INEXPENSIVE AND EASY SPICE ORGANIZATION
This post is about my spice cabinet organization. In this post, I give you tips about to how to organize spices beautifully, inexpensively, and efficiently using spice jars that you may already have.
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If you are into Indian cooking or remotely interested in it, you probably know the number of spices that are used 😊 As such, organizing spices is a key component of my Indian kitchen.
When I moved to the US, I was so fascinated by the revolving spice rack and I bought one for myself. But I quickly realized that 16 spice jars are in no way enough nor is the size convenient.
The spices I bought at the Indian grocery store would not fit into those bottles and I had to find more space for the excess.
SPICE ORGANIZATION PLANNINGOur apartment storage was limited and so I had to get creative. I wanted a spice organizing system that has:
- Matching jars as I like uniformity
- See-through jars so that I can see the contents
- Large enough to hold the contents of the entire packet
- Easy to access
- Inexpensive
I began thinking about solutions that could accommodate all my needs. One day, as I was emptying a salt container that I bought from Costco, I had my light bulb moment!
I could re-use those containers for my spices 😊
They met all my needs – They are large enough (I can even put a spoon inside), they match each other, they are transparent, they are square-shaped, and can be stacked.
Therefore I began collecting those containers.
Over a couple of years, I had enough containers for all my spices and I brought them with me when we moved into our home.
They were a miss-mash of jars because the color of the lids changed over time, but they served the purpose. They had different colored lids, and handwritten labels that were worn out, and they started to feel a little meh!
So I decided to breathe some new life into them! Here is the process that I followed to refresh my spice cabinet organization.
MATCHING SPICE CONTAINERS
When I started collecting the salt containers, they had copper-colored lids. The recent containers have black lids.
In order to have matching spice jars, I began getting rid of the ones that had the copper-colored lids and saving containers with black lids.
Over a period of time, I had enough black-lidded containers to complete my spice cabinet organization.
EMPTY THE SHELVES
Once I had the needed number of jars, I emptied the shelves in the cabinet next to the stove as that is where I want to arrange my spices.
Having them next to the stove is really helpful while cooking. Remember I said that I needed my spice organization to be easily accessible 😊
I gave the empty shelves a quick cleaning and they were now ready for the spices.
CLEAN THE CONTAINERS
Next, it was time to get the containers ready for the spices. I gave the containers a good wash and removed the existing labels.
Some labels came off easily, but for some, I just let the labels be. They are not going to be seen in my spice organization. You’ll see in a minute what I am talking about.
Once the spice jars were clean, I let them dry overnight. This is important because there should be no moisture in the jar before the spices are poured in. Otherwise, the spices will go bad.
ADD SPICES TO JARS
Now the containers were ready for the spices to be poured in. I think there is something oddly satisfying about pouring spices into jars…don’t you think? Or maybe it’s just me 😊
I could have used a funnel for pouring the spices in, but I haven’t had much success with powders using a funnel. Instead, I used a sheet of paper to pour the spices in. It worked beautifully!
LABELS FOR SPICE CABINET ORGANIZATION
This has to be my favorite step of them all. My heart fills with joy at the sight of labels 😊 Tell me it’s just not me!
I spent some time with this step, but in my opinion, it’s totally worth it.
STICKERS WITH ONLINE TEMPLATE
I bought sheets of round stickers from Amazon. The sheets that I bought come with an online template with which you can create and customize your labels.
DESIGN THE LABELS
I used Canva Pro to create an online image for the labels and uploaded that to the template. Next, I added text to the design. Then I duplicated the design to all the stickers on the sheet. Once that is done, I changed the text for each spice name.
PRINT THE LABELS
Then I hit print and printed my first set of labels on my printer. I once again changed the text for the next set of spice names and printed those out too.
My labels were ready! All that was left was to peel them off the sheet and stick them on top of the lids of the containers.
ARRANGE THE SPICES
I felt so happy just looking at all the containers filled with spices and labels on their lids 😊 Then I began planning how to arrange them on the shelves.
I kept the most commonly used spices on the top row of the bottom shelf so that they are easy to access. The bottom rows of the bottom shelf also have spices that I use frequently.
I placed 18 containers in 3 rows of 6 on the bottom and middle shelf. Since these jars are square-shaped, they stack up quite nicely.
The least used spices occupied the top shelf and there’s only one row of spices at the top because that’s as far as my hand will go 🙂
I placed the remaining spices on the middle shelf.
FINAL RESULT – SPICE CABINET ORGANIZATION
Now my spices are all neatly labeled and organized. I can see what spices I have and I can access them easily.
The good part is I didn’t spend a dime on the jars. This arrangement definitely ticks all points in my list of requirements.
I took a step back and just admired the whole cabinet and honestly I felt satisfied. Hope you like my spice cabinet organization as much as I do.
In the future, I’ll probably build some shelves so that the jars sit on shelves instead of being stacked on top of each other.
This would make it even easier to access. But for now, I am happy with what I created. Let me know what you think.
If you like this post, you may like the following posts as well…go give them a read
- How to easily organize a linen closet
- How to set up a family command center
I am also available on Instagram where I share more details about my organizing, decor, and DIY projects and talk a little bit about me and my life.
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Thank you :)
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Spices look very nice. I did similar with 4oz jars in an small kitchen drawer by the stove. It is so nice to have all my spices in one place. I am alone now so 4 oz bottles are fine for the amount of food I cook.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Why have you not alphabetized the spices on each shelf?
Hi Divya, Great idea. I have been doing something similar in my cabinet but not with everything. I have discarded a lot of same size bottles that I could have used to do your project. Problem is I was short sighted and didn't look further than the bottles that I stacked. No matter. THANK YOU so much for going that one step further of creative thinking and giving me the "oh geesh, why didn't I think of that moment." I think I even laughed at myself as I was reading your post. I have one question please. Can you please give me the ounces of the bottles you used? I tried to see the amount in one of your pictures but it wasn't clear. I also think the other thing I might do is to buy contact paper and wrap the square sides of the bottles to make them pretty :). Thank you for taking the time to read and answer my question. :)
I found the salt and it says 30oz on the bottle. This is going to sound weird but do you have extras you would like to sell? I will pay shipping.
Happy w long did it take you to collect all those salt jars?