i use mason jars, the littlest cute ones, and i write the name and date of the spice on the bottom with a sharpie. looks great in the pantry!

right now it's a jumbled mess. This post is very timely as I have to get the mess under control.

I really like the idea of the mason jars.

As I don't use/buy enough spices to have mason jars full of them (really? you all use THAT much?) I keep mine in the bottles they come in. I have two old wooden crates that soda used to be sold/carried in that I hang on the wall and separate spices into by theme. So one corner is typical ones and one is what I use most for baking, and one is indian etc. I got them at a flea market and painted them... works great!
(similar to the idea here http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2010/11/soda-crate-shelving.html)

This is great. The muffin tins idea is really great! Thanks for sharing!

J.K. Adams makes the finest spice carousels I've ever come across. They're pricey but well worth it. Their racks and shelves look great as well.

www.jkadams.com/jkadamsstore/knife-spice.html

@Lia_Bia, yes, when I use cumin I usually am using a teaspoon or a tablespoon at a time, which would quickly exhaust a smaller jar. So I fill my jars from the bulk bins at my local co-op. But not all my spices get used in such quantities; you can see smaller jars on the shelf above -- I keep much smaller amounts of things like turmeric, fenugreek, etc.

Great ideas for storage, but I have one that uses an often overlooked space. Nail the lids to the underside of cupboard or shelf and screw the jars into them. They hang down and show a colorful pantry, but they're out of the way and easy to refill and clean.

I use jars as well, but I re-use fancy condiment jars (mustard, capers, chocolate sauce, etc). The jars are very pretty, cost nothing, and come in all different sizes, so I fill them according to how much of each spice I use. I buy my spices bulk, or in big plastic pouches and transfer them to the lars. I label the lids and keep the spices in a big bin in the pantry, with the ones I use frequently in a little hanging shelf in my kitchen.

When we remodeled our kitchen, we cut the back down on one of our cabinets and cut the shelves to fit inside (thus giving us more shelves). We then spaced the shelves to fit tall-sized spice jars. It's not a simple solution, but as part of a larger kitchen project, it's pretty minor, and it has been really worthwhile.

I use an old soda crate with 24 sections. Mounted on the wall it fits small spice jars perfectly. I am on the lookout for another since it doesn't quite fit everything. The spices I use in quantity are kept in original containers or put in jars if I bought them bagged or bulk.

@Traci bue--that idea sounds clever, but I'm curious how you have it set up. Do you put things on the shelf under the hanging spices?

I thought I would never get magnetic circular ones. When I did, I hated them. My fridge caught a lot of sun and I their reasonably large surface area left me with a load of faded green herbs. Also, there was workspace over my fridge so the spice jars inevitably caught flour, sugar - whatever.

If it's going to be glass - make it brown glass.

Spice storage has been the bane of my kitchen existence, but I recently built my own spice rack and use all sorts of different jars (including small mason jars!) to keep my spices organized. It's conveniently near the stove (but not so close that the heat will damage them), and I like being able to re-fill them with bulk-bin spices. It's so nice to be able to see and reach everything at a glance!

chefheidifink, we have exactly the same storage strategy. We are spice rack soul mates.

Penzey's jars (even if the herbs/spices aren't from Penzey's, we use their jars--the headquarters is in our town) stored in the spices closet--we converted the old ironing board closet in our kitchen to store spices. Great use of space.

I'm about to move into an Airstream full-time and have to make sure my spices stay secure (they'll actually unscrew when you drive down the road!). So I'm using childproof pill bottles with labels on top. I think anyone storing spices in a drawer would find the labels helpful.

http://www.aluminarium.com/airstream/rv-spice-storage/

this was very inspirational, thanks for the great post!!

We use test tubes - super cheap from science supply websites. The slight lips at their tops are perfect for hanging from a long strip of wood with holes drilled to fit them.

I'm surprised you haven't referenced jars such as those from the Sunburst Bottle Company; Tea & Cookies had a great post on the subject (http://www.teaandcookiesblog.com/2011/01/create-an-organized-spice-rack-check.html), and I later did my own recap (http://amelieschoice.blogspot.com/2011/03/spice-storage.html). The jars are wide enough to allow me to dip in a measuring spoon and big enough to contain all of a regular spice jar or anything bought in bulk. I love them!

The standard glass jars fit nicely in CD drawers. Target has some wire mesh drawers in frames that you can buy individually and that stack for cupboard use. You could take them out of their frames for drawer use. I have one for baking and one for savory. They are almost under control that way.

