How to Organize Your Spices for an Easier Cooking Experience

Do you often find yourself frustrated when trying to find the spice you need for your recipe? It can be difficult to remember which spice is in which jar, and it’s even harder to search through them all when you’re in the middle of cooking.

In this blog post, we will give ideas for how to organize your spices so that cooking is a breeze. You can use a spice rack, organize them by type, or alphabetize them. We’ll also give tips on how to set them up on a magnetic rack, turntable, or any other way that makes grabbing them easy!

How to Store Spices

When it comes to organizing spices, the first thing you need to do is figure out where to store spices. It’s important to know how much space you’re working with so you can decide how to organize spices within that space.

Keeping Spices Fresh

There are a few different ways to store your spice collection, but I recommend going through your spice bottles before you start this process.

Check expiration dates on your spice jars, because while they do last a while, they could be expired. As a good rule of thumb, dried herbs stay fresh for 1-2 years, ground spices are fresh for 2-3 years, and whole spices are good for around 4 years. So double-check that expiration date!

When looking for a place to store your spices, look for a dark place, like a kitchen drawer or cabinet shelves in a cool cupboard. You want to keep your spice out of direct sunlight and make sure the spice jars are tightly closed after each use!

Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s talk about a few spaces where you can store your spice collection!

Spice Cabinet

The most common option for storing spices is in a spice cabinet. A spice cabinet is typically a small cabinet located near the stove. This is a great option if you have the space for it!

A lot of homes have small cabinets meant to be spice cabinets, but you can also convert any of your cabinet shelves into a spice cabinet.

Pantry Shelf

You can also use a pantry shelf to store spices. A pantry shelf is a great option if you have a lot of spices or if you don’t have a lot of counter space or cabinet space but have a large pantry.

Unfortunately, it might mean your spices are farther away than if they were in a spice cabinet, but if that’s what it takes to organize your spices, it’ll be worth it!

Pantry Door

You could also utilize your pantry door or a cabinet door by adding a hanging rack on the door. A hanging spice rack is a great option if you want to take advantage of that vertical space!

You can easily get a hanging rack that will keep your spices secure even when opening and closing your door!

Countertop Spice Rack

Another common option for spice storage is a countertop spice rack. You’ve probably seen lots of lazy susan-style spice racks before. There are some great lazy susan racks with two-tiered shelves that can store quite a lot of spices.

Even though your countertop isn’t technically a dark place, it still works if they aren’t in direct sunlight.

Kitchen Drawer

Another popular option for storing spices is in a spice drawer. Drawers are great because they keep your spices organized and out of the way. Plus, they’re easy to access when you’re cooking! I also love the look of uniform clear containers with custom labels in a spice drawer.

I’d recommend choosing a shallow drawer if you do this. You don’t want to have to reach way down to the bottom of a drawer to grab your spices!

An in-drawer expandable spice drawer organizer is one of my all-time favorite purchases to keep my kitchen organized! Everything stays perfectly in place and it always looks amazing!

Magnetic Strip

One other way to ensure easy access to your spice storage is by adding a magnetic strip to your wall or backsplash. This is a great option if you have limited countertop or drawer space. Plus, it looks really sleek and modern in a kitchen!

You can buy a magnetic spice rack or make your own with a few simple supplies. I’ve even seen people use old cookie tins as spice containers on a magnetic strip!

There are also magnet boards that come with jars that you can use specifically for spices!

Selecting Your Spice Storage Space

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you store your spices, whether it’s in a spice cabinet, on a shelf in the pantry, in a drawer, or in test tubes on a magnetic strip. Just make sure you find somewhere in your house that’s easy to get to while cooking and easy to organize!

How to Organize Spices

Now that you have your storage space or method worked out, it’s time to organize your spices! There are quite a few ways to organize your spices, but I’ll just cover some of my favorites.

Alphabetical Order

When you get spice racks that come with spices, they are usually organized in alphabetical order.

Organizing spices alphabetically is probably the most common way to do it. After all, it makes finding what you need a lot easier. All you have to do is know the name of the spice you’re looking for and voila! It’s right there in front of you.

By Type of Spice

You could also organize your spices by type. For example, you could have a section for all your baking spices, another section for all your savory spices, and so on.

Organizing by type is great if you find yourself using certain types of spices more often than others. That way, they’re always within easy reach. So you can place your most used spices like salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, etc. close by.

You can also group spices based on spice type, like keeping dried herbs like bay leaves and oregano together, baking spices like cinnamon and nutmeg together, and ground cooking spices like garlic powder and onion powder together.

This can make it more difficult to locate certain spices than if your spice cabinet was organized alphabetically, but the system works well for some people!

In Matching Spice Jars

A great way to organize spices is by using same-size spice jars. Often, spices come in containers of all shapes and sizes, which can make it hard for spice organization.

Having matching jars or bottles in your spice cabinet or drawer is a great way to take your spice organization to the next level and make your house look super put together!

You can easily get a set of glass containers or plastic containers at a container store or online. Then just transfer your spices and use a label maker to add some custom labels to your spices. (You can also use baby food jars, but it might take a while to collect enough baby food jars for all of your spices!)

On a Turntable or Lazy Susan

I mentioned this earlier, but using a turntable for your spices is a great idea because it allows you to easily see and grab the spice you need without having to move around a lot of other spices. You can get a turntable at most kitchen stores or online.

This is one of the best ways to ensure you have easy access to all of your spices and bottles as you are cooking.

Sliding Spice Shelves

Another great addition to your spice cabinet is a pull-out sliding shelf. A pull-out shelf to your cabinet for spices can make it easier to access everything without having to move things around or pull out the entire spice rack. You can find these shelves at most home improvement stores or online.

Adding a sliding spice shelf is a great way to make your spices more accessible, especially if you have a lot of them.

Organizing Spices for Easy Cooking

Now that you know how to organize spices, it will be easier to find the ones you need while cooking. There are lots of ways to organize spices, so try a few things out and see what works best in your kitchen!

Do you have any tips for keeping spices organized? Let us know in the comments below!