A record of the incessant and trivial chatter running through my head.
Step One: Admit I Am Powerless Over My Addiction
I love to cook and I love to bake. In a perfect world I would be getting paid to do it. I love to bake for others and see the smiles on their faces as they enjoy something I’ve made. It’s fun for me. . . therapy in a way.
Cooking is not my problem.
Cookbooks, cooking magazines, cooking blogs, cooking websites are my problem.
I need help.
A quick perusal of my home will quickly illustrate this addiction. Want to see?
The cupboard is overflowing
A shelf in the laundry room
On the countertop
On the kitchen table
On the breakfast bar.
On my dresser in the bedroom.
On the floor beside my bed.
Several years ago I gave trash bags of these little treasures away. It was freeing. Cleansing. Liberating. Unfortunately, I have accumulated too many. . . . .again. C. is very patient with my addiction. Every now and again he will suggest that I downsize the over-flowing cupboard, but otherwise he keeps his mouth shut. He is a very patient man. I love to look through these magazines and cookbooks to find things to create. The problem? Once I am ready to make this recipe or that one I can never remember what book it was in.
I don’t know what my problem is. Maybe I have some sort of an emotional attachment to these books. . . I don’t know. Outside of this I am not really a pack rat. My house is pretty free of clutter, emails do not stay in my inbox long, and I cannot stand to have excess junk on our DVR. (We won’t talk about my parents attic, though). I need to do something about this. I need help. I need a new system. I need suggestions. Anyone? This is my cry for help. . .
LOL!! My mom collects cookbooks and passed along the love to me!! What about shelves built into the kitchen or living room? Is this a possibility?ReplyCancel
Good call on not talking about the attic. There would only be Christmas decorations up there if it wern't for all your stuff! hahah Oh yea, and a dead bat.ReplyCancel
my proposal is that you take an inventory of the cookbooks and find a way (shelving?) to keep them all in one spot.
as far as magazines, i think you should have a filing system that works – either a 3-ringed binder (or one binder per course, i.e. dessert, appetizer, dinner, etc) or an accordian file? separate into sections and cut out or tear out the recipes that WANT to have on hand and then pitch the rest of the magazine.
maybe? will this work….or at least help? you could even do one folder of things you want to try, then file them (if you liked the recipe) into the binders or accordian files.
or maybe you're a hoarder and need to be on reality TV?ReplyCancel
She recently started going through every single book, page by page. She found that only a few recipes in each book sounded good to her, or sounded like something she might actually make. So, she just ripped those pages out, tossed the rest of the book (I know, some might shiver at the thought of this) and used a binder to collect those she kept.
LOL!! My mom collects cookbooks and passed along the love to me!! What about shelves built into the kitchen or living room? Is this a possibility?
Good call on not talking about the attic. There would only be Christmas decorations up there if it wern't for all your stuff! hahah
Oh yea, and a dead bat.
ok….you need an intervention.
my proposal is that you take an inventory of the cookbooks and find a way (shelving?) to keep them all in one spot.
as far as magazines, i think you should have a filing system that works – either a 3-ringed binder (or one binder per course, i.e. dessert, appetizer, dinner, etc)
or an accordian file? separate into sections and cut out or tear out the recipes that WANT to have on hand and then pitch the rest of the magazine.
maybe? will this work….or at least help? you could even do one folder of things you want to try, then file them (if you liked the recipe) into the binders or accordian files.
or maybe you're a hoarder and need to be on reality TV?
I love the three ring binder idea. . . of course I'll have to have one for each course. C. loves the idea! Thanks for the help!
I absolutely recommend the 3-ring binder thing. It TOTALLY works well.
(And I smiled all throughout this post. I mean, it's not like you're collecting guns or porn. :))
(Can I be considered an enabler? Tee hee.)
My mom had this problem.
She recently started going through every single book, page by page. She found that only a few recipes in each book sounded good to her, or sounded like something she might actually make. So, she just ripped those pages out, tossed the rest of the book (I know, some might shiver at the thought of this) and used a binder to collect those she kept.
It's working well!