Organize Kitchen, Recipes and Spices - Erin Barbee

My original goal was to help and serve my parents. They changed their travel plans and then they ripped up a bunch of carpet to put down tile in their high usage areas. So, I really couldn't do a lot to help them. Plus, I had to call them so many times to help me since my husband will still out of town. I know, broken record. You're all so sick of hearing about him being gone. Last post, I promise. He'll be home on Thursday.

And, back to my post. I spent most of May wondering what I should do for my goal. Then, right at the end of the month I thought I should finish my organizing goal and work on my kitchen. On the 29th, I started working through my cabinets. Then, I got to the recipe cabinet which looked like this:

Not pretty and something definitely needed to be done. 

So, I decided to reorganize my recipes like so many of you have done. I finished on the 15th of this month but at least it's done. Yahoo! Here's the recipe binder cover I printed.

 And, here's my main dishes cover. I think they're pretty cute. I printed them for free from http://melaniegetsmarried.blogspot.com/2013/11/recipe-binder-printables.html










I started by throwing out all the recipes I don't use. Then, I started retyping in a nice bold print because let's face it I'm not getting any younger. Then, I remembered that my husband really likes pictures in cookbooks. That's why Our Best Bites Cookbook is his favorite. And, I'm really lucky and he cooks a lot for me. So, I decided to make the new recipe binder very user-friendly for my husband. He has never, ever looked up a recipe on the internet. Also, I do still use a lot of recipes from our mothers but they were handwritten on recipe cards. (Don't worry none in their handwriting, all in mine.) And, I wanted more recipes to be in one place. Once again, helpful husband has to call me all the time and ask which book recipes are in. I put three recipes to a page. I just stole these pictures from other websites. I really wasn't up for making all this food and taking pictures. I also kept all of my internet recipes just in the sleeves that they were already in. I don't think I need to redo those. I might add pictures to a few if it bugs me when I make it.

Did I mention I've also tried to cut back on processed and baked foods? The sweets section was pretty hard to put together late at night. I was always hungry but stuck to it and finished it up.
The recipe cabinet looks better for sure. And, husband hasn't even looked in the book for the real test. But, I was using it today and kept thinking this might be my favorite goal. I have a tangible, pretty result. Until next month, anyway. Here's the cabinet now:

I lost my before picture of the spice cabinet but here's all the expired or duplicate ones in the garbage. I think I should organize this cabinet more often, too.

 And, here's my organized spice cabinet after. I keep forgetting to replace all my bullion cubes that were expired in 2011. 

June Project: Make do. This meant going to the store less. It also meant being more deliberate in my shopping lists and trips.

July Project: Make a bucket list with the kids. We got A Track next year which means they're out for three weeks. And, two of those my boys will be gone camping. Eeek! We will be getting through the days and just doing whatever we can whenever we can. I will be more spontaneous. I will spend time with my kids. We will work on the girls' family books and talk about family history all month long while they're excited about it. So, I guess it's now focus on family!