CopyKat.com is the creation of Stephanie Manley. Stephanie started publishing recipes on the web in 1995 as a means to capture her family recipes in a format that they would not be thrown away.
Over the years 
I am so frustrated with my spice cabinet. I can’t even begin to describe how much. I have encountered this a great deal several times in the last week. I have a small galley style kitchen. So while my love for spices is grand, my space for them well is quite frankly not so grand. I am trying to come up with a way to organize my spices and do so efficiently, so I can find them, and so that my spices don’t grow old and lose their flavor.
Before I go into why I find them frustrating on why I hate to store them, let me say I hate the variety that I have. I literally have a medium sized moving box of spices, excluding the wonderful salts that I have. I know this, because I moved twice in 2009. I packed everything up twice. I am beginning to wonder why I need so many spice blends. I am not talking about spice blends such as chili powder, or say curry powder. I think I have a problem with purchasing or acquiring odd ball spice blends like ‘Penzey’s Black and Red’, or the ‘Penzey’s Fox Point’ seasoning. I am beginning to wonder if I should just buy single herbs and spices, and not blend. This is going to be my plan of action, at least until I walk into a spice store and find something so spectacular I will want to have it in my home.
Storage, the physical storage, this is the part that causes me much heart ache. So something that works to my benefit is where I buy my spices. For the most part my spices come from two places. About 8 years back I started to purchase spices from Penzy’s, who has fabulous spiaces and they are often less expensive than what they are in a grocery store. In 2008 I found The Spice House in Chicago. I love The Spice House, again very good prices, and the freshest spices imaginable. So why this is important, is that they come in standard sizes. Everything comes in similar sizes, so I am not combining square containers, large plastic containers, and then goodness knows what else.
The organization of spices is where I really begin to fall apart. A couple of years ago I tried putting all of my spice jars into a drawer. For me, this wasn’t the most successful plan, as all of my jars are round. So everything rolled around in my drawer, and after opening the drawer a few times, I couldn’t read any of the labels. So now I have some tiered shelves in my spice cabinet that works ok. Since it is tiered I can read all of the labels, but I have too many spices, so I have to double stack everything. It is a pain. Last night when making some taco soup, I pulled out a lot of things before I got what I needed, and I was adding bits and pieces of blends trying to purge my cabinets of the spice blends.
My question to you is how do you organize your spices? What spices must you have? What can you live without? I am so frustrated by my having too many spices in too little of a space. Do you have any thoughts?
Write your suggestions below, I will be anxiously waiting to hear what in the world do you do with your spices.
Recommended Sites
My Spice Sage
Penzey’s
The Spice House
I saw this on Good Eats on the food network. Little metal tins, stuck to the inside of the cabinets with velcro. It would free up shelf space, and leave all of your spices in an easy to see (and choose from) place. He marks them on the top with what is in them, and the date so that any that are too old can be replaced. I started doing it with mine, and now I use them more often because I have no problem finding the one I want.
I LOVE how we organize our spices and it’s made my life so much easier when it comes to trying new recipes and daily cooking.
We use thee great magnetic spice containers and have them on the side of our fridge. Also, I painted our fridge with chalkboard paint so that allows me to write the name of the spice next to it, which helps when I say “Honey, can you grab me the such-and-such”. 
It works great in a small space! If you can’t do it on your fridge you could always buy a piece of sheet metal to hang on the wall and paint with chalkboard paint, or put some on the inside of your cabinets. 
Here are two pictures of our spices:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55463415@N00/3460124115/in/set-72157617011758029/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55463415@N00/3460132155/in/set-72157617011758029/
Good Luck!!!
my mom (as a chef) has the very same problem… and she lives in a japanese home that has a very small kitchen… so what she did is she got a bookcase/dvd shelf and uses that! it works perfectly for her. and of course, if you did not want your spices shown to the world, you could put a little ‘curtain’ over it.
I too have a galley style kitchen. They are evil, unless one is on a boat. I think the person who started designing them into houses should pay a hefty price – all of it going to me so I can buy a house with a proper sized kitchen.
I have to second the spicestack organizer. I recently bought one and it holds so many spice bottles and is wonderful to use.
Previously used alphabetical rows in cabinet, lazy susans, a kitchen drawer devoted to spices, etc. None of those worked for me.
