Works-For-Me Wednesday

A fellow blogger and very funny writer, Shannon, from Rocks in my Dryer came up with this great idea:

You know how it is--we all have come up with dozens of little shortcuts or ideas around our homes to make managing our lives easier. Maybe you came up with such an idea yourself in a moment of desperation, or you learned it from your mom or another friend...it doesn't matter how it came about. What matters it that your life runs the tiniest bit more smoothly because of your clever idea.

I'm not a brilliant homemaker or cook, but when it comes to finding shortcuts--THIS I can do (which probably doesn't speak much of my character, but that's another blog post....). Each Wednesday I plan to publish one of my own little make-life-easier ideas. They may not be spectacular (they may not even be original--I've learned so much from friends!) But they "work for me"--hence the title!

Now, here's where I hope you'll consider playing along. I would LOVE to see some of my fellow Moms Of The Blog World join in and do your own "Works-For-Me Wednesday". If you let me know you're participating, I'll link to you. Think how much we could all learn from each other if we share our own little ideas!. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EARTH-SHATTERING. Just simple, affordable and designed to make the tiniest difference in your day.

Now, as a faithful reader of "Hints from Heloise" since I was just barely old enough to read, OF COURSE I want to play along! I loved Shannon's idea so much, I can't wait for our next family vacation!! If any of you want to play along too, just link to me and link to Shannon and we'll both link to you! Here's my "Works-For-Me-Wednesday" for this week:

I have an enormous cookbook collection and used to get very frustrated trying to remember exactly which church cookbook that amazing shoefly pie recipe was in ... until I began organizing our favorite recipes on my computer. After I've tried a new recipe and it gets at least 3 thumbs up (out of a possible 5), I add it to the appropriate Microsoft Word file (I have one for appetizers, one for main dishes, etc.) I print out a new edition several times a year and store the printed pages in plastic page protectors in a three-ring binder. An additional bonus to this system is that anytime someone wants one of my recipes, it's as simple as cutting and pasting from the document and I can either email it to her or print off a paper copy.

Now it's your turn!