Cook Often? KonMari Your Spice Cabinet with THIS.
How’s your spice cabinet looking? Need a new spice rack organizer?
If you regularly cook, you know the struggle is real when it comes to finding a spice that’s hidden in the back of the cabinet somewhere. Even worse, when you spend more money on duplicates because you couldn’t find it the first time. Doh! 😓
Luckily, I’m sharing a few of my favorite kitchen organizing tools to tidy up those spice jars including my favorite spice rack organizer and jars! I have honestly reorganized my spices several times over the years, but this method is helping me STAY organized finally!
Let’s start with the Spicy Shelf stackable spice rack organizer!
My spice cabinet used to be a complete disaster with spices just thrown in haphazardly and I found myself digging through them and taking jars out every time I cooked, which is annoying and time-consuming!
As a food blogger for Hip2Save and our sister site, Hip2Keto, it’s super important for me to save time by keeping myself organized and this inexpensive spice rack organizer has helped me so much! I love that it utilizes the vertical space so well here, and I can see everything at all times.
Spicy Shelf was the solution I needed!
Just look how tidy and organized my spices are! The expandable shelves adjust to fit the dimensions of your cabinet and they’re super easy to install. The shelves sit right inside the cabinet, require no hardware, and they stack! 👏
Here’s where you can buy a Spicy Shelf kitchen spice rack organizer for your home:
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- Target – $19.99 (get an additional 5% off with your Target RedCard)
- Bed Bath & Beyond – $21.99 ($17.59 for BEYOND+ Members)
- Amazon – $15.99
Hip Tip: Spicy Shelf can also organize other smaller household items, such as a collection of nail polishes, essential oils, supplements, medicines, or craft paint.
Let’s talk about these empty spice jars and labels from Amazon!
To be honest, this idea is probably the most satisfying organizing project I’ve ever done, and I love the clean looking results so much!
It only took me about an hour or so to transfer all my spices into these empty glass jars, and apply the labels. This high-quality Aozita 36 piece spice jar set comes with over 300 labels for any spice you could ever imagine, and a handy funnel to make transferring spices super fast and convenient!
The price on this set can fluctuate on Amazon. I paid around $40 for it (but it’s on sale now!) and it’s been worth every penny because it has saved so much time when cooking to quickly identify spices!
Aozita Glass Spice Jars and Labels Set $31.99 (regularly $59.99)
Need more? Try ordering the 48-count set for only $35.99 after you clip the $4 digital coupon (regularly $39.99)!
Don’t have cabinet space? My best friend has the same jars and labels from Amazon laying flat and incorporates them as an organized spice drawer. I equally love her setup too! You can get a similar result using a drawer tray insert organizer like this as another idea!
Hip Tip: The brand of spices called Simply Organic are basically the same glass jars as this set so any time I buy those, I will keep the jar, remove the original label, and replace it with a black label to add to my collection of spices!
And finally, I wanted to mention how handy it is to have a drop-down spice shelf!
I installed this pull-down spice organizer from The Container Store in the cabinet above and LOVE IT!
It’s perfect for higher cabinets and I love using it to organize large and small spice containers. Here’s a similar pull-down spice shelf on Amazon to purchase online. If you are short like me, this is so handy to easily reach and access spices all at once.
Here’s another organizer our team loves:
Our team is also very impressed with this YouCopia Chef’s 30-Bottle Spice Organizer. The drawers pull out and lower to display spices at eye level for easy location and reach. There’s no installation or mounting, and it comes with both printed and blank labels to customize your spices.
Bonus: Want to get crafty and DIY some spice labels?
Wanting to make custom spice labels yourself? You’ve got to check out my Hip sidekick Sara’s post on making these spice labels with her Cricut. And if you’re already thinking you’d be in way over your head, think again because Sara is a crafting newbie and still nailed this DIY so I know you can too!
Check out the best-selling organizing products on Amazon right now!
