14 Tips For Organizing Your Spice Rack

Whether your spice rack has turned into a jumbled mess of jars or you're simply searching for ways to make it look a little nicer, using a few tips for organizing your spice rack can help make your life easier. Not only will it eliminate the frustration of spending far too much time trying to find a spice in the middle of cooking, but it will make your kitchen look more orderly, too.

Organizing your spice rack doesn't necessarily require going out and buying new jars, labels, and organizers. While you certainly could turn it into a whole project, you can also organize as you go and eventually transform it into the spice rack of your dreams. Choose one strategy or employ them all, depending on what works best for you, what you have the time and patience to execute, what you can afford, and what brings you the most joy. Whether you have just a handful of spices or a hundred that fit a variety of culinary whims, our 14 tips for organizing your spice rack are meant to be guidelines for keeping it organized and improving your kitchen space.

One of the first things you have to decide with organizing your spice rack is where you're going to store it. This decision is not only for ease of use and to accommodate the size of your collection, but also to ensure spices keep their quality. First of all, your spices will taste better longer if they don't get hot and aren't exposed to light. Thus, you should only opt to use magnetic refrigerator spice shelves with dark jars that don't let in light. And if you've been storing your spices near your stove or on your kitchen counter, you might want to rethink your strategy. You also shouldn't store them in humid places like the freezer, where the moisture will weaken their potency.

It's not uncommon to keep spices in a cabinet or drawer within easy reach while cooking. Your pantry is a great option as well. If you're lucky enough to be able to custom-build your kitchen, a pull-out spice cabinet like the Rev-A-Shelf Pullout Shelf Organizer can slot between cabinets for easy storage. But there's no shame in placing them somewhere like in a light-limiting tub if you're low on space.

The type of spice organizer you need depends on how many spices you have and the space you're storing them. There are all sorts of choices, many coming with accessories to help you stay organized. If you generally use just a few spices, a revolving spice rack that comes with jars and labels can be a good choice to maximize cabinet space. Spice risers are a common option, but you might opt for a mountable slide-out spice rack instead to avoid knocking over jars every time you reach in. 

If you have lots of spices, tiered spice racks, like the SpaceAid Spice Rack Organizer, store jars at about a 45-degree angle so they can stack and maximize cabinet space. If you don't have any shelf availability, an over-the-door organizer or floating shelves for the inside of your kitchen cabinet or pantry doors might be a good choice. Ones like the Moforoco Over-The-Door Pantry Organizer come in various heights and depths. You can also try Alton Brown's space-saving storage method, which involves Velcro. Additionally, there are drawer inserts. If your drawers are deep enough, a tiered spice rack, like the SpaceAide Spice Drawer Organizer can help stay organized.

There's no rule saying you have to have matching containers in your spice rack — some people just use the jars their spices come in from the store. However, a uniform style is always going to look more organized. There are a wide variety of jar styles to choose from. Not only should you think about your kitchen aesthetics when buying them, but also about how easy it would be to find more of a similar style in the future for your growing collection. For example, jars with cute wooden lids might be nice, but 10 years later, you may not find matching ones. 

Also think about how easy they are to label and opt for jars with flat surfaces. Some spice racks come with matching jars, so that's one aesthetic option. There are also a lot of jar sets available online, like the AOZITA 24-Piece Glass Spice Jar set that come with front and top labels, as well as a funnel for filling.

If you go the route of having matching or permanent jars in your spice rack that you refill, then it's worthwhile to look into sourcing bulk spices, rather than buying individual jars. The good news is that buying in bulk doesn't always mean you have to buy a large quantity, as some places allow you to only buy exactly as much as you need. This all lets you customize your spice rack exactly as you see fit. Plus, buying in bulk often saves you money, too — and who can argue against that?

If you aren't able to customize the quantity you purchase, then buying in bulk is probably only best for those who have ample storage space to stash what doesn't fit on your rack. Otherwise, you may end up with an even more disorganized situation than you began with. So, use your discretion and explore bulk spices only if it makes sense for your living situation. 

These days, some of the glass jars that ordinary spices come in from the grocery store are quite nice and can be upcycled for reuse. In fact, you might choose to purchase matching jars that are similar to the ones you're repurposing. Other upcycled non-spice jars can work as well. Kamala Harris said her mother reused instant coffee jars for storing spices and other items.

To repurpose used jars for bulk spices, you'll first need to remove the old label. Soaking the jar in warm, soapy water helps get the label loose. We've successfully run our used spice jars through the dishwasher to remove any excess residue from the labels or the label glue, but you can do this by washing by hand and scrubbing as well. Even if you don't have an immediate use for the empty jars, you can store them and their accompanying lids in your cupboard (or elsewhere) for when you need them. Then, all you have to do is fill them and label them for your new spice storage.

If you buy your spices in bulk, chances are they come in bags or packets. Maybe you're filling up bags straight from the bulk bins or coming home with large sealed bags of spices. Either way, spices stay fresh longer and will taste better if stored in airtight containers after you've opened them. Plus, they're less likely to harbor bugs, which can be an issue with some spices.