Agree with Patricia. (1) Container Store and (2) a personal labeler. I toss out the original spice containers and put spices in bottles from the Container Store (the Acrylic 20-bottle spice rack — http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/spiceStorage?productId=10024130 — is mounted with screws to the door of my pantry (on the inside to save space and give easy access to all spices). Label each bottle yourself withe a label maker so each label looks nice and consistent and sort alphabetically for finding stuff easily.
Stephanie
Two words…Container Store! I think I have the smallest galley kitchen in Chicago, and the Container Store has been a life saver in organizing my limited storage space. Inside my cabinets I have mounted spice racks on the door. Two racks hold my collection of about fifty spices with room to spare. If you need more space, add more racks to other cabinets. I love these! Everything is in a single row, and labels face forward in alphabetical order, so there is no searching. Also, at the Container Store they have magnetic spice racks. I use this for my most often used spices. That way I don’t have to even open a cabinet, they’re always on hand on the fridge. Good luck to you and your spice mission. I feel your pain, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out without having to throw your spices out.
I also use the metal containers with the magnets on the back. They ae great for blending spices. My son decided that we should use our label maker to label them so he made labels for each of the containers. Now they sit on the top of the hood vent where they are easy to reach and see. Another friend of mine keeps hers on the side of her fridge. I looked all over for them but found them at BJ’s Wholesale Club – 4 for 6.99.
I have a rack that hangs on the inside of my pantry door. Have the spices I use most often at eye level and ones used less often on the higher shelves. I love that everything is close at hand but also out of sight when I’m not cooking. My husband and I cook a lot and this system seems to work for us. It also makes use of space that otherwise would be wasted.
Hopefully later this week, I will show you guys what I have done inside of my spice cabinet. This has been extremely helpful! I really appreciate all of the ideas/suggestions that so many of you have had. I need something to last until I get my kitchen cabinets updated (that’s another story…).
Again, thank you, and please if anyone has other ideas, please let me know. I am always interested in trying to make any additional suggestion please feel free to do so.
Stephanie
I kept my spices on racks in the cabinet for years until I remodeled the kitchen. Now ai Have a spice drawer. I found some wonderful little jars at World Market for 99 cents each and they are just the right height. With clear labels on top (also from WM) I can see what I have immediately. Works for me.
First of all, I’m sure everyone else has some wonderful suggestions, so I’m not sure how useful this will be, but… When we built our new house, I made sure to plan in spice storage room. Over my stove, I have two spice racks. Next to the stove, but underneath in the cabinets, I have a spice storage lazy susan. On the spice racks go all my regular everyday spices, such as salt, pepper, cayenne, mustard powder, garlic powder, etc.. The whole thing holds about 18 spice bottles. In the lazy susan, I keep bulk bottles of things that I use frequently enough to warrant keeping in bulk, as well as home-dehydrated herbs. This includes basil, thyme, chili powder, garlic salt, black pepper, dehydrated onion flakes, and Canadian steak seasoning. I keep very few spice blends; only the ones I know I will use on a regular basis.
I have a lot of spices and it does get overwhelming, what i did was turn a food cabinet into a spice cabinet, I bought 10 metal bins at Ikea for the kitchen that fit the width of the cabinet, screwed the shelves on the side and left enough room for the other shelf. I did that on both sides of the cabinet. It saves more space in my cupboards and on the counter top fpr other things. I took a picture which i will post on Facebook so you can see what i did. Hope this helps
I just purged a bunch of spices and ended up re-buying just about everything (better quality for what I use most often). I keep mine in a small narrowish cabinet on a two-tier lazy susan. Easiest for me is alphabetical order. The cabinet is to the upper right of my stove so when I’m cooking, I just reach up, grab, use, and replace.
Alton Brown on Foodtv did a great thing where he took the small magnet back holders and hung them on the inside of his cabinets. I have done it and it makes everything much easier
Wow, we just went thru this in our house, small kitchen, lots of spice
We ended up putting them up on the wall. Bought 2 cases of those round, metallic containers that have magnets on the back, 3 cookie sheets, and 2 pieces of wood, approx 3′x2″x1″. After spray painting the wood a nice red, lacquer color, we toggle bolted the wood into the wall, the width of the cookie sheets. We then separately attached the cookie sheets in between the 2 wood “borders”, and place the magnetic containers onto the cookie sheet.
