This is what my spice cabinet looked like Saturday. It was one of those daunting, frustrating cabinets filled with clutter. I could never find anything. There wasn’t any kind of order to what was inside, and quite honestly I hated opening the doors to hunt down what I needed. I couldn’t find basil without also unearthing dill weed. And it was like a full on strength training workout to get the cookbooks off the top shelf.
Saturday afternoon during nap time, and I was filled with these amazing aspirations and beautiful Pinterest dreams. So I pulled everything out, and I wiped out the insides of the cabinets. My counter tops were filled with various spice bottles and ingredients. I piled cookbooks higher than I am tall. I discovered that I have more cumin than I’ll ever need. And it became painfully clear that this cabinet has no rhyme or reason at all.
I got rid of duplicates, consolidated bottles, poured out things that had expired, recycled empties. But I hadn’t made much of a dent in the mountain of spices when I ran out of time. Nap time was over, and dinner needed to be made. Life was calling. So I didn’t have a choice. I loaded the cabinet back up with everything I had left and I closed the doors again. I’ve opened the door sense. The little bit of space I made hardly made a difference, and any organized dreams I had vanished. There’s more work to be done here. There has to be a way to make all of these different shaped bottles work in a tiny space. There has to be a way to fit everything in so that I don’t have to pull out six other bottles just to get to my olive oil. And there has to be another way other than stacking and layering spices on top of spices.
I’m not wishing for the impossible, am I?
So I’m asking you all for advice. How do you store your spices? Are you organized? And if so, would you like to come over and teach me everything you know? Pretty please?
Patricia LeVasseur says
I have a lot of spices and I tend to use them. So I organize them on a plastic lazy-susan I got at one of the big-box stores. I actually have two one is just one layer tall (the taller bottles go on this one) and the other is two layers tall. I then alphabetize my spices and can always find what I need quickly.
The lazy Susan is a fabulous idea, especially one that has two levels. I’ve looked around for one, but everything I have found doesn’t fit in my cabinet. In fact, I think that my cabinets (they were made by the previous owner of the house) are smaller than the average cabinet. No many storage solutions work. I love the alphabetizing idea as well-simple and direct, and accessible. That’s how a spice cabinet should be.
Thanks for commenting, Patricia!
I wish I could take credit, but it was actually reorganized our spaces in a way that makes them much easier to see. Instead of having them stand up in a cabinet, which we had been doing for years, he put them in a drawer. The spices lie down flat with label side up and are alphabetized. It’s now much easier to find everything and know what we have. No more duplicates since everything is visible! All the liquids, though, since they are in much bigger bottles, are still standing up in the cabinet. Overall this system seems to work much better for us. Good luck!
Do you use some kind of special bottle, Bev? Or are your spices in their original containers? I tried to put my spices in a drawer, but they didn’t all fit. And I’ve thought of looking for a uniform-shape container, but I have the feeling my drawer (like my cabinets) might be too small. I LOVE the drawer idea. You’re husband must know his way around the kitchen. (And I’m not afraid to say that makes me a little jealous.)
Thanks for the luck. I think I’m going to need it. In the meantime, I’m not cooking anything that requires spices. 😉