Hi.
I'm Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today we're
going to talk about organizing recipes.
Here's the problem -- I've seen it first-hand so many times -- people are overwhelmed with
paper recipe clutter.
They've clipped out recipes from magazines, they've gotten index cards and little scraps
of paper with recipes from friends, and they've scribbled something down off the television.
What do you do with all that stuff?
Well, one solution is to use a recipe binder.
And I have one right here.
This is mine, I still use it, it's great.
I have a whole video about how to make one of these that you can watch.
We have a link here for you on the screen.
So that's work pretty well, but I think there is a better solution now, and I am migrating
toward that.
I've been doing it for a while now, I have most of my frequently used recipes in there,
and that is the application called "Evernote."
Now Evernote is a free application.
I have no financial connection to it, I just like it a whole lot.
And what happens is everything with your Evernote database is located [POP] in every place you
need it to be.
So it's on your Smart Phone, it's on your I-Pad or other tablet, it's on your desktop
or laptop, and it's on the web which you can access from any computer.
And all of that synchronizes constantly with each other so that your information is updated
everywhere you go.
That has been so wonderful for me, particularly with the recipes, which I'll explain.
So here's how it works.
So let's say that you've ripped out something from a magazine like I did with this [POP].
Well before, what I would tell you to do is put that in the front pocket of your binder
and until you have tried this recipe just leave it there and then when you try it and
you like it, move it into the right divider tab in this binder so that you can know that
it's a keeper and you're filing it away to use it again.
And if it isn't good, throw it away, right?
Well, instead of doing that we are going to get rid of the paper clutter by taking a picture
with my I-Pad camera.
I can do that, or I can use my Smart Phone camera.
Whatever works best.
You can even scan it in if you want to from your printer scanner.
And then pull that right into a note inside Evernote.
Then you're going to do a couple of things.
You're going to title that, so you're going to put the right title of what the recipe
is called.
And then you're going to tag it.
Now, here's where the real genius comes in.
If you use a recipe binder you have to choose one category of these dividers.
So let's say it's a main dish.
So I'm going to file it away under "main dish."
But what if you think of this recipe in different ways?
What if you don't want to just put one category?
You can tag multiple tags in Evernote and search those and sort those in all those different
ways.
So it could be a main dish, it could be Thai food, it could be dinners, or lunches.
It could also be other categories for other recipes.
Breads, breakfasts, all kinds of things that are the way you think about your food.
There's one tag that I want to share with you that's a special one that is a great little
trick, and that is the tag called "keepers."
So I just tag it "keepers" whenever I have tried the recipe and I like it and I'm keeping
it, that way I know that I've tried it and I like it.
And if I try a recipe and I don't like it, I just delete it.
So the "keepers" [POP] tag helps me know that it's a good one.
All right.
So the beauty of doing this, there are several reasons why it's so brilliant and great to
do this.
First of all, it's searchable.
Now, of course you're thinking, "Yes, the title of the recipe and the tags and all that
are searchable," and they are, but here is the most amazing part.
When you take a photo and move that picture into an Evernote note, all of the text inside
the photograph is actually searchable.
So I want to make sure you understand how cool that is.
So this says: "Thai garlic and basil chicken."
If I search the word "basil" in my database, it will pull that word out of this picture
and put it in my search results.
So you don't have to worry about finding anything.
You can search for an ingredient or some key word that you remember about the recipe, and
you can still find it.
That is amazing.
Also, of course it's portable.
So your information is everywhere.
I've been in the grocery store many times thinking, "Oh, no, was it two tomatoes I needed
for that dish, or just one?"
And I can go right to my recipe in the store and reference that.
And, of course, another big result and benefit is that you have no paper clutter remaining.
So think about moving gradually over to Evernote.
That's how I'm doing it.
I still have my binder and I am moving recipes as it makes sense for me to do.
And let us know how that goes for you.
You can share what you think in the comments and let us know what you think about our whole
YouTube channel.
We're really proud of it.
We hope that you'll subscribe.
We've got well over I think 140, 150 videos now, [POP] and we have a lot of play lists
organized for you to learn about all different themes of content that we have.
So please let us know what you think and we'd love to hear from you.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.