Taming the Spice Cabinet

I can admit that I have a PROBLEM when it comes to spices. We have been eating a lot more vegetarian dishes lately, and they have called for out of the ordinary spices/herbs. Many years ago, my husband bought me a bunch of spice jars and I way outgrew them over the years, so everything really was a mess, even though I have a really nice spice cabinet.

So, I decided to order a bunch of new spice/herb jars with labels from Amazon. I got the box of 48 jars with TONS of labels. It’s clear that they mined Penzey’s Spices for some of the names because the labels include spice blends from there. These labels are really complete, but if you happen to have a spice that isn’t preprinted, there are blank labels. The thing I like most about this set is that it includes round labels for the tops of the jars (although there are discrepancies between the rectangular and round labels). The round labels allow me to easily see what I have on the top shelf of my spice drawer.

I started by washing and drying the jars and lids and then I got to work. Yesterday was a good day to do it because it was a rainy dreary day. It was a super messy process.

But here is the finished spice cabinet.

There are some items that I bought in bulk at the Indian grocery and had back stock that I needed to put in jars because storing the bags was cumbersome. I also had bags of a few kinds of dried chiles that had the same problem. Here is how that cabinet looks.

I made a list of the items that I have in backstock on index cards that I taped to the cabinet door so that I won’t rebuy them.

This project took about 5 1/2 hours from start to finish, not including clean-up at the end. However, it will make finding what I need so much easier. Even better, my husband will be able to find things too!