Reclaiming Your Spice Drawer

Generally, my house looks pretty clean and tidy from the outside. But if you open a closet door or drawer, you'll see see my dirty little secret on the inside. Often a jumbled mess exists. My latest pet peave was my spice drawer.

Once: A jumbled mess of spices in different size containers, which would open and spill, making it hard to find the spice needed to cook that fabulous meal in minutes.

Now: A thing of organizational beauty, making it easier to find the right ingredients and eliminating that spicy mess in the bottom of the drawer. No more buying the same spice twice. 

Here's how I did it....  

1. Empty out the drawer to find an embarrasing display of spices collected on the bottom of the drawer. Yikes!

2. Thankfully, it's a clean drawer again.

3. I ordered spice jars for $1 a piece that fit perfectly inside the drawer. Lucky for me, they matched the Penzey spice jars I already had.

4. Next, I made a list of all the different spices I had so I could make the labels. I created a template of circles on Microsoft Word, then typed in the names of each of the spices into the circle. I used Avery Full Sheet Labels 8165 and printed them out onto the page.

5. This is what they looked like when it was finished.

6. I used a circle punch to cut out the circles. 

7. Next, I transfered the spices into the new containers and added the labels to the lid. This was the most time consuming part, but not bad. Only about 2 hours to do the whole thing.

8. All Done. Super organized and it's easy to find the spices I need.