earlene. She said, "This is not really a before. It's a here-we-go-to yard-sale- and an after. There used to books on both shelves and a jillion papers!"
So are you ready to do exactly what Earlene did in this Declutter 365 mission, and get rid of your excess cookbook clutter?
Once you've gotten rid of what you no longer want to keep, make sure to check out the companion article for this mission which is all about ideas for organizing the cookbooks you've got left.
Comments for Are You Ready To Get Rid Of Your Cookbook Clutter?
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||