Spice Cabinet Reorganization
Spice Cabinet Reorganization
It had to happen: a spice cabinet reorganization. The drawers and cabinets were a mess. Like a huge, disorganized mess. We moved in a hurry. And I put things away in the kitchen in a hurry. We are going on year two living in this house, so I have no excuse as to why my cabinets look so bad. My sister and niece can vouch for how much spices I own after helping me move the kitchen. And they still talk to me after that experience. Over half of my cabinets and drawers are filled with spices.
The spices overwhelmed
As I have become more serious about my cooking and life has gotten busier, the spice mess was starting to bother me. Spices were in plastic bags. Labels had fallen off my set of small glass spice jars. I had multiple jars of the same spice; because, it had gotten lost in the back of the drawer. Sometimes I am out of a spice and do not know it until I am cooking. Items would fall out of the cabinets on me. It was a mess. This mess was slowing me down while cooking. There are times I’m not as organized as I should be when I am cooking. Rooting around trying to find the right spice in the drawers or cabinets can often mean the difference between burning something or not. There have been a couple close calls recently. We can be honest and say burnt spices and food does not taste very nice. I try to avoid it.
Cleaning Process
The spice cabinet reorganization really needed to happen. My spices were out-of-control. I decided to use that extra hour I gained on Sunday to get these drawers and cabinets under control. I started by taking everything out of the drawers and cabinets taking stock of everything I have. And I have lots. In places where they do not make sense. I need to declutter and organize by category or usage. With this kitchen, I am lucky that there is tons of space. Some of it wasted space which I would like to reclaim.
My set of small spice jars had lost most of their labels and were greasy being so close to the stove. I did not know what spices were in the jars for the most part. And honestly how old the spices were in them. I dumped the spices out. I went about washing and drying them.
Organizing the Spices
What I needed was different sized glass jars and labels. I usually buy my most-used spices in bulk at the Asian grocery in Cary. It makes sense to do so since I use a lot of spice and it is cheaper. I like the larger mouths of the bigger jars since it makes it easier to measure out when cooking. This helps avoid the tapping motion which usually ends up with spice going everywhere. I prefer to use glass jars just because I think it is better than plastic.
I totally wiped out two Walmarts locally to get my glass jars. I found printable labels for them allowing me to use a template on the computer then printing them out. This avoids my horrible handwriting. It just makes it look nice. I was not able to find smaller round label for the set of small glass jars, but that’s on my to-do list for this week. For right now, spices in those jars have torn post-it notes identifying what is what. I look to fill all of them up with regularly used spices so I won’t have to root around anywhere to get it. I can just grab it by the stove.
I still need to get more glass jars for additional spices as well as containers for sugars, flours, grains, and legumes. And I have not tackled the butler’s pantry yet. In other words, I have lots still to do. So you know what to get me for my birthday and Christmas: a Visa gift card. And what I will be doing during fall weekends…
Hello! I'm Ann Marie and I wear the well-worn apron. Join me as explore plant-based eating while I live on an island off the U.S. state of Rhode Island.