Our Guest Contributor, Angie Jakubiec, is a wife and mother to three children. Although she has enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom for the past 13 years, she is considering returning to her former role in elementary special education. Angie and her family attend a local church together where they volunteer on the Children’s Ministry Team. Angie also leads adult Bible studies. She is passionate about DIY projects and trying to live well for less! In the summer you will find Angie and family spending time together at the lake.

For awhile now, I’ve been unhappy with the way my spices were stored.

Spices on counter

I was storing them in an upper kitchen cabinet on a tiered spice rack. I didn’t like that only the spice labels on the first tier were visible. I was always moving spices to see the labels on the shakers on the second and third tiers. On more than one occasion, while moving spices around, I accidentally sent off a spice shaker avalanche and wound up picking several shakers up off the countertop and floor!

Frustrated with my spice storage, I turned to the internet in hopes of finding a better solution.  I found amazing custom-built cabinet and drawer spice racks. However, I assumed they were not in my budget range.

I also considered a beautiful spice carousel, but I knew that I didn’t want to sacrifice any countertop space to accommodate it.

I needed to find a way to organize my spices while continuing to house them in my upper kitchen cabinet.  After more internet searching and much thought, this is what I came up with:

spices side view
spices in baskets

Here is a supply list and directions, so you can revamp your spice storage, too!

Supply List:

  • Spices
  • Baskets
  • Computer/printer or pen/paper
  • Self-adhesive laminating sheets (found at any office supply store or office department at Target)
  • Scissors
  • Super glue
  • Craft paper
  • Paper punch
  • String

Directions:

  1. Clean through your spices and throw away any that are expired.
  2. Make and print out a document listing the names of your spices. You could also hand write a list as well.
  3. Cut apart your list to create mini labels for the top of each spice shaker.
  4. Sandwich individual mini labels between a top and a bottom layer of self-adhesive laminating sheet. This step is tedious, but will help your labels stand up in a kitchen environment.spices by computer
  5. Using a tiny bead of super glue, attach each label to the top of the corresponding spice shaker.
  6. Organize your spice shakers alphabetically and determine how many shakers will fit into each of the baskets you’ve chosen.
  7. Create another label for the outside of each basket that lists its contents. My labels were A-G and H-Z. Paper punch your basket labels and tie them to the outside of your basket.  Please note: Everyone will have a different label based on the number of spice shakers and the size of their baskets.

Tip: When you run out of a particular spice, you can easily remove the label and glue it to the cover of your new shaker. Or, if you happen to purchase the same brand spice in the same style shaker, you can move your old labeled cover to your new shaker.