So I realize this is a savings page and what I’m about to write is completely counter to that…but… I cook dinner six nights a week…and I don’t cook things that come out of boxes or bags..and I rarely use recipes. Lot’s of fresh ingredients so naturally I use a ton of spices. Trying to find what I needed in my old house was a nightmare…when we moved into the new place I had a choice…move all my spices or start from scratch…it didn’t feel good tossing the old ones and starting over but I did. I bought no kidding almost every offering from Simply Organic and I could not be happier! I found great deals on these on places like vitacost, iherb, amazon, etc… Most of them I got for $3 or less per jar. Now they all sit in a drawer, the lids come labeled so I can easily see what I have…and for the few items I love that they don’t have like old bay….I’ve saved the glass jars I finished and used that instead of the packaging the old bay comes in…now I can label it and again…having spices all the same size and what they are on the lid…what a difference. The price was worth every penny to mama who feeds a family of seven daily.
I could not agree with you more! Unfortunately in my old house I only had 2 kitchen drawers! So I couldn’t sacrifice one just for spices. I now have mine all in matching glass jars in a drawer with the lids labeled and I absolutely love it!
I so hear you! Our old kitchen had minimal storage. It had six drawers but they were wonky…it was original hand made cabinetry and just didn’t make sense. The long drawers were to thin for a utensil tray and the others were so deep everything got lost in them…and it was wood on wood…so no kidding opening and closing drawers slowly dropped wood shavings into the drawers below. It was horrible…I lived with that nightmare for 15yrs…but it paid off…the kitchen in our new house is amazing! The guy we bought the house from dropped 200K on the kitchen alone…which is crazy but it was his last ditch effort to keep his marriage type situation. The appliances alone in this kitchen would cost me more to replace than I sold my house for. I feel like I need a college savings type acct just to be prepared when an appliance dies.
Wow 200k on a Kitchen. I bought my house with 3 bedrooms, two full bathrooms, remodeled .. I paid cash for 50k. It was 13 years ago though. I did buy my own appliances but I owe nothing (no mortgage) and my home has gone up so much in value. Always a looking for ways to organize spices. Currently have little staking shelves. The drawer idea sounds better.
*stacking
I have several of these shelves. Oh I am still in awe of a 200k kitchen… It must be beautiful. Please share photos.
Wish I could. Hip2save won’t let you post pics. I still can’t believe we have a kitchen like this! We were in the right place and the right time when we got this house. If we had to rebuild it…just the house…no land, pond or carriage house it would easily cost is 1.5M…I paid less than half that. This kitchen came with dual custom subzero fridge and freezer…each unit is the size of my old fridge/freezer combo and they are pressurized commercial grade. I have over sized double wolf convection ovens. A Marvel wine fridge (I don’t even drink or know how to use it). A built in bosch microwave, an 8 burner wolf cook top with a wolf deep fryer (I’ll never use this and every time I accidentally unlock it and it beeps I freak out) on the side and a beast of a hood that covers that whole area, and the dishwasher is a top of the line miele. There are over 70 cabinets and drawers…and I only know that bc I really like the modern flat face cabinets…I counted to get a general price to swap them…ummm….nope…I got a few quotes and each one was over 20K just for new doors, I now love what I have…lol. Cabinetry is all dove tailed solid hickory, soft close drawers, and pull out/pull out and up cabinets. There are two islands…one is the width of a coffin but a few feet longer…we joke with my gram that we are not going to ship her back to Brooklyn but instead do a funeral in the kitchen and then move her into the freezer so we can visit her daily and she can enjoy ice cream for all eternity…lol. The second island is shorter but almost twice the width. The seller even used some African slate/stone tile for the floor. It’s beautiful and reminds me of something I’d find outdoors at a nice resort. The sink is carved stone and it’s black to match the counters. Thankfully most of the warranties transferred to us…that’s how we know what he spent on it….we have his original receipts and it was I think 211K installed. The sellers wife was about to divorce him and was dying from cancer so he spared no expense and threw everything he had into insane upgrades in this house….he owned this place for 10yrs…he should have walked away with a decent check from closing…nope…we bought this place for 680K (he originally paid 640K)…he literally got a check at closing for less than 30K and at closing he had to turn every penny of it for his new place. I kid you not we scored…we saw the house on black friday in 2017, he needed to sell it before the end of the year or he was going to lose the 100K he put down on his new house build which would leave him almost completely broke…he bought into a retirement community with strings attached…we closed in less than 30days…I think it went on the books for the day after xmas. We could only pull this off bc we bought this home with my parents and grandmother…we all pooled resources to get the dream house. The home I sold was our first home…and I sold it for under 100K…this was a huge change. …and now we have the dream estate, our kids are growing up with their grandparents and great grandmother and my parents and gram now never have to worry about anything…we are in a dang pandemic and we are all safe under one roof, they don’t have to worry about paying bills, getting groceries, cooking, cleaning, etc…my husband and I do it all! I love hearing my gram brag to her friends that her house, pond, fish tank, food etc…is all ten times better than what St. Barnabas offers (this is the swanky ridiculously expensive retirement community in Pittsburgh). The house and move was the best decision ever!!
