Organizing Your Recipes: 8 Foolproof Methods

Problem: Locating a Cookbook

Solution: Make a kitchen book nook. Nothing personalizes a kitchen like a row of cookbooks arrayed on a shelf or in a hutch. Keep a chair or a stool nearby so you have a place to sit and peruse. Avoid placing books on open shelves where they’re exposed to humidity and grease, namely “over or next to the stove or over the refrigerator,” advises Bonnie Slotnick of Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, in New York City. She also urges using bookends to keep books from slumping and bindings from breaking.
 
If your kitchen is tight on space and short on free shelves, consider adding a steel shelf with hooks that dangle below so it can do double duty as a pot rack.