[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Aside from the food, bare-chested chef and I aren’t usually ones to celebrate Christmas, we don’t decorate our house, or have a tree or even buy each other gifts, but this year, after I spent 5 whole minutes searching for ground nutmeg in our disastrously disorganised spice drawer, I decided to break tradition and get us both the gift of organised herbs and spices.
Originally I had my heart set on making us something like the Dean & Deluca Spice Rack pictured here:
Which, while absolutely gorgeous, wouldn’t be entirely practical for use here. For a start, those tubes hold such tiny amounts of spices that I would still need to have storage space for all the excess and we have such a small kitchen that it just wasn’t feasible. Combined with the fiddly tops, the fragility of the tubes themselves and the fact that not only do I have limited bench space but I could only find test tube holders for a maximum of 24 tubes and we have over 70 spices in our drawer. All in all it was looking like it was a bad idea. Besides, we all know that spices need to be kept in the dark in order to hold their freshness right?
So, beautiful but impractical test tubes aside, I decided to focus instead, on turning our current disorganised spice drawers (we have two) into beautiful, alphabetized, anal retentive spice drawers. First up I found a local wholesale supplier of great quality glass jars who had an excellent deal on some beautiful hexagonal jars. They fit into each other beautifully in the drawer – like honeycomb – which means there isn’t a lot of movement or unnecessary clinking every time you open the drawer. Next up I found a seller on Etsy who makes waterproof and dishwasher safe labels and I got her to set me up a custom listing with all our spices, as well as some blanks for any interesting spices we acquire in the future. Then I just had the fun job of putting it all together, secretly transferring all the spices into the new jars and voila! Our new spice drawers live! The hardest part was keeping it all a secret from bare-chested chef until Christmas morning!
Each jar is 9cm tall and holds 190ml which is small enough to fit into even the most frugal drawer space but big enough to hold a really good amount of product. The metal lids cost a little more than the plastic ones but will have a much longer lifespan and – in my opinion – look much prettier too, and best of all, the drawers are nice and dark so the spices all stay lovely and fresh! Here are some before, in-progress and after photos of the project:
Love the new spice drawers! Checked out the supplier- which metal lid is the one that matches the jars?
Thanks,
Lea
Hi Lea, here is the link to the exact jars I bought.
http://www.arthurholmes.co.nz/product_info.php?cPath=1176_1085&products_id=878
Thanks Nikki!
What a cool idea! My spice cupboard looks remarkably like your before picture! I should get my act together…..
You should, it’s so satisfying to open up the drawer and see everything all clean and shiny and lined up perfectly! It does make the rest of my life seem quite disorganised though unfortunately.
Wow, I am having spice drawer envy! The drawers look awesome.
Thank you! It was such a fun project!
That is very cool! I like the shape of those jars!
Thanks! The shape of the jars was a big draw card for me, they fit into each other so perfectly.. suits my sense of order.
Oh, you are a a kindred spirit – I love it!
Ahhh kindred spirits, gotta love that 🙂
PS: I checked out your blog… yum! Can’t wait to give some of those recipes a try.
wow now that’s organized!
I dream of having a spice drawer that organised…. wow!
http://www.TheVegSpace.wordpress.com
I LOVE THIS!
My spices are all in jars in plastic crates, but the jars are all reused jars, I really like the uniform sized jars.
My herbal tea cupboard is larger than my spice cupboard, perhaps I could do the same with the tea…
Thanks for the ideas!
Helloo,
I’m from Portugal and I L-O-V-E your blog. I like your recipes.
Excelent work 🙂
I have a portuguese Blog and you can visit me at: http://www.atitudezen.com/.
Thanks,
Maria
BAH oh my god this spice organization is pleasing my OCD wayyyy too much. i have to do this when i have my own place (living with my parents currently)!
Love this project. Our spice cabinet looks exactly like the pics you posted above and it is sooooo frustrating. It’s getting even more clutter now with a baby in the house. I am really inspired to create my own that will meet our needs and look great too!!
Wow. Oh, wow. My deep love for pantry organisation has just been amped up to new heights. This must happen for me!
Agreed, the spice jars are attractive.
Now… what is that font ;>)
love your spice drawer! super envious that you have so much and have the space to store them all