My spices live in a tall, skinny, skyscraper of a cupboard. It’s narrow, so fancy schmancy pull-down spice organizers will not work for me. It is deep, so if say, the cumin is all the way in the back, I have to remove the black pepper, red pepper, oregano, lemon pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, basil, season salt… you get the idea. It’s messy. And annoying.
So I put them in baskets. See?
It still wasn’t perfect. It was hard to recognize the spices from their caps. So I would end up pulling them all out one-by-one just the same. Until…
Inspiration struck.
It’s not perfect – there are far too many black lids for my liking. But it’s immensely helpful. And it works for me.
But I’m open to suggestions. How do you store your spices? (Keep in mind I have no wall space or counter space.)
I actually keep my spices in a drawer. It’s pretty easy to see all of them when I pull it out and it frees up valuable cupboard space. Women with small kitchens unite! (We also blog about raising baby using natural, frugal strategies over at http://greenbabyguide.com).
Love it, if you like organizing check out my new site….http://organizedlifebydesign and I would love to have you join my network. By the way, I’m now following you on Twitter. I found you through DrDaisyS. I am alyssaavant on Twitter if you’d like to follow me back 🙂
I do the same basket thing – but I divide my spices between the baskets by “type” – I have one basket for baking spices, one for Indian spices, one for Italian type spices etc It makes it much easier to narrow down which basket to pull out of my cupboard and saves me loads of searching time.
By a silver marker for those black lids! It works great!
Love you!
Silver marker sounds great, but if you don’t have one handy, you might have masking tape. Then you can use any pen available on the black lids.
I use a mini-turntable (lazy susan?) in my tall narrow cabinet. It is two-tiered and I think I picked it up at Aldi a few years ago. I alphabetize my spices to make it easier to find them (dorky, but efficient).
From looking at your cabinet, it seems as though the top shelf might be the only one tall enough to hold a two-tier. I also have a one-tier that I used to hold baking products (baking soda, baking powder, extract, etc) in a different cabinet. Something like that might work on your lower two shelves.
well, we’re lucky in that we designed our own kitchen so I have a corner cabinet that opens completely and has lazy suzans instead of shelves.
I keep my seasonings in there.
Hmmm… no wall or counter space. Why not try hanging them from the ceiling? 😉 hehe It would be very…unique. (by the way, we want to visit you when we go through Indiana this summer!)
Posted on my blog about this! 🙂
http://glutenfreefrugal.blogspot.com/2008/04/storing-spices.html
Yikes, that’s a lot of spices! I had to check my cupboard to see how many I had and how I store them after seeing your photos, thinking, “Do I have that many? I don’t even think I have a system, do I?” Apparently I do have a system, though I think it just kind of happened rather than thinking it through. The cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla are with my flour and sugar. My salt and pepper are on the counter. My herbs are on a small lazy-susan tower on the counter. However I don’t nearly have that many. I know why though. I gave up complicated recipes long ago and really do cook from very, VERY basic stuff. I know my mom uses a tier system and has as many as you. Maybe that would work. She just had my dad cut down some scrap wood to length and stacks her spices is layers. Out of curiousity, may I ask if you use all those on a regular basis?
Like Anna, I divide mine by category. You could also get some of those round price tag stickers, like you’d use for a garage sale, for the black tops.
My spices are on little step-shelves in my cabinet, but it’s still a pain to find one in the back. So I used my label-maker and printed the names on the ‘side’ of the cap. Makes it a lot easier!
I’d also say to rearrange the shelves according to how frequently you use something. Is it a stretch to get the oil down? I’d guess you use that several times a week and it might be easier on the bottom, where ‘unusual’ spices (like pumpkin pie spice) could go on top. Anything to make life a little easier!
You could also use white-out on the black lids.
I love the basket idea and may do that for some smaller items I have on my shelves. I have my spices laying down, face-up, in a drawer just for spices. In this kitchen, I have enough drawers to do that, but I know every kitchen is different and there aren’t always enough drawers for a spice drawer. I’ll remember your idea for next time! 🙂
Try using white-out to write on the black lids.
I posted on my website about this too and added your link. Check it out!!
Frugal Carol
I do the label on the top too. Luckily I only have 3 black tops, and I don’t have a silver pen. 🙁 But, with only three, it isn’t so much of a problem. Great minds! 🙂