Free printable
Recipe box dividers, tabs, and labels
A recipe box only works if you can find things in it. These print the parts that do the finding: dividers with a writable tab, twenty-four pre-printed category tabs, and a label for the front of the box.
Need the cards to go in it? The recipe card templates print in matching 3 by 5 and 4 by 6 sizes.
4 x 6 box dividers, two per page
Cut on the dashed line, including around the tab. Write the section on the tab, or print a category tab from the next sheet and glue it on.
In this section
In this section
24 category tabs, pre-printed
Cut out and glue to a plain divider, or trim close and use as a stick-on tab. Enough for a whole box, with the categories most home collections actually need.
Recipe box labels
One for the front of the box, one for a gift. Both print at 4 by 2.5 inches.
The
Recipes
Recipes for
How to set up a recipe box that stays usable
- Sort before you divide. Lay every card out and make piles. The piles you end up with are your categories, which is a better answer than a list you picked in advance.
- Keep it to eight or twelve sections. Any more and filing becomes a decision. Any fewer and each section is a stack you flip through.
- Put the biggest sections at the front. Weeknight dinners get opened forty times a year. Holiday baking gets opened twice.
- Add a "to try" divider. Every collection has recipes you have not cooked yet. Keeping them separate means the tested ones stay trustworthy.
- Stagger the tabs. Print the divider sheet twice and cut the tabs at different positions so you can read them all at once.
A box, and a copy of the box
A well-kept recipe box is a lovely object and a single point of failure. It lives in one kitchen, it cannot be searched, and a flood or a move takes the whole thing at once. The cheapest insurance is a photograph of each card.
Trivet reads a photographed card into a recipe you can search by ingredient, scale for a crowd, and shop from, while the originals stay in the box. Nothing leaves your iPhone, and the whole collection exports to a file you keep.
Keep the box. Keep a copy that cannot flood.
Photograph a card, get a searchable recipe. Private, on your iPhone, no account.
Questions
- What size are recipe box dividers?
- They match the cards. A 4 by 6 box takes 4 by 6 dividers, a 3 by 5 box takes 3 by 5. The divider is cut to the card size plus a tab of about half an inch, so the tab clears the cards and stays readable.
- Should I divide by letter or by category?
- Category, in almost every case. You look for "something with chicken," not for the letter C. Alphabetical only helps when the box is large and you already know the recipe by name.
- How many dividers does a recipe box need?
- Eight to twelve is the sweet spot. Fewer and each section is a stack you have to flip through. More and you spend longer deciding where a recipe goes than writing it down.
- What paper works for dividers?
- Heavier than the cards, so the tabs stand up: 80 lb to 110 lb cardstock. If your printer will not take it, print on regular cardstock and glue the divider to a piece of cereal box.
More printables: recipe cards, meal planner, grocery list, family cookbook.