Organizing Spices

my grandmother has always had 2 shelves filled with spices, and on each shelf was a lazy susan. she would put the spices that were usually used with eachother (or were somewhat similar) together on the lazy susan. i THINK my mother now does this, and i do too (when i'm actually in a place of my own). it seems to work the best. she also has one in the refrigerator for all the condiments so that it's easy to get what you want, just spin and find...no mess, all organized. hope this helps!

I have a large farm style kitchen. People who look at it say I am crazy but it has a vaulted ceiling. Therefore we built cabinets up high. I have to use a stool to reach them. But we bought a gripper. you know the kind you get for the elderly that cannot climb on stools. When I need a new bag of sugar or box of tea I just grab that and viola I grab it down. We put in a cabinet and counter at the end of the room that I use exclusively for backing. I bought 2 matching spice racks. they are round and turn. they each hold about 32 spices. I filled 1 with backing spices and the other with cooking. My mother in law did the same thing but has it on her counter. Each spice is labeled on the lid so no searching. The large extra bottles can be recycled by someone else (get them out of the kitchen. you cant reuse everything) Then I took large gallon jars. The plastic pourable type will work, but I used glass and painted the contents name in a color to match my kitchen. The hold my sugars etc... (no bags laying around. It would seem to take up more space but doesn't. Keeping the baking stuff in 1 area and the canned veggies ect. in another. I cannot begin to understand how some go to the grocery store and when the put away there groceries they just put them in the cabinet. How do they inventory their stock? I keep exactly 5 of each type of veggies on their own shelf. 1 row then holds 10 cans. 5bottom peas for example and 5 top potatoes. When I use something immediately write it on a board on the referigerator. That also makes up my shopping list. My job keeps me to busy to worry about these things. I also have a condition that means I have to manage stress. By doing this I have found it is 1 little stress I don't have to worry about. ( And my neighbors love it, they know that if the run out of something I will have it, They just have to replace it.) I have helped coworkers set up the same system in there homes and it really works. As I said you can put items like spice racks on the counter. I myself have separate cabinets but if you are space challenged it is still possible. good luck

I have a spice rack that holds 18 spices and I lov it. Very convienienta nd there are a few it cam with that I dont use so much so i have switched these out for teh ones I like.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5913646

I've seen these spice racks that have been out for a few years now. They are metal and magnetic. You mount the holder to your wall, and the jars are metal with clear lids so you can always see what's in them. They look pretty nice. You can probably find them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. As far organizing them, just put the ones you use most in the more convinent area. I also just read any idea that said you can use one of those long, hanging shoe holders on the inside of your pantry door. Since there are lots of pockets you can put all your sprinkles, and spices, and small containers in those.

First off go through your spices and make sure they are still good. Once they start to get old they lose their flavor. I have one of the shoe holder things on the inside of my pantry door. I actually have them everywhere. I have one hanging on the back door of just about every closet and even bought one to help my kids organize their art supplies.
I have everything that I use a little but not a lot in the shoe holder...sprinkles, extra spices, flavorings, splenda etc. This for mostly by baking supplies.
Above my stove I have a rack that runs length wise (6 across and 3 down) and it stores all my cooking spices so they are easy to access. Off the counter and not in my way. All the lids are labeled and face me so I just pull it out. A friend of mine's husband built a little rack and put dowels in to hold the spices in, then they put it on casters and she slid it between the stove and the wall where there was a little space left over from changing their stove.
Like the other poster I have a system with everything. In my cabinets the soups are one side, one kind on the bottom, another on top of that. And so on. The next shelf is veggies and beans with the same system.
In another cabinet I have all my baking stuff, from flour to extra sugar and chocolate chips etc. I have little containers that all match in size that are labeled and I stack them on top of each other. One look and I can see what I want. I also use those to store some of the bulk spices I buy. My shoe holder is here too. I have even cut the bottom row of shoe holders off to accommodate smaller doors.

Hope you got some good ideas.

N.

PS: For anyone else...watch Target's dollar section. I got pretty little toile designed shoe holders for 2.00 a piece last spring. I wish I had bought more. I am going to get one to store my odds and ends socks in the laundry room.

I have a lot of spices and myself and my kitchen came with this great simple row shelf right above the stove. You could build one there with ease.
I had to get grease screens to keep them from needing so much cleaning/dusting off but it frees up my cupboards.