apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I recently spent several hours emptying, cleaning and re-organizing my mom's spice cabinet(s). I threw away so much stuff and now everything is easy to find. It's like having a whole new kitchen.

I have an issue with using matching containers for spices. For some of my spices, I buy huge containers, because I use them a lot. Others, not so much, therefore a small jar will do. I simply see no point in pouring spices into a different container just to have them all match and look pretty, when most of the time I'll still have leftover spices in their original containers just taking up space! These look like they'd help out with that (considering their varying sizes) but I'm still not convinced.

What a difference organised spices make! When I labelled and organised all mine last year it let me be much more creative. And I put them in the bottom drawer--so much easier to see what is there!

Wouldn't it be great to feel free to spend $115 on organising spices? Maybe one day....

Great idea but waaay too expensive for me. A few months ago, my cat was sick so I had to feed him lamb baby food three times a day for a week. I ended up with a surplus of those short, squat, and stackable baby food jars; and with the help of a label maker now have a new spice storage system.

I use glass jars with plastic lids (or the containers the spices come in), all of them labeled on top and side with a Sharpie. The jars & lids are pretty cheap and tend to crack, but I'll start buying nicer ones now as I need to--or as I find them. I don't find that my system could justify my spending over $100 on jars, though. It works pretty well.

Now if someone could tell me how to avoid buying more spice (in the bulk section) than will fit into one of my spice jars... Even when I think I've got less than will fit in a jar, it always overflows. *sigh*

I can't tell from the picture, but if the jars interlock, how do you get a jar from the center of the row? Do you have to remove the entire stack?

I use 4oz and 8oz mason jars....they're all a uniform width, just different heights so it's easy to stack them neatly in a drawer...just like the system above, but only about $8 for 12

Those look great, my spices look pathetic compared to that. I've never thought about drawer organization as I keep mine all over the pantry and in my cabinets.

I bought a lot of mustard in little 4 oz jars, rinsed out the mustard (ick) and now have a lot of nice sized, not-too-tall spice jars that close up nice and tight. And I keep them on the counter in three of those clear plastic stacking drawer/storage thingies they sell for storing shoes. One for whole spices, one for ground spices, and one for herbs. The jars just fit. Works great and was way cheaper than buying cute little spice jars.

Though those triangular things in the post really are attractive.

In my old apartment I used to just keep them in a drawer, but my drawers in this place are too shallow. Hence the boxes.

I keep my spice jars on a double decker, lazy susan made for the cupboard. It works really well because one swirl of the round will expose any spice i need. I can't imagine storing spices in a drawer...drawer space is so cherished. By the way, is the post an advertisement for the interlocking containers?

After fighting with jars in drawers, and constantly moving jars off the counter for valuable counter space, I decided to go vertical with my spices. I have a large (24 x 40"!) stainless magnet board. I got a series of 3" stainless cannisters with see-through lids and magnetic bottoms, and put all my spices in the cannisters. They sit neatly in rows on the magnet board, within easy reach on the wall! They are also easy to stack up, have nice wide mouths so even the Tablespoon measure fits inside! and are easy to put back! There's even room for more!

I have a shallow closet in the dining room, previously used only for miscellaneous things. I bought a small wire cart with four shelves to fit in it, then put drawer organizers on the shelves to hold the spice jars. I use whatever jars I've had for years (some grocery jars, some I've bought to go with an old spice rack), and refill them from the bulk section of the health food store. And they're alphabetized.

I buy spices in bulk and use 1/2 pint mason jars (a globe-shaped kind) to store them. It's great, but way too bulky (I have two cabinet lazy susans double-stacked, plus more) and now I need something smaller but cheap. They no longer make the kind of jars I've been using, so I've been scouring American Science & Surplus hoping the correct bottle will come along.

I would need another kitchen to efficiently organize ALL of my spices and have them within in hands reach - I am more satisfied than I have been - but I currently have a rack, a cabinet and a drawer. Once I was working with those Rubbermaid shoe boxes too - I found those to be really gross in a heavily used kitchen. The spice rack holds like 12 spices total so I keep the things I use often. It spins, the bottles are glass - it works. But I really have a thing for bags of dried herbs which are in that darn zip lock in a drawer. Bottles of things that are sparingly used stay in the cabinet with other sauces, cans etc.

we have the celeber spice jars from Ikea (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60112660) and labeled them with a grease pencil so that we can switch out our collection as we need. They don't cost the same as buying a glass jar of spices, and we've found a gourmet food store where you can get spices in bulk for like fifty cents to fill up a whole jar. Plus the jars are ceramic/wood so light is not getting to the spices and spoiling them.

I keep all of my spice bottles in a baking pan in the cupboard. To make it easier to find what I'm looking for, I made little labels for the tops so I can just pull out the pan & scan them easily from above. I used small round office-type labels & even labeled some bottles that had the spice name written on the lid b/c they weren't as easy to read as the white labels. The only problem I have are a few small bottles that have lids with an option for sifting that won't allow me to add a label -- these I just line up on the shelf in front of the pan.

I have a collection of pretty spice jars, they are all different....some with a cork, others look like small canning jars, a few are ceramic. I buy bulk spices from Whole Foods and put all the jars on a wooden lazy susan on top of my microwave. I have a few larger jars for the spices I use more frequently. I do not label them because most can be recognized by sight or smell. The few I am unsure of have the name written on the bottom of the jar. They look beautiful and are easy to access....I love my spice system.

Sheesh. This irks me a little with ALL spice systems, not just these. I LOVE her idea and the storage system looks great, but the reason I dont use Ikea spice storage or the magnetic ones from Bed Bath and Beyond or these for a simple understandable reason- I have a lot of spices and I'm just NOT going to shell out 5-6 bucks per container! The system I'm doing now, cost 25 cents a container (metal tins with see through tops. Look online for ANY container type store) and works like a charm! I have upwards of 75 spices to store. I'm not popping for a couple hundred bucks.

(I do think this would work fine for others though, I just know from others who read this regularly, we have similar issues and affordability is a big one)

Carol Peterman system is efficient & beautiful. I love when stores package delicious foods in containers that can be repurposed ... this is how I have developed a neat & inexpensive spice storage system over time.

Spice Drawer: Trader Joe's spices come in durable glass jars with plastic lids (savory spices have green lids, other spices like cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger have brown lids). Glass jars from Spice Island and McCormick brands are great, too. Over time, I have simply repurposed them (replacing the paper labels with laminated labels using my labeller). Now I have enough jars to house all of my spices. The jars are just the right height (almost flush with the top of the drawer).

Bulk Storage: Some bulk spices come in messy plastic bags that may not preserve freshness. I pour those into tall glass jars for storage on a top cabinet shelf. Where do I get my jars? Mason jars would be great for this. But, we love the tall glass jars of Delmonte Premium Peaches (sold in four-jar bundles at Costco at a HUGE savings). Store flax seed meal, chopped nuts, beans, chocolate chips, baking soda, etc. in them as well. Oh ... we love the peaches, too! ;-D

WOW - you do not need to spend $115 to have organized spices. those fancy containers don't help with organization at all, plus how are you supposed to tell the nutmeg from the allspice, etc.?? I really do not get the point of that.

The best idea i've seen for storing spices in a useful manner is using a little Lazy Suzan. it's round and it spins...you can even get tiered ones, to use space in tall cupboards. you just put your spices on that thing, and give it a whirl. it's WAY easier than digging through a bin or whatever. Plus, assuming you've kept them in their original containers, you can tell what's what. :)

I keep old spice containers and use them for fresh-dried oregano, etc. Again...no need to buy new/expensive/redundant containers...just use what you have.