WOW!!! Just saying. I used to sell cabinetry and I will say the doors are the most costly of the full cabinets but with the dove tailed drawers and all the upgrades you are so blessed to have all that. I too would l love to see the kitchen/spice drawer. So glad you and the whole family are together.
I was fascinated reading your post and then I saw St Barnabas, girl we are neighbors here in the Burgh! Your home sounds like a dream and in one of the most livable cities, too!
Sounds like a dream kitchen for sure, so happy for you Jennifer! And the best part in my opinion is living with your parents and grandma, you guys are blessed to be together.
I still live in a house with wood on wood drawers little wood shaving in the pots below have to rinse before use. I only have 6 drawers and 7 cabinets so the basement is where my pantry is, would love a bigger kitchen with a full size stove ( have apartment size) but the old farm house has been in the family for 4 generations so it is what it is. Also some of the house was built before plumbing or electricity made it to the country side.
Jennifer and Nicole, Would you please post some pictures. so we could see what that looks like………..I have ALOT of spices and would love to see that idea in action. Thanks. Sue.
I’d be happy to send a pic but I don’t think we can post a pic here…if you know how to do it let me know. You can also email me at jennifer.m.welton@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to send you a pic of my drawer. I have a thin cabinet in my kitchen for spices and I keep the ones I use the most on the top shelf. The second shelf are ones I use for specific occasions but not often like pumpkin pie spice mix, turkey rub, etc…
Yeah I don’t think we can post pictures, but if you Google 3oz glass spice jars, there are some options for around $2/jar. My drawer is just deep enough to set them right in. I then bought round black chalkboard labels to put on the lids and used a chalk marker to label them all. They sell spice stickers too, but none of the sets had everything I needed. It was a bit of an investment to get everything, but I cook every day and it make me so happy to open my drawer and see them all!
I also put my spices in a drawer next to stove. It is so easy to use them.
Same here: I cook from scratch and have a ton of spices. It made a world of difference converting them all to uniform bottles. I label the top of my Penzey’s jars with silver Sharpie and keep them in a giant corner lazy Susan I didn’t know what to do with. I have some smaller 1/4 cup jars that I corral in a triangular clear plastic lazy Susan organizer.
I had the spicy shelf in my old kitchen and it made SO much extra room in my cupboard. I was able to fit a lazy Susan in the middle, that way I could lift it out of the way to find spices along the back. The only bad thing was the shelves are very narrow so I found myself frequently knocking spices off of it if I wasn’t careful. So just keep that in mind if you don’t have a lot of patience!
Thanks for sharing Nicole!
Yes! I love the extra room too but I also frequently knock them over
Thank goodness our home had a pull out spice rack in one of our cabinets. It holds more than enough spices on the front and back of it. I also put all taco seasoning and jello or pudding boxes on it.
Awesome 👏 I would love that too!
I have had this in 2 different apartments and now my own condo. I love that it adapts to various cabinet sizes, I just keep the spare pieces in a plastic bag in the back of a cabinet in case it’s needed at the next location! I haven’t gone through the effort of removing the built-in shelves that are already there so in a standard size shelf configuration you will only be able to fit one layer that can hold the mini-spice containers on top and the standard size below.
Thanks Steph! I like that aspect too.
i own the YouCopia 50166 SpiceStack Adjustable Spice Rack Organizer and couldn’t be happier with the ease to get to my spices and how many it holds. Highly recommend.
Thanks Mary!
I am working on a project like this too! I am using old glass baby food jars to streamline my spices and using old tin foil and cling wrap boxes with wrapping paper over them to create a tiered shelf for FREE.
Oh that sounds clever! Thanks for sharing Jessica!
