Decluttering the Cookbook Shelves

One of my goals this year is to declutter our home and pare down on the things that I don't use.  My cookbook cabinet was an easy target.  I had several years worth of cooking magazines that were taking up one whole shelf (prior to the arrival of the little bean we used to have one evening a week dedicated to deciding upon and making a new dinner menu together) and a few cookbooks that I never used.  I didn't want to just throw out my magazine collection without saving some beloved recipes so I went through each magazine and tore out only the recipies that I loved, ones that I'd flagged but never tried, and ones that I was likely to make and like. When I was done (several days later) I organized them in an expandable file folder categorized by appetizer, soup, side dish, main course, or desert.  Eventually I'd like to put them in a three ring binder with each recipe in a clear slip cover so that I can easily take out recipes and not worry about ruining them with sticky fingers (I'm a messy cook).  I am taking all of the cookbooks that didn't make the cut to a local bookstore that trades used books.  The picture above is one of my two cookbook shelves, neatly organized with my favorite cookbooks easily accessible (and yes the chocolate cake book gets a lot of use).