Spice Cabinet Organization
Spice Cabinet Organization
Let’s tackle your spice cabinet. If your kitchen is like mine then you have limited space to store spices. I am not a huge fan of having a lot of items on the counter. So I have reserved a small cabinet to store spices.
Since spice jars are about the same height and width it was hard to find what I needed and the cabinet got out of control and crowded pretty quickly. I decided that I needed to tackle my spice cabinet. I was spending too much time trying to find spices and an equal amount of time having to “organize” them again.
For this task, I wanted to keep it simple so I pulled all of the spices out of the cabinet and separated them into three categories. 1) regularly used spices, 2) occasionally used spices, and 3) never used spices. I tossed the expired spices that I never used into the trash. Then bagged the remaining spices to giveaway to family members.
I transferred the regularly and occasionally used spices into glass spice jars (that I got from World Market). Since my cabinet isn’t wide, the best option to increase space was to utilize the cabinet’s height. I got two three-tiered cabinet organizers similar to this plastic one and I also like this chrome one. I’ve seen them at stores like Marshall’s and Ross as well. The one I have is small enough to give me additional space on the side.
Let's tackle your spice cabinet. Share on X
My goal was to have easy access and to be organized while cooking. I placed the regularly used spices on the first shelf and the occasionally used spices on higher shelves. Depending on your needs, you can organize the spices alphabetically or by type (herbs, powders, etc).
Whichever organizing methods you choose to use, have fun! If you want to get fancy then go ahead and label your jars. You can purchase pre-printed spice labels if you don’t have a label maker.
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
This is a task I do each October as I prepare for holiday baking. I group my spices by how they are used. It seems that certain spices are often used together so my minced onion, onion powder, minced garlic, garlic powder, garlic salt, celery seed and sesame seed containers are grouped together. Baking spices are grouped together and so forth. I have them in clear plastic containers that I pull down and after use return to the shelf. I have the list of spices in that container on the outside. This has worked for me for years. A few very rarely used spices/herbs are on a top shelf.
I like that you sort through your spices once a year. That way you are not using anything too old. For us short people, using the lowest shelf in the cabinet for the most used spices is important.
I keep my spices alphabetically organized in a shallow (ish) drawer. I check them periodically to see if anything has expired and to remove any I’m no longer using.
It seems all the commenters storage their spices in different places in their kitchen. It is an individual decision.
I did a similar thing a couple of years ago, but the best space for me to store my spices is a drawer next to the stove, so I put the labels on the jar lids and have them standing in the drawer. So far it’s worked better than anything else I’ve tried!
Glad that works for you. I would like to do the same, but sadly I don’t have any big drawers in my kitchen. There are so many places to store spices: a kitchen cabinet, a kitchen drawer, on the counter, hanging on the wall, etc.
This is one of those little projects that seems like it should be simple, but as you point out, it can be complicated. I keep my “larger” spices in my pantry because they don’t fit well into the pull-outs I have next to my stove.
I keep my spices in a cabinet, so I don’t decant into matching containers, but if my spices were out on the counter, I think I would.
Here is something I learned from a client. Apparently, chickens like spices, so you can give them your old spices (if you happen to keep chickens). She was able to offload some old oregano and a few others by giving it to her chickens, and supposedly it is healthy for them!
Great tip. I have one friend who has chickens. I’ll ask her if she’d like my old spices. Thanks!
Do you like the pull-outs next to your stove? I don’t have any, but working with clients who do, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.
I love your process. You identified a problem and found the best solution based on your needs. The main takeaways are you edited the spices first, eliminated expired and never-used ones, and chose the best way to organize them based on use and space.
I used to have a rack affixed to the door inside the pots and pans cabinet. The spice jars hung on the rack and were arranged alphabetically, but they often got in the way when I reached for a pan. The rack was on the wall in my previous home, which worked much better. At a point, I decided to use one of the kitchen drawers for the spices. I like that much better. They’re easy to reach, alphabetized, and not in my way.
I like when the spice jars are at eye level, so I can find what I need. Usually when I organize spice with a client we find many duplicates and expired items. The editing is SOOO important to do first. Then you are only dealing with the good stuff.
I don’t cook much, so I only use a handful of seasonings, which fit comfortably in the cabinet near my stove. However, this is always a huge problem for clients. When there’s enough space, I’m a fan of double-decker Lazy Susans for spices, but that height isn’t often an option.
I used to reject your approach because of all the effort it took clients to decant the spices into uniform containers. However, I’ve come to think of this as a MOSTLY one-time job, as people rarely use up an entire container of seasonings often enough to make the transfer seem onerous. (A funnel makes the job even easier.) I definitely have come around to your approach.
Whatever works! I like a pretty and functional kitchen (and also have the time to do the decanting).
Organizing my spices is on my (soon) to-do list! The last 4 houses have all had different storage options for spices. Cabinets, drawers, behind the pantry door- so many choices. This house has a drawer that I use… unfortunately, it’s not near the stove, but it’s working now. I want to decant and organize because this would help create order in the backstock situation. We’re not exactly sure what we have right now, so we often rebuy things unnecessarily. Your process makes it sound so simple! I’ll let you know how it goes!
Thanks Jana. Spices are unusual in that there are several different options for storage location and the best place is not always apparent. Let me know how your project goes.