Spices???

[Storm Bride]

Since my thread about smallish food items (eg. nuts, dried fruit, etc.) worked out so well, dh told me to ask the Mothering crowd about spices.

We're not sure exactly how many different spices we keep on hand, but it's at least 30, and there may be as many as 50. We've currently got a few in jars on a spinning spice rack. The rest are in the bags we bought them in, and then bunched up in large Ziplocks. For instance, we have one Ziplock that contains all our chili peppers, child powders, paprika, etc. Another is fenugreek, cardamom, and some other spices we use mostly when cooking Indian dishes. There are two other Ziplocks.

We mostly buy spices in the small bags (think they average about 40g?) at the grocery store. There are a few we buy in much larger bags, as we usually can't find the small bags (I have fairly large bags of both ground coriander and cumin seeds, for instance).

We don't have a lot of storage space around here. Right now, our spices are scattered throughout two different cupboards, on four different shelves. We're kind of drowning, and sometimes, they get shoved to the back of a shelf and we can't find them. We use all of these spices, so we can't just downsize.

Any suggestions? Awesome stacking spice jars or storage systems? Anything? We're buried.

(I have seen a few things - a sliding storage shelf, for instance - but am interested in any other suggestions.)

[elsie]

I simple approach would be to get some small baskets or containers and group the spices in ways that make sense - like "baking" or "Indian" , etc. You could even color code them so it is visual as well. The baskets could easily stack on each other so you take best advantage of the vertical space as well. You could keep them in their current ziplocs if you would, maybe transitioning to something prettier if that's your thing. The you could just keep them in the cabinet and not have to have the visual clutter in plain sight. 

I got this idea first when I had a ton of small puzzles - the 20/25 piece kind. The boxes were huge. I cut off the cover picture and put it into ziplocs with the pieces. I could fit 20-30 puzzles in a medium sized backet when they previously took up way too much space. I think the thing about spices is they come in such small amounts or containers that they involve a lot of sorting. You could even use child sized shoe boxes with a good label. I think vertical stcking is key.

[beanma]

I have a spice drawer and keep almost all of my spices in little spice jars I have accumulated over the years. I do buy bulk spices mostly now, but I have bought a lot of jarred spices at different points in time and I just keep refilling the same old jars.

This isn't mine, but you get the idea. I love that I can see everything easily and it's right near the stove so I just open the drawer and grab what I need. You could do two drawers if you needed more space.

A friend has some of these magnetic spice jars on her fridge. I love them and love these hexagonal ones even more!

Here's a bunch of other spice drawers --> http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0413415719651.html

[Storm Bride]

Oh - I'd be freaked about putting my spices out in the light like that, and so close to the stove....but the other side of the fridge might be doable. (We have a "dead" space of about 4" or so - maybe as much as 6" - between the wall and the fridge. It's an ugly spot, but might be useful for spice jars....and it has the benefit of being at least somewhat shaded.

I like the idea of a spide drawer. i like ita lot. I just dont' know if we have a drawer to spare. This kitchen only has two "normal" drawers, and then four really deep drawers. The normal ones are too narrow to hold all our spices, so we'd have to use both of them...and there's no way to use the deep ones that wouldn't waste a lot of vertical space.

hmm....thinking maybe a combo of the magnetic jars (have seen them at the local Canadian Tire, but never thought of putting them on the fridge!) , and then the shoe boxes/baskets approach for the extra in the bags, odd-sized containers, etc. might be the way to go. I'll run it by dh. If we could clear them off the shelves, that would be lovely.  Some stacked baskets could probably hold almost everything, in the space we currently have taken up with a spice rack....and with the jars as well, we'd be good to do.

I'm going to have a spice drawer one day, but probably not in this kitchen.

I think these two ideas, together, will probably do the trick, though....

[honeybee80]

I'm a fan of mason jars for spices, as well as any other bulk stuff I get ;)  

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I had my husband build me a shelf to sit above my stove.  I put my spice jars on it and bulk spices are stored in mason jars in the cabinets.  I have the plastic screw on mason jar lids and just write the spice name on the lid.  I use the jars for flours and other baking supplies too.  If you run out of cabinet space you can get a bookshelf to store mason jars on.