I love shopping in the bulk bins at my local co-op. And buying big bags of spices from the asian food store down the block from my house. And from the farmer’s market. And pretty much anything that smells neat or is called for in a recipe.
The only problem is, it becomes quite the snarl. I can’t justify going out and buying 100 cute little jars. Nor do I have the space to put all those jars. So what to do? How do I tidy them up in a way I can easily access them?
It’s a lame solution, but it works. I used food storage bags. I know I know, tacky. And the smells will infuse the other smells. But it has to be better than the bulk bin bags, which were leaking everywhere and making a huge mess.
I filled the bags, cut the labels off the packages that had labels, and taped them to the bags with packaging tape.
Or just sharpied it. You know, whatever. And then I just piled them into a basket. Now anytime I need something I just grab the basket off the shelf and use what I need and then put it back.
It’s not the sexiest solution. But my spices are safe. Easy to access. Out of the light. And don’t take up much space at all.
Happy Crafting!
Kristin Roach
We hung a bathroom medicine cabinet in out kitchen, to keep the light out. We wash and reuse jars, the half cup glass kind. We can fit two deep by four rows of spices…tha’s a lot of spices, but we still have more on a turntable in our pantry (just a melamine cabinet that we purchased at Taget). We label ours using a label printer connected to our computer.
We reuse jars from other spices. Give them an overnight soak in HOT water and oxyclean (this stuff is genius and will clean anything!) and the label will peel right off. Rinse well and make sure it’s dried out completely.
We also tend to buy whole spices. We have a hand-held coffee grinder (actually we have three, but that’s due to combining households when we got married last year) to grind the whole spices as needed. Since we do have three, we have one labeled for savory use and one labeled for sweet use (and one for spare). Cumin might be good in some sweets, but not all the time! :)
I use jars. I used to like to buy a jillion spices, but I dialed it back to the ones I actually used, and then bought specific ones for recipes in small quantities. For me it was a waste of money otherwise. They go stale after a while and throwing out a whole bag – even if it was ‘just a buck on sale’ was annoying. The bathroom cabinet idea is a good one. A good size for spices. There are also under-cabinet fold down shelves that hold quite a bit.
Would a hanging shoe organizer work? Clear pockets and not much room. They can be cut in half to hang inside a cabinet door.
I love mason jars best of all. They are relatively cheap, come in all kinds of sizes and the glass doesn’t absorb or transmit smells. Also, I think it keeps them fresher for longer. The bottom picture in this post shows what my spices look like… https://wisdomofthemoon.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-think-i-may-have-problem.html