Peg board with those jars that are supposed to hold nails (well washed before use of course.)

Keeps everything vertical and neat for cheap. Plastic might be bad for us, but, well, lots of things are bad for us.

I love the idea of using a re-purposed printers tray if I was able to come across one! The under the counter method sort of terrifies me if the lids arent on tight enough!

We use a vintage metal library file to house our most used spices:

http://www.mintlovesocialclub.com/2011/03/flea-market-finds.html

I have a spice rack with 3 rows of shelves for the small items, and 3 Rubbermaid double turntables for the larger jars of herbs, spices and baking stuff (baking powder, etc.).

I generally leave the spice in the container it came in. I save all the small jars that come my way, such as jam or tapenade, and when I get some bulk spice I put it into the smallest jar that it will fit in. I will cut out the label from the bulk package, and tape it to the jar. Everything is in different containers but I think it looks attractive, and over the years, I've found it works for me.

My favorite jars are from Bonne Maman preserves, with the pretty red checked lid. I don't especially like 2 part canning lids - they're just a nuisance, but I do have a couple of those.

I have small metal tins which I've grown to hate. Sure, they look all neat, organized but some of the spices cake up around the rim and make them very hard to open. Tumeric is the worst of them all!

So now, small mason jars are my favorite these days.

I keep mine in a deep, low drawer and then use a permanent marker to label the lids. I can see everything at once and don't have to shuffle things around to see what's there.

Nice spice storage ideas. But as an Indian looking at the masala dabba (Hindi word for spice box ), i must say that we never keep red chilli powder alongside whole cardamoms. As even one speck of chilli powder can spoil cardamon that's often used liberally in Indian sweets dishes.
Actually speaking, this kind of masala dabba is used to keep red chilli powder, coriander seed poweder, turmeric, garam masala and cumin seeds- basic spices for making vergetables/dhal indian style.

I just love the idea of the wall-mounted magnetic rack. It's brilliant and effective!!!

The single most important thing for spice organization is to have a very shallow pantry cupboard. I always have to argue with kitchen designers about shallow cupboards -- they keep trying to give me something deep. But cupboards which are no more than 8" deep are perfect for spices and many pantry items; you don't lose things in the back, and everything is readily visible.

I have adorable spice jars, but they all just sit heaped up on the counter and in wooden shoe boxes. I like the idea of magnets (ala Alton Brown) but I can't think of a place in my kitchen where that would work. So for now, I rummage through the spice pile.

I recycle old mason jars, condiment jars and jelly jars for those spices I use a lot of. I use baby food jars (from a friend) for those spices I only use a small amount of or very little.

I think Mason jars make sense for things that are used in larger quantities-- I use them for dried rices, beans, and lentils-- but not most spices.

My spices fill an entire shelf of a lazy susan cabinet. It's not ideal, but at least they're out of the way and easy to sort through.

i put all my spices on 2 double tiered lazy susan spin things. they fit perfectly in my upper cupboard next to the stove. i got them at aldi. they work great & its easy to find them.

i put my rice, lentils, pasta etc in jars on a spice shelf above them in the cupboard.

Uniform containers are nice and the smaller hex ones are very cool, but unless you buy your spices and herbs in those smaller amounts, where would you store the rest of them? I stacked bits of 2x4 on our shallow pantry shelf for 3 steps; with all the jars on them, you can't see the wood (which is only unfinished pine) and everything fits in a pretty small space.

I keep my spices on a 2 tiered lazy susan in an upper cupboard like kjchordas. No need to buy and move them into other jars when they already come in such pretty ones.

I used to have a kitchen with a drawer just the perfect height to hold spice jars - I labeled the lids and it was super quick and easy to find just what I wanted and kept the spices out of the sun. The drawer was wider than I needed for herbs and spices, so I fitted it with a divider to make room for towels, foil, etc.

I no longer have a perfect drawer (and indeed all the options in my current kitchen are poor for spice storage). The best solution was a narrow upper cupboard but it was a nightmare to reach things that were buried in the back. I fitted it with a basket so now I can pull the whole thing out like a drawer and access stuff from the back without having to pull everything out.

