Cookbook Organization

We're moving towards the end of the 31 Day Challenge. It's kinda sad. This last week or so we'll be focusing on some more random areas. Today: Cookbooks!

I know, after all my recipe organization talk the other day, I have still more recipes! It's a sickness, really.



We started out with this bookcase in our kitchen when we first moved in. A few years ago it moved to the dinning room, just outside the kitchen, when we got the kegerator. It still holds most of our cookbooks.



Earlier this year we had an addition built onto our kitchen island which added some more cookbook storage.

I haven't really developed a system for this new space. Other than keeping my recipe binders and most used cookbooks here.

I started off by straightening up. Moving the cookbooks from the kitchen to where they belong and going through some odds and ends in the main shelf.

Here's what we're working with now:





Obviously I didn't do much here. My goal today was not to whittle through all the cookbooks, but just make it look a little nicer. My last cookbook organization I organized by type and then my state for many of my regional cookbooks.

We are trying to move away from using so many paper products (napkins, towels, etc) so I moved our cloth napkins to the kitchen island so it's more accessible. We often eat dinner at the island so it's easy to grab.

On the bottom shelf I've got my recipe binders, a cookbook I made of some of our favorite recipes, How to Cook Everything, and the cookbooks I've been cooking from the most lately. I love having this shelf here because it keeps the books handy, but still out of the way.