In my previous home, I had a spice rack built into the wall and it was wonderful! So I had all these little jars from crate & barrel for my spices, most of which I purchased from the coop in “bulk.” When I moved, I had to come up with a new approach. I bought this rack and I absolutely love it!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071VL2SDX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks for the link Carrie. Out of my price range but looks great! Showed my hubby and he thinks he can build me one similar to this.
That’s awesome! I got mine discounted via Amazon warehouse thankfully. But would have really loved to have a handmade version. 😉
How do you find amazon warehouse discounted items?
I bought a small metal rack that pulls down and out of the cupboard (got it at Aldi) and it holds the 10 or so spices we use most often. The rest of the spices are alphabetized on a small shelf inside the pantry. Easy to find when needed for a special recipe, but not cluttering up the area near the stove.
I like lazy Susan’s for spices and oil spritzers etc.
Yes! I am ordering 2 lazy Susan’s from target… 15 inch, brand is Made by design and $10 each. I have a spice stack already but need lazy Susan’s for larger spice bottles and cooking oils. I have been so inspired! I also need to make labels for my spice stack drawers! I ordered mine from a catalog 10+ years ago and it definitely didn’t have labels back then. Genius!
Same!!! I begged on FB for some used ones…I got a lot of offers! Now, i have several! they are so handy!
After years of moving the spices and everything and reorganizing everything every year or every other year, got a Keter garage cabibet that is right beside the fridge and have spices,snacks, juicer and instant pot in it and love it. Had to do some measurments to figure out what size cabinet would fit there but love,love,love it 🙂
I have all my spices in a tall roll away cabinet that fits next to the fridge. It’s perfect to keep all spices and things I don’t use often like worchestershire sauce etc. I had gotten it on Amazon when we had a smaller kitchen and now we have a walk in pantry and I still prefer this for spice storage.
My hubby made me a long narrow shelf, on the wall, under the cabinets to put mine on. I use a TON of spices! I can line up rows of 2-3 jars, all the way down the shelf. I put them alphabetically so anyone can find what they want. Works great & out of the way without using cabinet space!
I had roll out shelves made for my pantry; it’s pretty deep, so things would get lost back there. One of the shelves is shallow and perfect for spices. There is a Penzey’s store about three minutes from our place, so I had quite a collection of free or very inexpensive spices from there. They have black lids, so I wrote the name of the spice on the lid with a silver Sharpie and have them in alphabetical order. Makes it so much easier to find what I need. (Well except when my DH puts them back without paying attention haha!)
I bought this probably 3ish years ago. I really liked it at first! However, the little shelves start to sag inward and if I let my cabinet door close on it’s own and I don’t do it gently, the spices all slide down. I don’t keep anything heavy on them to cause such sagging. I really wish there was a lip on the inside of these so the spices stay in place. Maybe I could add some kind of liner to the shelves to make them not so slippery.
This inspired me to redo my spices. We moved into a new house last year and I have a large drawer I lay my spices in. I just purchased these 4oz glass square spice jars. They come in red, black, or white plastic lids, which I like better than the metal ones, and were cheaper than the ones on Amazon (I needed 60).
https://www.nakpunar.com/glass-jars/square-jars/4-oz-glass-french-square-spice-jar-with-shaker-and-black-lid/
I have all my spice containers standing in two shallow bins (A-D in the first container and the rest of the alphabet in the other) in a cabinet. I can easily pull the box out to grab what I need and they never fall over because they’re packed fairly tightly in the bins. I sharpie the name of the spice on the lid (silver sharpie or black sharpie on a strip of duct tape for black lids) when I get a new one/replacement so I can always see what I’m looking for in a quick glance. It’s worked great for 10 years. It’s not beautiful, but it’s efficient and cheap.
Those are cute options but I grow my own and dehydrate or buy in the big bulk containers. I’ve thought about having a little matching rack but that seems like a waste when I’m still storing the big Costco bottles or jars of my own to refill from.
Oh nice ya my husband uses bulk for smoking meat and we keep in pantry then refill the smaller ones to grab for cooking meals. 👍
Some of my favorite posts are Lina’s DIYs, Tips and recipes! I really look forward to them so thank you for sharing! One place I would really love some inspiration is my medicine cabinet. Currently I have 4 bins stuffed in a drawer but it’s such a hassle when we need something! Thanks!!