It was a project, but the spices are all in 1 place and it looks great.
Hey Stephanie – I too share your pain as I have a very small galley kitchen. However, I’ve found Spice Clips (spiceclips@hotmail.com). They are adhesive strips that hold 4 spice bottles by brackets on each side. They go up easily and I fit 3 strips on the back of each cupboard door = 24 bottles. I also have a spice holder with two levels that rotates so I store 12 more there. Much handier to find things.
As for spice mixes – I generally prepare my own and then only make a small amount so that it is always fresh when I need it. I buy my spices at the bulk food store so it is much cheaper. As for mixed peppercorns I mix them at the bulk food place.
have to say im in the same boat with Heidi Warner LOL….its a hide and seek game here also!
plus i have 3 8×4 ft raised bed gardens….you got it all of them are herb gardens…for i have the double task of drying/storing the years harvest in the freezer…..extra goes to friends/family….
every year i add atleast 2 new types of spice plants…
this year adding Bird peppers and french tarragon…
after 20 years in my house…i have totally given up on trying to ever organize them…
we have a small house (perfectly happy with a small house less cleaning heheh)
my kitchen is exactly 7×9….talk about limited space…..
needless to say less used pots and pans are stored…uhhhh under the bed…and get washed when needed….you learn to store stuff in places you never thought about before when you need the room…..
one cabinet looks alot like Stephanie’s…..thats over my dishwasher…. less used spices stay in this cabinet….
common spices stay in a cabinet next to the stove… easily within reach…
2 cabinets so far…
top of cabinets 4 14″x16″ rubber maid containers full of everything u can imagine…
spices everywhere LOL…
and then under a cabinet 2 more containers…. of custom spice blends….
also 3 racks of spices sitting on the counter top behind toaster ect….that get moved when we use the toaster ect
i do have to admit… i do have lists on my computer of what is in the containers….and labeled them 1,2,3,4,5,6
best thing i have found, plan in advance…the day before pull out the spices you need and sit them on a counter overnight…
aww, stephanie, I think its a great little cabinet! I prefer free range spices to the stuff that gets all cooped up and injected with… wait, no, thats chicken….
and well while we are here on the subject I would like to commend Heidi Warner for her fantastic treatise on the anarchy of world flavors above. Truly, your words could be straight out of a 1978 copy of the Joy of Cooking! That being said perhaps we should all consider a change not of our spice rack, but of our attitudes instead?
I know how you feel! I have a small kitchen with not a lot of storage. I found the PERFECT solution for me, it may help you as well. I purchased these great wire spice racks at World Market. They also sell round glass spice bottles. Each rack holds 12 bottles of spices. You can hang the racks on the wall (or they can sit in a cabinet or on the countertop). I hung three racks on a small wall in my kitchen. This has changed my kitchen spice life! I labeled every bottle and now they are hanging all organized and conveniently placed. Everyone that sees it loves it! The display is also nice, not cheesy! Hope this helps someone else like it did me!
I, too, use lazy susans in my cupboard. One is two-tier and the other is one tier. I also organize the herbs and spices alphabetically and by use. So the two-tier is the one I use for general cooking herbs and the one-tier is for baking spices.
I keep my jarred spices alphabetically in 4 old COPCO spice racks I have mounted on my wall. Odd size containers arre in my cabinet. I have too many spices so need to watch this for ideas.
Ok folks, here is my spice cabinet, and you can see my frustration.
http://twitpic.com/12nd1c
I didn’t think so, but I’m out of control! I took a look and realized I have 3 cabinets and a full rack of test tubes filled with spices and then there’s the Aero Garden with live growing herbs. I need an intervention! I posted it up on the site under a new page, but it’s not showing up. Go figure. Maybe my blog is embarrassed for all the herbs and spices I have around the kitchen. It’s here: http://frantasticfood.com/?page_id=2932
I am in love with Penzey’s spice jars – I have mostly 4 oz spice jars that I labeled, with 8 oz ones for things I use more frequently (basil, oregano, parsley) and a couple short wide ones for peppercorns and bay leaves. I label them on the front of the jar.
Currently my spices are in the set of cabinets above my stove for easy access. In my old apartment I had them on the counter. In this situation, it was much easier to have the tops of the jars labeled also so I didn’t have to shuffle them all around to read which was which.
I am eager to see what you decide for your spices!
