Spice Delight

One of the things my sweet Hubs gave me for Christmas was the gift of organization, in the form of a new system for storing my spices. The more I've delved into cooking over the past few years, the more spices I've collected. The collection outgrew my previous system (if you could call half my spices on a stair-step thing in the cupboard and the other half jumbled in a basket in my pantry a "system") and it had gotten to the point that I had a hard time remembering which of the more "exotic" (i.e. rarely used) spices I actually owned vs. had only thought about buying. Which resulted in lots of rummaging, and a few accidental duplicates.

After quite a bit of research online to see what my options were (the Hubs knows me well, and wisely discerned that while I asked for a spice rack for Christmas, I would want to pick it out myself, and so at his invitation I did), and after contemplating what was really important to me when it came to my spices, I decided on The Spice Stack. It met my criteria of:

• I can leave my spices in the bottle they came in. 
• It can accommodate various sizes of spice containers.
• I can arrange the spices in the order I choose. 
• It fits in a cabinet (and specifically my unconventionally-sized over-the-sink cabinet).
• It has space for labels, so that each spice has a designated home.
• It requires no hardware or installation (since we rent).

Each drawer of the Spice Stack has six divided slots for spices. The three slots on the top can accommodate larger spice bottles, while the slots on the bottom can accommodate standard size spice bottles, or two of the little ones (see photo below). Each drawer pulls out and can rest open on its own as you select your spices. There's space on the end of each drawer to affix a label identifying the contents as they lay inside.

I regret that I did not think to take a "before" picture before I embarked on my spice system overhaul. It was only after I'd finished and stepped back to admire my organized cupboard that I thought "this is so beautiful I should take a picture and blog about it." And so here I am. I apologize that the photo quality isn't great, but hopefully you can still get a sense of the blessed orderliness the Spice Stacks have brought to my kitchen. (These go for $24.99 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond if you're interested. And don't forget to use one of their 20% off coupons!)

The start of a new year always seems to get us Americans thinking about reorganizing, decluttering, simplifying, etc. Have you taken on any such projects in this new year? Discovered any helpful products? Have a great tip to share? Leave a comment!