Easy ways to organize your spice cabinet

I bet you ended the year of 2021 saying, “In 2022, I’m going to be more organized!” I definitely said, I need to organize my spice rack! Something about being organized seems to take so much stress out of my very busy mama lifestyle! I am often so scatterbrained that I could be walking around the house for 20 minutes looking for scissors and then end up on a 20 minute cleaning binge because so much was in disarray!

There are so many parts of the home that you can organize to make your life much easy! For starters, let’s talk about those JUNK DRAWERS! We all have one around the house. Start the new year off right by tackling that bad boy and giving it a little makeover! My junk drawer is organized into different sections for mail, pens, keys, stamps, masks, etc. Luckily, I use these Expandable Drawer Organizers for my drawers in the kitchen as well as our bathrooms. I love these because I can easily adjust the organizer to fit ANY space! Talk about an upgrade! Now I never have to yell at my husband asking, “Where are the tweezers?!”

Aside from organizing my junk drawer, one of my goals was to reorganize my spice cabinet. I’m not going to lie, if you looked into our spice cabinet, you would have seen spice jars of all different shapes and sizes. I even stacked some on top of each other like a game of Tetris. Anytime I went to reach for one of those stacked spices, I took a gamble of my life by risking having them all fall over like a game of Jenga. This cabinet needed some serious TLC!

My first plan of attack was to purge the old spices and decide on a “Smart Spot” to put them.

What’s a “Smart Spot” for my spices?

Okay, okay, you might be thinking, “Serena, isn’t it obvious where to put your spices?” You would think right! I’ve seen so many interesting places that people keep their spices, and ultimately, you gotta do what works for YOU. For example, I have seen my MIL keep her spices in her food pantry on a lovely lazy susan. She can easily go in and grab what she needs. One of my girlfriends, decided that a pull out drawer works better for her because she can lay them all out flat and grab what she needs.

I decided that I wanted my spice rack to be up high so my son can’t get into them and only an arm’s length distance away in case my mediocre eggs need a quick magical dash of garlic salt! Let me just say, I am not the “Head Chef” in my household, but I love baking. My husband does a majority of the cooking, bless his soul! I figure, the least I could do is make cooking as easy for him as possible so he knows EXACTLY where everything is!

How long should you keep spices?

I’m guilty of keeping some spices that relatives gave us for our wedding and as Christmas gifts. They became the foundation of my spice rack tower and remained untouched. I did a little research on spices and here’s what I found!

• Ground spices only last six months! These spices can lose their freshness and potency. The best way to check these is to take a whiff! Be cautious sniffing that paprika or it could lead to an unpleasant experience.
• Whole spices have a shelf life of up to five years! If they need a little refresh before consumption, toss them on a skillet for a quick minute.
• Spices do not like Daylight! Keep them in a dark area, because day light or heat can take away their potency and flavor.

Prepping your spice rack

Alright, alright! So you finally purged the old ones and now you’re ready to organize your spices. Before putting your new spices in, give it a nice wipe down and consider lining your cabinet to make cleaning easier for next time! Try these Cabinet OR Shelf Liners. Once you lined up your cabinet, decide on what kind of spice jars you would like in your pantry. I found these amazing spice jars with the CUTEST labels to make your spice rack look uniform!

Having a bunch of different spice labels can be a real eye-sore! This pack even comes with blank labels you can write on for those spices or dry rubs you mix on your own. What I love most about these spice jars is that they even come with the best silicone funnel, making it so easy to transfer your spices into their new jars.

Organizing your spice rack

We are ready to ROCK AND ROLL!

Let’s get this rack looking so fresh and so clean! Decide on how you want to organize these pretty jars! I used this 3 tiered spice rack and put the spices in order alphabetically. As mentioned before, you have to choose which works best for you. I like to have my spices standing, but you could also consider this tilted wall mount spice rack where you can see the tops of the labels. You might even want to use the spices you use the most in the front, making it easy to grab!

Stack all of your clean labeled spice jars on the rack. You might have a couple of those different sized spice jars, oils, or cooking sprays left. Never fear, the baby lazy susan is here. Get this ADORABLE mini turntable to put your oils and cooking sprays on. I also like to keep my oil in these cute ceramic dispensers! Any other spices like peppercorn mill or salt shakers can go right beside your new spice rack.

Now that we’ve organized this beautiful rack, I’m sure you can’t wait to cook or bake your next meal or dessert! Next time you walk to your cabinet and open, I bet you’ll hear “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa singing , “Salt-N-Pepa’s here Salt, Salt-Salt, Salt-N-Pepa’s here”