I tend to reuse grocery-store spice jars because I can't decide what to replace them with, and have a hard time justifying the cost of new jars when I already have airtight, functional jars. I hate that standard grocery store size spice jar though, because the opening is too narrow for a teaspoon or tablespoon to fit inside (so I end up shaking it out into the spoon, hoping it doesn't dump a lot more than I need) or I dip the half-teaspoon numerous times, which wastes so much time. I've used some jam and mason jars for things I keep a lot of (cinnamon, thyme, whole nutmeg) but it's a waste of space to keep small amounts in larger jars (and agree with someone above that the 2-part lid is cumbersome for things you access frequently). One day I'll find the perfect solution, but so far it has eluded me!

How timely. I just re organized mine! I have these beautiful glass jars with wooden stoppers on the top for mine, three different sizes depending on how much I use them (the smoked paprika and cumin are in the biggest ones) I also store my honey in one because it looks so pretty. Also, they stack really well and look beautiful out of the pantry and on the counter (just make sure you keep them in a dark corner or your spices will degrade).

My main problem is I'm always experimenting with new spices. Thankfully the bulk retailer I buy them from also sells the jars! One stop shop!

Since my fridge is a small step away from my stove, I put all my spices in the round magnetic containers and used the side of my fridge as my magnet board. Cheap, looks fun and easy to reach while cooking!

I have these, and I love them - they fit different size jars (though mine are primarily Penzey's) and they are easy to organize - I have an Indian Spices shelf, a Spanish spices shelf, and so on.

https://spicestack.com/index.php

I have two of these acrylic racks from The Container Store:

http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/spiceStorage?productId=10024130&N=70879

Love the idea of the test tubes!

Nothing has ever worked as well for me as spice drawers. I've had wide, shallow drawers that were just right for spice jars lying down. Now I have a drawer that fits standing-up jars. These I label with round stickers from the office supply store, and I meticulously keep them in alphabetical order for quick finding. There's a little extra space; I use this for a few spices in vintage metal cans.

I keep mine in the pantry I had to build. It used to be a broom closet. Now it keeps my spices and flours.

http://citygirltocountrygirl.com/?p=2348

You can see my spice jars in the last two photos.

City Girl to Country Girl

I had my spice rack built for my purposes, with varying heights for each shelf based on containers I've collected over the years.

I went to an unfinished wood furniture shop and it cost about $50. I painted it myself.

http://commoncourtesies.blogspot.com/

I'm loving all these ideas. I still haven't settled on a system.

My husband made a spice rack for me.
Then I used some jars from a previous spice rack (one of those cheapy spinning ones) and I painted the names of the spices/ herbs on each one.
Its hanging above my countertop, next to the stove. Its handy, colorful, and personal.
Take a look: http://linzfrentrop.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/painting-spices/
:)

I love the drawer idea. Spices are always so hard to find in a deep cupboard.

I use whatever kind of bottles or jars I can find or recycle. I bought a dozen or so cobalt blue antique medicine bottles and label them with pretty paper and string. I use jars from mustards or jams or capers (tall and skinny) or anything I can find and label them with similar paper. It looks like pretty chaos, but nobody can say my spices are not well-organized.

I snagged a bunch of square 4oz metal containers (like those in #5 up there) online, put labels on the tops of them, and the epoxied small rare earth magnets to the bottoms. I had intended to get a piece of sheet metal and hang it on the outside of our free-standing pantry, but then realized that there was an entire exposed side of our fridge right next to the stove that wasn't being used for anything other than hanging take-out menus. The side of the fridge doesn't get exposed to an natural light from the windows, and the metal containers are enclosed enough that it doesn't matter much anyway. I have extra boxes and magnets, for when we get new spices. Each box holds 4oz, which is one of the small spice containers you get from the store. We do buy some spices in larger quantities, but there's enough space in our pantry to hold the few larger containers and allow us to refill the boxes. For us it was partly because of space (and this method does clear out quite a lot of space in our small pantry) and partly because our pantry is across the apartment from the kitchen! Which made getting spices and such in the middle of cooking kind of a pain. Having them next to the stove is much more convenient for us.

I have 2 vintage soda crates, one Pepsi and one Coca Cola, side-by-side on the wall. Plenty of room and I love it. Jars from My Spice Sage. You can see it here http://www.gottastitch.com/spice-rack.html

If you value fresh spices, make sure you store them out of the light. That means no glass jars on the counter or tins with clear lids. Another mistake not to make if you are going for the round tins to store your spices is to buy the tins that don't twist off. The ones with the twist off lids are a little more expensive, but worth the expense. I ended up with spice all over my kitchen a couple of times when trying to get the stubborn non-twist tops off the spices. This may be because I have some arthritis in my hands, but maybe not.