How to Organize Your Spices in the Kitchen

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By missforty
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People who love to cook have many different spices in their kitchen. After time, though, the spice cabinet can become disorganized and it can become difficult to find the spice you need. It is important to organize the spice cabinet so that you can find the spices you need and you will not run out and buy duplicates of spices you already have!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Cabinet
Spices
Plastic organizer risers
Plastic lazy susans
Label maker

Step 1

First remove all spices from the cabinet. Wipe down cabinet with eco-friendly cleaner and remove all spice residue.
Step 2

Purchase some organizers from the local bed and bath store or discount store. Measure your cabinet to make sure they will fit. Buy several round lazy-susan organizers and several riser organizers. Risers are plastic stair-steps that usually have 3 levels. They allow you to see everything you have at a glance. Buy as many organizers as will fit in your cabinet. You will want to allow for more space to add new spices in the future.
Step 3

Place organizers in cabinet.
Step 4

Clean off all spice containers. Check for expiration dates and discard expired or damaged products. Discard items that you do not use and will not use in the future. Combine all duplicate items so you only have one container of each.
Step 5

Gather all sweet spices together and baking items. These would include items like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, almond extract, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder.
Step 6

Gather all savory spices together. These include items like salt, pepper, marjoram, chicken seasoning, cayenne pepper.
Step 7

Place the sweet spices in a separate area from the savory spices.
Step 8

You can further organize the spices alphabetically within the sweet and savory categories.
Step 9

Another way to organize the spices is to put the most commonly used spices in one area that is each to reach.
Step 10

You could also organize spices according to ethnic recipe origin. For example, the curry, tumeric, dried mustard, and cumin are all used to create Indian recipes, so these could be placed together. Items to make beef chili could be placed together.
Step 11

If labels on spice containers are not readable due to staining or moisture, use a label maker to create labels for each spice.
Step 12

When you buy a new spice, use a permanent marker to write the date of purchase on the spice. Please the spice in its proper position in the cabinet.

Comments

TomCom said

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on 5/25/2009 I put all of my cake/cookie spices to the right, and the rest to the left. Tallest in the back, shortest in front. All the labels have to face forward. If I alphabetized them, that would be too OCD, I think.