Thanks so much! You may find this organizing post inspiring too! https://hip2save.com/tips/how-to-organize-your-home/
My daughter was complaining about my spices not being organized, so I started looking at spice racks. I came across Spicy Shelf yesterday. Glad I didn’t buy it from Amazon because Targets price is way better. Thanks for sharing.
I can wood glued or use small nails for this little project. Look so easy to made.
I have the spice problem sorted at my house but I have almost 300 bottles of essential oils of several sizes and have looked for a solution for years without success. I would love a solution for that. I have to be able to easily move them from one room in my home to another too since I treat people in my home and need the oils nearby but also be able to put them away when not needed.
I used to have one of those. Not sure what happened to it. Now I just use some of those 70’s round double decker (and one single) lazy susan’s. Not sure if that is the correct name but every house had them back in the 70’s. These were my grandmothers and I love them.
Yes I love those also for organizing!
I have the exact same! Love it!
This is the dumbest, most ridiculous thing ever, but I simply keep all of my spices in three jumbo (2.5 gallon) ziploc bags that I throw up on a shelf in one of my cabinets. When I am looking for a spice, I can pull out a ziploc at a time, lay it flat on the counter and see through the bag if the spice I’m looking for is in it. No more knocking over spice bottles while looking for one, having them fall out onto the counter or on my head because I can’t reach them easily, organizing them a certain way (which always seemed to last maybe a week) or overlooking a jar (I was the queen of buying unnecessary duplicates). I started this method by happenstance: I’d packed up my spices into the ziploc bags for moving to a new house, husband unpacked the bags into a cabinet for me to organize later, and then I just never got around to taking them out of the bags and I realized I actually found this to be quite efficient, even if it’s not pretty and does run counter to my largely OCD ways.
Thanks for sharing your method!
I too recommend Spicy Shelf and also uniform bottles! We started Keto over a year ago and if you cook a lot you don’t realize how much time you waste looking! I had bought one Spicy Shelf years ago but when I bought the bottles, I decided to put my sprinkles in them as well and they are so dang cute! I buy many of my main spices at Costco and those jars are so bug so to make my spice cabinet look uniform I bought mason jars and put the leftover spices in there. My spice cabinet went from a complete nightmare to a dream! You can but the bottles here and they come with pre-made labels as well as some blank. Really an amazing deal!
Aozita 36 Pcs Glass Spice Jars with 612 Spice Labels – 4oz Empty Square Spice Bottles – Shaker Lids and Airtight Metal Caps – Chalk Marker and Silicone Collapsible Funnel Included https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VHBX3ZC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_eXibFb3CGDVMJ
I have owned the youcopia 30 bottle spice rack for 2 years now and love it! Keeps my spices organized and shelves pull out easily and stay connected for easy access while cooking. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it will not hold xl bottles of spices have to go with the small to medium sizes
How well do these shelves hold glass jars? I have tons of spices bottles and most of them are heavy. Most of the pictures show light plastic original bottles.
I saw this cool seasoning 🧂 container that turns all around and its made of bamboo at COSTCO for I think only $30 plus it come with 5 years of free Refills and I think all we got to pay is shipping HAS ANYONE TRIED IT?
I love this idea but I have almost no cabinet space. I do have a large empty wall over my sink so I hung up a pegboard and got some baskets on Amazon for the board and have easy access to all my spices. It has completely changed the functionality of my kitchen. I also got peg hooks and a towel holder so it really freed up a lot of counter space and helped me organize my overflowing drawer of cup measures.
I cook a lot and have tons of spices. I tried so many different racks and never found one that worked. At my last home I was lucky to have lots of extra double drawers and had them laying down on a tiered racks and it was the best I had found. When we moved states I lost drawer space but my husband surprised me with one of my pinterest dream pics. He does not do a lot with wood working but says it was not hard. He made a spice rack and potato crate that spans the entire inside of our pantry door. I LOVE IT!! Definitely a project to look into if you have a crazy amount of spices.
I didn’t know I needed a new spice rack until I saw this. We have a small cupboard next to the stove and currently have a lazy susan style spice rack. It works great for the normal size spice jars, but the lazy susan takes up the entire area and leaves no space for larger containers, like the Morton’s salt. So that is kept on the other side of the kitchen, which makes no sense. This spice rack should open up the middle area for the taller containers.
Yes, exactly! Sounds awesome – let us know how it works out! 🙂
My Youcopia spice racks are the best! Total lifesaver.