Double tiered lazy susan here, plus DH put a magnetic sheet on one of the cabinet doors and we store our most frequently used herbs and spices in steel tins that adhear to the door. It makes a great sculpture!
I have two small lazy susans in my spice cupboard. On the left is A-M and on the right is N-Z. My grown children even know this when they return home and we often joke about when they can’t find a spice …. I remind them of my system which has worked beautifully for the past 17 years.
The best idea I ever saw, and use myself, is this: put each spice, herb, whatever into a small ziplock bag, mark it with a file folder tag that sticks up, and file them alphabeticallt in a plastic shoe box looking bin. I can’t tell you how much it holds, and can easily be stowed in the corner of a convenient cabinat.
Rachael Ramsey
I can relate!
Three suggestions:
1. I have two spice drawers that hang horizontally under my kitchen cabinets. They take up space above appliances, canisters, etc. that isn’t used for anything else. Mine were made by my brother but there must be a commercial version out there. On mine the drawer pulls out and swings down to about a 45 deg. angle.
2. I too had bottles rolling around in a drawer – always with the spice name facing down for some perverse reason! I bought some sheets of small round stickers at an office supply store, typed the spice names using the recommended on-line template, ran the sheets through my printer, and put a label on the top of each jar – then stood them up in the drawer.
3. I have the luxury (?) of having a Penzey’s within fifteen walking minutes from home. Talk about overbuying! I too have many odd blends that I used once or twice and then they languished in the drawer. Even though it’s more expensive by weight/volume, I buy the smallest quantity of a spice available. It saves on space and I find it easier to toss out the small jar if the flavor fades too much. The only ones I buy in quantity are the “workhorses” like s & p, curry, chili powder, etc.
I keep all my spices on the door of my freezer. I keep five or six that I use often on a wire shelf by my stove along with salt, pepper, olive oil, ect. It keeps my spices fresh, they do not loose thier flavor and the rack holds them in place.
put your spices in alphabetical order and on a Rubbermaid or other brand, double-tiered lazy susan. it works great
OK, this is my plan. I have several of those plastic baskets (different colors) that are about 6″ wide and maybe 8″ long. I put “like” spices together and I take a black marker and write the name of the top of the lid. Then I have a master list that I keep handy with what’s in each basket. When I identify the color basket and take it out of the pantry I just have to look at the top of the bottles to find what I’m looking for.
Carol Webster
What a can of worms you have opened up!! I share your dilemma. I have spices all over the kitchen. I have jars and tins in the cupboard next to the stove, for those times I need a quick dash of this or that. All of my salts (13 and growing), peppers, herbes de provence, Cavendar’s Greek Seasoning, lemon zest, orange zest, dried onions, etc. This takes up two shelves. Next to the stove, I have a salt box and a matching plate (both antiques) and on the plate are my salt and pepper grinders (4) along with my matching antique salt shaker and don’t forget the lemon pepper grinder. Across the kitchen, I have a hutch with glass doors. On those two shelves on the left side, I can see a mismash of herbs, spices, seasonings, flavorings, and let’s not forget vanilla beans, extract, and paste. I have them piled precariously on top of each other, and I also have some in large jars holding jars and bags. I have two hand carved teak boxes holding spices in bags. There is no organization to this whatsoever! My spices are in chaos. I have no intention of changing it, either.
I love to open one of my large jars looking for the Dalmatian sage or turmeric. I lift the lid and take a large smell of all the different herb and spice aromas. When I open the door to my hutch, I have an anticipation somewhat reminiscent of an Easter egg hunt. I say “Ok, Garam Masala… where are you hiding now?” “Where DID I put that tarragon?” But in the search for the errant herbs, I find old friends who have been forgotten or I haven’t seen in a while. I take one of them out and put them/it on the antique plate next to the stove and vow to use it soon. And I do.
Living in Orange County, Southern California, we have NO specialty stores that sell just spices or cheese. Everything is a supermarket. We do have stores like Cost Plus World Market where you can get herbs and spices for very good prices. But no spice stores. Thank you for letting me know about The Spice House. I have placed and order for $105.27 and plan to have a lot of fun and frustration trying to fit all the new spices in my kitchen.
As for your dilemma… Live with it. Think of it as an adventure! Talk to your spices as you’re hunting them down… “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” And when you do finally find your truant, say, “Hello, old friend. It’s so nice to see you again!”
