Rockford and I are genetically predisposed to clutter. My mom still has every piece of “artwork” I ever brought home from elementary school, and my in-laws have a letter that little 6-year-old Rockford wrote to Santa on the wall in their dining room.

I’ve kept a few things — like the kids’ ID bracelets from the hospital and Poppy’s first drawing of a person — but so far I’ve been able to restrain myself in the sentimental clutter area. My problem is recipes. I have subscriptions to a couple of recipe-heavy magazines, and a few years ago I realized I had a problem. We were moving, and I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the stacks and stacks and stacks of back issues that were on the cookbook shelves. Because there were things in there that I still wanted to try.

Enter today’s Works for Me solution: A recipe binder. I bought a 3-ring binder and some clear plastic inserts, and I went to work tearing out the recipes that had me holding onto the magazine. I slipped the pages into the plastic inserts and then threw the rest of the magazine into the recycle bin. Now, I try not to let more than two magazines pile up before I start the process again.

This still hasn’t prompted me to get around to trying those recipes any faster, but it’s definitely cut down on the clutter around the house.

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