apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i have these in 2 drawers dedicated to spices. each drawer holds 12 jars. Since i have a lot more than just 24 i have another shelf for spices too. All extra spices are stored in a shoebox
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40064702

I love the magnetic ones, but I didn't have space in my kitchen. I love this take on the traditional spice rack with magnets http://www.gourmet.org/category/Storage-and-Organization/Spice-Racks/Metal-Spice-Racks/520575

I chose this one for my current apartment http://www.gourmet.org/category/Storage-and-Organization/Spice-Racks/Metal-Spice-Racks/209292

It works in the cabinet positioned exactly right, in chorus with the items on the shelves otherwise the door hangs open.

Currently all my spices are in recycled bottles taken from my parents collection. They are cluttered into my cupboard over the stove and there they sit, unorganized and messy. It's a pain to find what you need!
I also have a big freezer bag full of bags of spices that I don't have jars for (or the extra spice left when the jar is full). I'd like to set up a box system so that I can slide out the boxes and see what I need via handy dandy lid lables.

I really do like how all my jars are unique and some are very old, but I don't like how haphazard they are in my cupboard!

I had some of the magnetic kind, the inexpensive ones that I got of amazon, and they rusted. Just a word to the wise!

Best idea--go through the jars and dump the stuff that's old. Spices really don't last forever, and most kitchens have jars of dust. Buy small amounts, use them up, and so on. I hate the little plastic bags, and if I have to buy a large amount, I try to keep the excess in the freezer, well protected.

I like how Alton Brown stores his spices (on Good Eats anyway): he has magnetic strips on the insides of cabinet doors and keeps the spices in smallish, metal labelled tins. Handy, easy, and relatively inexpensive. Cos, you know, Alton rules.

Standard spice racks have never worked for me because not only do they not hold enough spices, but they also seem to always be designed for huge containers. I prefer small containers, refilled frequently, and I'm very happy with the the two two-tier lazy Susans I got from Target last year. (Target no longer seems to sell them, but they are available here.) One carousel is for savory spices and the other is for sweet, and together they hold about 50 spices with room to grow.

I also alphabetize my spices, which might lead to you think that I am a highly organized person. Sadly, that is not the case. I just got tired of not ever being able to find the one jar I was looking for.

Does anyone have an IKEA hack for creating a shaker top for their spice jars? I just bought a whole bunch of them and then realized that they don't have shaker tops!

I had those ikea DROPPAR jars -- awful. The seals were dicey,; the only ones who liked them were insects. : (
As much as I love the look of pretty matching jars, it seems wasteful to me to empty spices out of the perfectly functional containers they came in to spoon them into something purtier. My personal solution: I lay my large squared bottles on their sides, and stack them in the cabinet cap-out, with the name of the spice Sharpied on the cap. Easy to find, and I can stack them to the top to make the most of my space. Smaller or round jars go on the shelf below.

The saving grace of our tiny kitchen setup is a cute, triangular, floor to ceiling, spice cabinet. It was built into a corner niche in the hallway that passes between our kitchen and dining areas. I always know where to look for seasonings. It's great!

I set up spice racks on the inside of my pantry closet door in the last place I lived:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/auie/480696883/

and alphabetized so I could find things.

Now I'm in a place where I'm not comfortable putting holes in the doors, so I bought a small standing wire shelf unit that fits in the bottom of the dining room closet (right outside the kitchen) and all my spices fit, with some extra room.

I glued craft magnets to metal tins from Specialty Bottle. Now I have a magnetized spice "rack" on the side of my refrigerator. One day they'll have pretty decorative covers, but not yet.

Agreed Kalakala. I was just about to say that spice racks are never designed for serious cooks. I have 200 spices, not 24.

Currently we have a whole piece of furniture with three deep wicker drawers holding spices. It works with the fact that some of our spices are in tiny bottles (because we rebuy fresh a lot) and some are in giant bottles (because we get them at International grocery stores and go through them quickly).

It could be prettier, but we'll tackle that problem in a kitchen remodel one of these years.

My apartment was equipped with a simple little spice rack that looks like it was maybe built in woodshop class. Paper towel rack too. I like them! They are kind of homely but they make it easy for me not to have to make a chore out of figuring out where to put things. I never had a spice rack or a paper towel holder in any of my former apts.

I don't cook so well that I need (or know what I'd need with) a lot of spices. It's about a foot wide and three shelves, and tall enough for taller jars and wide enough for a couple extra tchotchkes, important things like a prescription bottle, small Royal Doulton creamer for my laundry quarters. Things I always know where they are, that are small enough, can go on my spice rack. It's very convenient to have in the kitchen. I'm not very organized in general, but this gives me a station for a couple things.

I bought the small metal tins from The Container Store - and they rusted!

If you look closely, the Alton Brown/Good Eats setup is done with velcro, not magnets.

Penzey's Spices is switching from plastic to glass containers for their smallest size. I'm probably going to switch to gluing magnets to the bottom of those. I have six magnetic knife racks from IKEA inside two of my cabinet doors. Yes, I pass a Penzey's on my way home from work. I also have spices tucked away in the back of my silverware drawer in the hutch in the dining room.

I disagree that spice racks are useless to serious cooks! My collection of spices is vast, but very organized. The spices in jars that I use frequently are in a small rack on the counter. I have this fantastic spice rack from Target http://tinyurl.com/6lhpuq that I use for most of the jarred spices I don't use on a regular daily basis. The jars that don't fit in the rack are lined up next to it in the cabinet. The bulk spices are in a basket. I may have a spice addiction.

Is that bacon in the middle of the first picture?

Spice storage is a huge problem for many kitchens, especially as people delve deeper into cooking global cuisines at home. So thanks for bringing up the subject AT!

My Dad invented a unique spice rack called the SpiceStack. It is designed to hold 18 spice bottles from the grocery store in the kitchen cabinet where spices stay organized, fresh, and out-of-sight, yet accessible. SpiceStack comes with 96 stickers so you can label the outside drawers to find spices even faster while cooking. It's also stackable for people with large spice collections. Best of all, the SpiceStack is made right here in the Chicagoland area and we ship directly to customers, saving time and energy along the way.

More spices in less space is always a good thing...
Check out the SpiceStack here. Happy Organizing!

I'm a fan of drawer storage! I put stickers on the top and sharpie the name of the spice on it.

http://www.dale-murray.com/oakpark/uploaded_images/IMG_0962-712719.JPG

I have since added little plastic drawer dividers so the spices don't slip around so much. They now stay put and in (mostly) alphabetical order.

Lily, it's not bacon, it's whole mace, commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine.

Thanks AT for including my spice kit.

Everyone feel free to check out all my products at
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5043307

xoxo