Regards,
Heidi Warner
I am totally going to work the blends out of the cabinet. That will save some room. The SpiceStack Opion may work, if you guys want to send a set over, I will be happy to do a write up about them …
So the blends will be gone, I need to see how much room that makes. Then onto how to best display everything, lots of great ideas folks! Maybe I will do some before and after pictures.
First off – buy a good book on spice blends and about spices. I have one put out by McCormick years ago. Then dump the blends that are not used on a regular basis. You can get small square containers at places like “The Container Store” and transfer the spices if you don’t mind re-labeling everything. I am lucky enough to have a small pantry. I purchased a shallow depth wire hanging rack for the wall with three shelves some years ago and my spices fit in that. You could possibly get an over the door (cabinet door) hanging rack. Anyway, those are my suggestions. Hope some idea from someone helps.
I have my spices on a lazy susan and can see the labels, etc. It takes just a spin to see them all. I, too, have too many spices and have stacked them on the lazy susan, but that works fine.
I have many spices and most I cannot live without. My very favorite is Nature’s seasons by Morton. I put it on just about everything, it’s so good in potato salad, egg and vegetable recipes and much more. It changes the taste remarkably. Even my 8 and 10 year old grandsons are now using it at their home. They too cannot do without it either.
I have my spices on a double turntable that I purchased. Since I have all sizes, this works well. Using the taller spices on top and in the middle and the smaller ones on the bottom which are all around the tall ones. It’s a breeze looking for them too.
I might also add I love your site and look forward to my emails. Thank you for all you do….great job!
Regarding the organization of spices; I have all mine on turntables on five of my cabinet shelves. They are mostly catagorized by type and being a person of short stature I find this is convenient when I need a particular one. I also use turntables for my vitamins and meds in another cabinet.
I think I have the perfect solution for you… my father invented the SpiceStack Organizer for home cooks to store their OWN spice collection in less space in the cabinet. SpiceStack’s drawers pull out and fold down to resting place, so you can always quickly find the spices you need. Check it out at SpiceStack.com.
This is timely because I was just talking on the phone with a Penzey’s store manager yesterday and he said that his Penzey’s bottles work perfectly with the product. I guess some of their customers are frustrated because the owner doesn’t sell spice racks in their stores!
Also, it sounds like you are from the Chicago area, and our SpiceStacks are make in Elk Grove Village, so you can feel good about supporting the local economy
Good luck! Lauren Greenwood, YouCopia Products Inc.
Hey guys, thanks for the great website! I dont bother organizing my 30 or so spice jars. I just give them counter space. Currently they are all moved to the top of the stove for a wipe down of their usual home. I am sure they will migrate back though. I think the idea here is that because they are so small and so round they can fit in the nooks and crannies well enough to not be annoyingly obstrusive (say lined up against the back wall or something).
As a side note I like El Guapo which has a shelf at one of the asian stores here, HT Market. They are good spices for really cheap, sold in plastic bags. I have old jars from the standard spice rack at safeway which come pre-labelled, and also baby food jars that I am sure I should label.
I use a 2-story lazy susan (available at bed bath and beyond, etc) in my cabinet and an additional circular, 2-story spinning rack on my counter for my most-used spices. For me, it’s all about being able to easily get to what I have.
Can’t say I have the solution, but I store everything on 2 narrow shelves. I never discard my empty glass spice jars. I wash them and remove the labels. Then, if I buy spices in bulk, I pour them into the clean glass bottles I have saved. I do rummage, but most of the bottles are of a uniform size so that makes the process easier. And I don’t usually buy blends. I prefer to blend my own.
I re-purposed a jewelry armoire into a spice cabinet / kitchen accessory holder….got the idea on Rachael Ray’s show. Here is a link to the video if you are interested!
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/diy-furniture-challenge/
I feel your pain! I was just looking in my pantry at the plastic show box filled with little bags of spices. I buy most of my herbs and spices at the local coop because the product is fresh and a whole lot cheaper. Any way, back to my box, I have to dig thru the box and look at each little bag to find what I need. Not a good system at all! If anyone has a good way of organizing their spices I want to know!!
Spice out-
Good question – I remember Amanda Hesser sharing this trick about organizing her spices: http://www.food52.com/blog/313_my_spice_drawer_trick