Lil’ Chu and I made a short video showing a quick way to organize spices in your kitchen. Finding and accessing your spices and seasonings quickly will make cooking and baking much easier – and tastier. Organizing your spices requires a bit more work than putting them into a bin and onto a shelf, but it will be well worth it in the end.

Gather Your Herbs, Spices, and Seasonings

Gather spices, seasonings, and herbs from all over your kitchen and place them in one spot. A kitchen counter or dining table is ideal. Check other areas where seasonings might be hiding, such as the BBQ area or bar.

Keep or Toss

Sort through your spices. Toss the ones with an off-colour, odour, or flavour and any that are beyond the best-before date. Chances are, if you can’t remember when you bought something, you should probably get rid of it. It might not be a health hazard, but you might not get the flavour you’re expecting if you do use it.

Generally, dried herbs, spices, and seasonings last anywhere from three months to one year. Ground spices tend to go off-flavour faster. StillTasty and McCormick have great information about the shelf life and storage of seasonings to help you determine what to keep and what to toss.

Do you have unopened jars or packets that you won’t consume by the due date or within a few months? Letting them sit in your cabinet is a waste of money and flavour. Consider donating them to someone who will use them promptly.

Storage Location

Decide where you’re going to store your seasonings because storage conditions will influence how long your spices will last. Ideally, storage conditions should be cool and dark (i.e., not in the cupboard above or beside the stove). Store fresh herbs and infused oils in the fridge or freezer to maintain flavour longer.

Categorize

Once you have decided where you will store your spices, it’s time to create some categories.

Grocery stores sort spices alphabetically because it is a logical system when many different people are looking for specific items. And it may be a practical system in your household if you have several cooks working in the kitchen.

Another option is to create one or two frequently used groups based on your cooking habits and separate the others into cuisine themes such as Middle Eastern, Asian, European, etc. You might wish to create a BBQ or Bar category if you use seasonings in those areas of your home.

Containerize

This step in the process is what most of my clients look forward to – choosing containers. First, ask yourself how you buy your spices. Are they in jars or packets? Do you purchase them loose or bulk and transfer them to jars?

For spices in packets, a small, plain bin with a label is an ideal storage container. You can also purchase a specific packet organizer with interior dividers. If you’re on a budget, a lidless food storage container will do the trick too.

For those who use jars to organize spices, I suggest using square-type jars because they fit closely together on cupboard shelves.

Other popular spice organizers include:

• Two-tier spinning rack with a section in the centre for taller jars & bottles.
• Mini shelf with tilt-down drawers for cupboards or countertops.
• Bottle gripper strips that fasten on the inside of cupboard doors.
• Customizable drawer liner that keeps bottles aligned and in place.
• Magnetic jars that fit on the inside of cupboard doors or the side of the fridge.
• Three-tier shelves for inside wide cupboards to keep all items in view.
• For narrow cupboards, there is a two-tier pull-out drawer and a three-tier shelf.

There are also many, many other types of racks and organizers available depending on your needs.

Label, Label, Label

Using labels is essential when you organize spices. If the bottle already has a label, it might be difficult to read. Feel free to add another label with a clear, easy-to-read font on a high-contrast background (e.g., black on white, white on black).

Add a label to the lid and the bottle so you can see what it is from the top or the side. If you’re using three-tier shelves, place the label near the top of the bottle rather than the middle because the bottles in front will block the label.

Add a label for the expiration date. Simply write on the bottle with a china marker or use some dry erase tape to make a label you can edit whenever you need to.

If you want help to organize spices or need other organizing solutions, contact the Out of Chaos team today.

Many thanks to the video production team!

• Dusty Hagerud of Color Sound Lab
• Tara Travis Voice Artist
• Danielle Turner of Velvet Pumpkin Productions

Video Transcript

Linda: Lil’ Chu!

Lil’ Chu: Geshundheit!

Linda: What are you doing?

Lil’ Chu: Oh, just dealing with these spices.

Linda: Oh, like all over your kitchen cupboards and drawers spices?

Lil’ Chu: Everywhere!

Linda: Everywhere is right! So let’s corral that mess! So if you don’t have pull-out drawers, the simple solution is let’s create one!

Lil’ Chu: Oh!

Linda: Grab a bin. They come in various different sizes. All those loose spices in containers, you can place them in the bin. Or the spice bags and containers like you have in your hand, we place them all in the bin. And all you have to do is pull the whole bin out. Nice and organized. All contained.

Lil’ Chu: That is amazing!

Linda: Wanna get started?

Lil’ Chu: Yes please! Okay now which one is this?