June 24 - Organizing Articles, Recipes, Patterns, Etc.

Are you in the habit of tearing articles, recipes, craft projects, etc. from magazines? Do you have an efficient system for using the information that you collect?

For years I made the mistake of collecting this type of information in well-labeled file folders. Because it was so well organized, I felt rather smug. But, here’s the thing – I never used this information!

Oh, sure, when I’d add in a new article, I might glance at what was already in the file folder. It was all in order, so I felt pleased with my efforts.

Then I realized that I was never using these pieces of information and that my reason for collecting these things was because they were supposed to be useful. How use-full was this stuff if my only interaction with it was collecting it and filing it?

If you have similar files, do you use them? Do you do the craft projects you’ve collected patterns for? Do you sort through recipes and put those dishes on your table? Do you rotate to those new exercise moves? If your answer is “no,” are the files, piles, or binders of pages torn from magazines worthwhile? (The same applies to information you’ve printed off the Internet.)