Simple Ideas to Organize Spices in Your Kitchen
Are your unorganized spices making you crazy? I’m here to help organize your spices and make finding them a snap!
Yes, we have all been home a lot more than we used to be and likely finding ourselves cooking more too.
If you are cooking a lot, then maybe trying to find that one spice way in the back of the drawer or cabinet is driving you crazy.
That was me and I’m going to teach you step by step how to create the most organized and prettiest spice collection ever.
Check out: Ultimate Guide to Updating an Outdated Kitchen
Spice Organization Ideas
Let’s talk about where and how you may want to organize your spices.
Much of it will be dictated to the space you have or how much space you are willing to dedicated to housing spices.
At my home, the only viable spot that has been convenient for me is in a drawer next to the cooktop.
Here it is, after clearing out OLD spices in order to get ready for this project.
Each time I opened the drawer every thing moved and became very unorganized.
It was hard to find what I needed as I cooked and after counting I had over 30 types of spices!
Time to figure out a solution to this problem.
When I decided to organize my spices, it made me think of all of the ways I could store them:
- On a magnetic section of the wall
- Inside of the cabinet
- A rack on the wall
- Pretty shelf on the counter
- Inside of a drawer
There are so many spice organization ideas and several companies are specializing in creating tools you can use.
All I knew was that I wanted to put them in clear glass spice jars with labels.
Plus make sure they were easy to read with large font spice labels (I wear readers now!)
It was fun combing through the wide variety of spice organization ideas:
- Small metal jars that are magnetic
- Racks installed on a wall or inside of a cabinet
- Lazy Susan for the counter or inside of a cabinet
- Stacked adjustable shelves
- Tiered adjustable drawer organizer
- Pull out cabinet rack
Here are a few of the ideas that caught my attention and you may like too:
After ALL of that looking and thinking about it, I went with the following to organize the current drawer:
For about $70 my spice drawer got a radical makeover!
Trying to determine how many jars I needed was the hardest part.
Over a cup or two off coffee and about two hours of work, my drawer was transformed to this:
To be honest, I pull it open from time to time and sigh a little sigh.
It was SO worth the EFFORT to create organized spices and boy does it look cool.
Cooking is just a little more fun and a whole lot easier now that I can see and find what I am looking for in the spice drawer!
Spice Layout Ideas
Since I like to think alphabetically, that is how I laid out my spices (for the most part).
Using that space at the top of the tiers maximized how many jars I could fit in the drawer.
The spices that are laying horizontally are the ones I used more regularly.
Putting them in a prominent position works for me, but you’ll need to determine how you’d like to organize your spices.
Here are a some ideas to get you thinking:
- Alphabetically
- Kind/Type of spice
- Most to least used
- Similar flavors
- By color
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How-to Organize Your Spices
To get started, there are a couple of steps you will need to take before buying anything.
Be methodical about this and you’ll sail right through this project.
I’m going to walk you through the full tutorial of how I labeled and filled the drawer.
First take note of your spices and space:
- Go through all of your spices, toss what is expired, and count what is left.
- MEASURE the space H x W x D you have to use.
Those two sets of numbers are critical when you go shopping for your spice organizational tools.
You want to make sure you get enough spice jars, so order the larger kit if between numbers.
I only needed 27…I thought, but ended up using several more and wanted to buy smoked paprika too 🙂
Sometimes you’ll need 2 jars for the same spice due to the larger container size.
The jars I purchased easily hold the larger sized spices at just under 3 oz.
How-to Label and Fill Glass Spice Jars
Tips for labeling and filling glass spice jars.
Materials
- Glass Spice Jars
- Adhesive Labels
- Rubbing Alcohol
- Paper Towel
Tools
- Small Funnel
Instructions
- Sort through spices, throw out old or expired spices, and gather them in one location.
- Using list of available spice labels, check off each spice you that will require a label.
- Gather labels, jars, and funnel before getting started. The kit I purchased had everything included. Plus I purchased additional clear spice labels.
- Count and confirm you have enough glass jars for how many spices you plan to fill.
- Decide how you want to label your spice jars.I used the labels from the glass jar kit on the lid and a separate label for the glass bottle. I wanted to see the name when it's sitting on the counter.
- Run the glass jars through the dishwasher and make sure they are completely dry. Wipe down all surfaces, including the lid, with rubbing alcohol for best label adhesion.
- Label the lids and the side of the glass spice jar. Make sure you have the side labels all facing the same direction!
- Before filling, remove the included pour/sift plastic piece from the glass jar.
- Use the funnel or pour spices directly into each pre-labeled glass jar and place back in the box as you go.
- I used a paper towel to contain the mess. Plus rinsed the funnel and dried it completely between each spice.
- If placing in a drawer, insert clear adjustable tiered tray or organizer of your choice.
- Place all of your new spice jars in the order that works for you!
Notes
- The glass jars in the kit I used had enough capacity for a full sized spice jar or 2 small jars.
- You don't have to order a 2nd kit of clear labels and just use the black round labels from the kit on the top or side of the jars.
- To save time, looser leaf type spices don't require a funnel for pouring and can be dumped directly into the glass jar.
- Make sure to clean the funnel between spices, so you don't mix flavors.
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To keep up with the expiration date, you can always use a chalk marker to write the date or apply a small sticker to the bottom of the jar with the date.
I personally am a fan of the “sniff test” and if it smells less than fresh I replace the spice.
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Until next time…
Porch Daydreamer
Tracey
This is an impressive project! Yup, I would walk into the kitchen just to open the drawer and gaze on the beauty of it. ha! Everything should have it own tidy space.
Ha, ha it’s so true 🙂
LOVE that the white-lettered labels include spices that I use frequently (chipotle, achiote, Cajun).
I have a vertical revolving spice rack. Unfortunately, the bottles were prefilled, many with spices I rarely use ~sigh~ So, I’m buying new jars to fill with spices/herbs I use more frequently.
Thanks for sharing the great organization tip!
Thanks, Esther! It’s been fun to cook and stare into my new pretty drawer 🙂