Finally! My spices are organized and it only took almost 7 years to get it done. Can anyone relate to this? We’ve been in our house for going on 7 years this summer and it took me this long to finally get my spices organized. I should be ashamed, but that’s life for you. Time flies! And organizing my spices was not at the top of my list, so I didn’t focus on it and let things slide for years. I’m happy to say that they are finally organized now and I don’t know what took me so long!
Our kitchen is small, but it does have this pull out spice drawer, so that’s where all the spice jars ended up. There were duplicates and I’ve had many for way too long, but they all got dumped into this drawer when we moved in and I haven’t touched them since, except to add a few along the way. As you can see, there are no labels on top so I had to look through all my spices and hope I hit the right one. Yes, it was frustrating, but apparently not enough for me to do anything about it in almost 7 years! Smacks head! I’m sure I’m not the only hard headed person around who procrastinates, am I?!
I know many people have pull out spice drawers and those are nice too, but we don’t have that. In case you are someone who needs your spices organized too, I’m here to help!
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I finally decided when I saw some sales going on to finally, finally get my spices organized. I found this set of spice jars with labels on Amazon and promptly ordered it. I got it in before Christmas, so it sat for a few weeks until I was finally motivated to get these things filled up and finally get my spices in order.
This set comes with a handy set of pre-printed sticky labels (black or white) and having them on the top was what I was looking for. This was key to getting my spices in order so I could see what I was looking at when I opened that drawer.
It also has two sets of white or black labels for the sides of the jars and I used all the black ones for mine. It literally took me about an hour to choose which 25 jars I wanted to fill and get them filled and labeled. It was so worth it to finally get this chore done. One of those things you hate to admit, but at least I’m all organized now. Sometimes we just need the motivation to just do it!
Once I got them all done, I alphabetized them back in the drawer and now they will stay neat and orderly and I can find exactly what I’m looking for at a glance. Who else needs some motivation to finally get a chore done that you’ve been putting off? This is your official notification to just get it done! You’ll be so glad you did. It tickles me every time I open this drawer now to see all my spices and herbs in neat alphabetical order. What a change!
I wasn’t going to add the side labels, but I realized once the lids are off, they can easily be mixed up, so my tip is use the side labels too. They’re in the packet and you might as well. I’m so glad to finally get this job done. It was one of my January chores I wanted to get done and I was so happy to get it finished. The other chore was getting my closet cleaned 0ut and organized again and I got that done too. January is a great month to organize, so what are you waiting for? It’s a wonderful feeling when you accomplish something you’ve been putting off! Join me and get it done!
well les see – rehomed your parents and the adjustments that were required to do that, sold the house and contents, helped your sister with shopping and decorating her new home, a swimming pool and the landscaping for it, resurfaced the deck, HI to Alaska tour, maintained a full time job with a blog, OH my goodness I cant even think all the things that might have squeezed organizing your spices out of first place/!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha Brenda, good one! Well, I did have ample time, but it just didn’t happen.
Can you share with us on how you organize your closet? I have a long deep closet that can hold a lot but once the clothes get put way down you can’t get to them well. So those clothes never get worn. And I look at my clothes & think I may wear them one day & wont let them go. I keep buying but never get rid of pieces. Help.
My closet isn’t the best for organizing. I just cleaned out clothes I wasn’t wearing and then refolded pants and organized all my drawers. I don’t have a huge closet but I’ve done it the best I can for the size and shape. I hang my dresses on hooks on the wall and the rest of the hanging space is for tops, pants and jackets.
Thank you so very much for this article! You have inspired me to organize my spices as well!
Bob Vila has an article on keeping weevils out of our spices and pantry. He suggests putting any spices in the freezer for four to seven days to kill any that may be present before opening and using our spices for the first time.
I’ll never forget dusting a large plate of beautiful deviled eggs with paprika – full of bugs!!! I check all that stuff ever since. And I keep paprika in the freezer all the time.
I’ve never even thought about bugs in spices, but I guess it can happen at any time. That would be awful.
What did you do about the expiration dates?? I just cleaned out our spice drawer and some were waaayyyy past the expiration date.
I know a lot of mine are too. I did throw some out.
so how will you tell in the future with no dates on the containers
Looks nice and should work well if one only buys in the small sizes. And again the dates are missing and if buying in the Costco size or even McCormicks larger size still have to store those jars in the pantry or upper cabinets. I do see how well this idea works with a dedicated spice drawer. Did you have anything that didn’t have the preprinted label?
Hi, Dee, I put my most used ones in these bottles and then any extras are on the bottom shelf. I didn’t have any I wanted to use that didn’t have a label. If you do have some that aren’t marked, they give you blank labels to write on too.
I try to tackle at least two jobs like that two or three times a week so they don’t get away from me. I’m currently reorganizing my crawl space. Now there’s a job!
Thanks for sharing! I too found it very satisfying to organize my spice cabinet!
Rhoda, you inspired me to organize my spices and I bought the same set. So easy to do and so much easier to locate with the top labels. One TIP: if you want to remember the expiration dates you can write them on the bottom of the glass jars with permanent marker. Use Windex to wipe it off and update when you refill (my engineer husband researched and figured that one out!)
Thanks JoAnn, I tend to keep mine too long, but that’s a good idea. This set comes with a marker that comes off too, I think.
Yes I used the chalk pen to make some labels. Didn’t try it on the jars for the expiration date. Good thought. Thanks for sharing the jars.. My spice drawer pulls out like yours and the top labels are game changers