Organizing Aspirations

I have been enjoying crossing off items on my 2011 To Do List so much, that I added a link to that very post on my sidebar to keep it accessible... and myself motivated ( I do love a good checklist).  And in fact, I'll probably keep adding items as I think of them or come upon new ones throughout the year.

And in an effort to get more organized this year, I thought I'd give you a couple of my favorite organizational-type tips in return for any of yours.

First off, my sister-in-law had the wonderful idea of putting all those random recipes into a binder.  And I too had the same thought before, but never got around to blocking out hours of time to type them all out on neat and beautiful little recipe pages, and so nothing happened until she expounded on her idea, which was to grab all those recipes...including the grease-spattered sheets, scribbles on the backs of an envelopes, ripped out notebook pages, and even the random beautiful recipe card, along with a bunch of clear sheet protectors in a cheap binder...and unceremoniously start stuffing recipes.  So, I did just that.. taping the little pieces and parts of pages, sticky notes, envelopes, etc, to printer paper to keep them from falling to the bottom of the protector.  I decided to get a little crazy and went so far as to separate them into desserts, main dishes and breads!  And now they are all collected in a binder, where I can easily flip through them, instead of shuffling through topsy-turvy stacks of notes and papers when I am in especially dire need of some specific culinary how-to.  And as an added bonus, they are protected from spills with the sheet protector.  Love it.  Especially because it is easy, and doable...and extremely user-friendly.

My next tip involves measuring cups and spoons.  One lady told me how she hangs those little sticky hooks on the inside of the door of her spice cupboard to hang her measuring cups and spoons from.  Utter genius I tell you.  UTTTER GENIUS!  It's been months since I've instituted this fabulousness in my home, and I still get giddy when I reach to the spice cupboard and see them all hanging in neat little rows.  I love that they are easy and accessible, plus they aren't filling up one of my few precious drawers, getting tangled and jammed all the time.

So now it's your turn...leave me any of your fabulous ideas.  They don't have to be elaborate and extensive...in fact, those kind scare me.  I like the non-intimidating type the best, pretty please.