Organizing Spices

The cabinet next to my stove is very narrow and while it was the best cabinet to keep spices, it was not the most functional. It stored all of my spices, but I couldn’t see or find anything.

One day while browsing in Target something caught my eye that looked like the answer to my problem. A lazy susan. Brillant! So I bought two.

I alphabetized the spices to make them easier to locate. The taller bottles go on the lazy susan on the bottom shelf and I keep the shorter and medium sized bottles on the two-tiered lazy susan on the second shelf.

Every spice now has a place. I can see them clearly and I don’t have to worry about finding a 12 year old bottle of cayenne.

The lazy susans worked for me, but The Learned Lady recently posted a helpful tip for organizing spices in the comments in my post on organizing a pantry:

“For me, when I organize my spices, I have them divided into three categories (I have 3 skinny baskets that hold my spices): special blends or spices – old bay, my Asian spice blend, my Cajun blend, taco seasoning, etc., go in one basket; then my most commonly used savory spices – garlic & onion powder, cayenne, paprika, thyme, basil, etc.; then my commonly used sweet spices go in the last basket – cinnamon, vanilla extract, allspice, cloves, etc. That way, depending on what I’m cooking, I can grab the basket I need (like if I’m baking) or just a couple of spices, but I know which basket to go to. This method has worked better for me than alphabetizing my spices.”

How do you organize your spices? Let us know in the comments.

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