My Spice Drawer Trick

I'm very late to this conversation, but Organized Living sells all different kinds of such containers, and sells them in singles on up.

WOW!! I love this idea! Although I do not have a spare drawer now I will definitely remember this for the future!

As Amanda knows, I ordered some acrylic jars and some tins from specialtybottle.com. And, this morning I had fun reorganizing. I kept some jars & packaging, but everything else now has its own easy-to-read container. Now I just need to get a pen that doesn't smear.

Wow. Ordered my jars two days ago and they arrived today. I'm so excited, but, unfortunately, don't have time to take on the whole project until Saturday.

Amanda, this so appeals to my fusspottedness, too. I went on the Consolidated Plastics site, but it looks like you have to order in massive quantities, which is especially challenging if you want various sizes. Did you order 50 or 80 of a size? Anyway, I did some research and found a different site (Specialty Bottles) that has clear acrylic threaded jars. I'm thinking of getting the square ones since they'll fit better than round in a drawer. Here's the link: http://www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=66.

I'm so excited. This is a wonderful idea. I measured my spice drawer, did the math and I can double the number of spices I currently can contain. I'm placing my order now!! Thank you.

I stole this idea some years ago from my sister and it sure brings order from chaos. But I am not a plastic fan so I found stainless steel containers with acrylic lids in at least two small sizes from Lee Valley Tools (originator of the rasp grater) - a great site for kitchen and gardening tools.

I get the efficacy of transferring everything to like containers, but you miss the memory of where they came from -- almost like the difference between email and snail mail letters . . . there is a sense of history with the different labels from different stores and shopping excursions. I guess you can tell I am not a scientist . . .

I keep my spices in the freezer or frig. It really allows me to keep them a long time. But again, such a mess! Bottles and bags all over the shelves. I need a large pullout shelf, not possible in the freezer. Is there a solution folks for that? And are there any drawbacks to freezing or placing spices in the frig?

Where to buy high quality spices in small quantities ? Check out Smart-Spice.com or the sister line ,tsp spices.com. They're organic, delicious, come in pre-measured teaspoons and last at least 3 years on your shelf. It's all I ever buy now !

And I thought it was just we engineers who operated this way! Mine too, are in a drawer, with labels on the top. And though I have ideas for holleya, I'm not sure I could convey them without a full scale set of construction drawings! haha! Actually, I would suggest looking in your office supply store - that's where I find a lot of my organizational tricks. Like a folder stand to hold my cookie sheets, muffin tins and madeleine pans upright. You'd be amazed...

I use a spice "drawer", too, and it's so much easier than having them jumbled in a cabinet as they were in my old house. It's an extra-wide, low drawer. If a spice does not fit because of height, I just lay it on it's side. I also clean out jam or jelly jars after they are emptied, and use those for the spices that come in baggies (I just keep the baggie in the sealed jar). Tops are labled, sides if they are too tall. While it's not a neat looking as having all the same style jars, no one ever sees it but me, and I can cope with the apparent disorder, as I generally group according to use - Indian savory spices all together, Tex/Mex in one corner, chai spices in another. It works.

I also went for the drawer option. If you can spare a drawer (or dare I say, two!) it will save you the labor of repackaging our spices...and can I add to the fusspot quotient...not only must they be alphabetized, but they must be sorted by type...as for how to organize your own blends, Penzeys sells empty jars in various sizes.

How would I use this concept without a drawer? my jars are all in an eye-level (and just above) cabinet - glass jars in all shapes and sizes are labeled on the sides but of course these become impossible to see once placed in front of each other. And the shelf is now full, so they tend to fall out when I rummage around! Any ideas? :-)

I'm now really fascinated by how much attention this outwardly simple topic has drawn from fuspots and non-pots. I also deploy tins with clear acrylic lids so that you can see what's inside; so if you know a juniper berry from a peppercorn from allspice you are in luck. And I use these mostly for my own spice blends. I buy them at Surfas in Culver City. They do have a web store.

This is such a great suggestion! I too suffer from tiny bags and various containers of spices-which all are luckily labeled! Thanks for the suggestion! Another option are pint and quart containers, labeled with plain white tape-simply change the tape as you wash/change containers.

I've been doing this for ages - I don't have "fancy" containers - just use a sharpie to label the tops of regular spice jars from the grocery store and, when I run out of a spice, I remove the label from the jar and save it for those spices that come in bags, etc. Mine are alphabetized, too. Once in a while, I have to realphabetize, but in general it works out great.

I used to be able to find that 3M freezer tape easily; now I can't find it anywhere. Will try the adhesive instead.

But... true fusspots must ALPHABETIZE!

Fusspot or design genius? I'm thinking design genius.

Great idea, and smart to use the leftovers for, well leftovers. Love these tips.

On multitasking medical supplies I use waterproof tape to lable items that look alike, such as different types of flour e.g. all purpose, high gluten etc. which store in air tight graduated containers from restaurant supply. I also use the tape to lable frozen items like containers of stock (type, date and so on).

Amanda, are your containers the twist-top kind? I can't tell from the photo . . . . . I've already measured the depth of my drawer and looked at the specs of the various options at the site where you bought yours. Do you know whether you really have to buy 80 at a time?

We went the spice drawer route when we moved into our current space, with an inexpensive angled insert for the bottles to rest in, but this is much more space efficient - and very clever.

I LOVE tips like these. I was just saying to my husband last night, I would love to peek into a few very organized people's kitchens and see their answer to the Tupperware dilemma- how to organize all of those different sized containers and lids in an orderly fashion. Is it just me?

I'm with you on this, Amanda. These suggestions are great!! I definitely feel a project coming on . . . . . . ;o)