Whether it's that giant packet of Kashmiri chili powder you got from the Indian grocery store or a packet of ranch seasoning for making salad dressing, your best bet for lasting freshness is to transfer them into an airtight jar or other container. For large quantities, you could use Wide Mouth Mason Jars like you would for canning. This is another place where saving containers from other food products can come in handy. These larger amounts can live with your regular spices, in a pantry shelf, in a storage tub, or somewhere else until you need them.

There are several options when it comes to labeling. Of course, you don't have to label anything if you just want to use the packaging that your spices come in. However, if you get to the point where you're buying bulk spices or want more visual uniformity and your jar set doesn't come with labels, you might want to think about labeling. The easiest option is just to get a pen and write directly on jars or on blank labels. Sharpies work fine. One of our favorites is White Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers, since they show up better on the dark background of a jar full of spices and work great on glass.

If you'd rather skip the hand-written labels, you can always print out labels from your computer. Another option is to get a dedicated label maker. Most come with a variety of fonts, borders, and images to make them as plain or fancy as you'd like. Some people opt for label makers that have an associated phone app for the design work. However, we've run into problems with the apps failing and the software companies being nowhere to be found, turning the label maker into a brick. So, we're more inclined to suggest an all-in-one label maker, like the Brother P-Touch Label Maker, which doesn't rely on fancy technology.

Before you start buying labels, label makers, markers, and more, you'll want to consider where to place the labels. After all, you don't want to do all that work and then realize you made a big mistake. One thing we learned the hard way regarding labeling spices to go on risers in the cabinet is that, if the labels on your jars too low, you won't be able to read them. So, if you don't want to have to pull five jars out every time you're looking for something, you should either place the labels toward the top of the jar or maybe even along the outer rim of the lid, so they're visible from their storage location. 

Another bit of knowledge we've acquired is that if you are placing your jars upright in a deep drawer or in a storage tub, having labels on the top of the lid is a must to be able to locate anything. All this requires is a little bit of thought and common sense, keeping in mind where your spices will be stored and your viewpoint of them.

Once your spice collection gets big enough, it can become difficult to find what you're looking for if there's not some order in the chaos. So, we suggest some type of categorization system, whether it be alphabetizing or simply keeping similar types of spices together.

Alphabetizing sounds straightforward, but you still have to make some decisions. For example, do you place your Vietnamese cinnamon under "C" for "cinnamon" or "V" for "Vietnamese"? If the former, you might want to consider labeling it as "Cinnamon, Vietnamese" to help you get it back on the shelf in the right place. And you don't necessarily have to keep your alphabetization strict either; keeping all the "Cs" together can be good enough to improve organization.

Grouping according to usage also might require a little forethought. For example, you could perhaps group your herbs together, your baking spices together, and your meat rubs together. There's no reason you couldn't alphabetize within the grouping if you wanted to do so, too.

While we're talking about grouping, we wanted to mention the strategy of separating out your most-used spices to place apart from lesser-used ones. Placing your popular spices at the front of your cabinet or somewhere else within easy reach is especially useful if you have a lot of spices and don't want to have to search through them every time. This strategy can help you locate them in a hurry when you need a quick dash of something while cooking.

The most obvious spices to consider separating out from the others include salt and pepper. However, there are others that might qualify, depending on your cooking or baking style. For us, we tend to keep salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes, and our favorite spice mixes toward the front of the cupboard.

You might also consider adopting the strategy of many Indian cooks involving a spice box called a "masala dabba," which is what Radhi Devlukia employs for her spice essentials. The organizer, such as the YADNESH Stainless Steel Masala Dabba Spice Box, can easily be pulled out of the cabinet separately, and then covered and put away when not in use.

While some people organize by usage groups, another alternative is to color code your labels. This method allows you to store your spices however you please and still be able to easily find specific types of spices without having to read every label. This strategy is especially helpful if you have your spices all in uniform jars with uniform labels that look exactly the same. The colors could help you place your spices into a variety of categories. For example, you could use green for herbs, red for spicy, blue for Thai, orange for Indian, and white for salt-based blends. Or you could use the colors to help remember which spices certain family members do or don't like, or which ones they can or can't eat.

There are a few methods to color-code your jars. One is simply with assorted circle stickers, like Avery Removable Color Coding Labels, that you could place on the lid or the jar itself. Another option is to use more detailed colored labels, like Avery Durable ID Labels, so you not only cover color-coding, but also can write in the spice name or other notes (expiration dates, perhaps?). If you have a label maker, purchasing colorful refill tape also works. 

Getting spices from a bag or larger jar into a smaller jar in your spice rack can be a challenge. We've found that the smaller funnels that sometimes come with a set of spice jars have a small opening that doesn't always allow for free-flow of spices, especially if they're bulkier or a powder that clumps together easily. Thus, we suggest using paper instead of a funnel for filling spice jars — it'll keep thing a lot cleaner.

To use a piece of paper to fill a spice jar, you're going to roll it into a funnel shape and stick it in the neck of the jar. The beauty of using a piece of paper to make a funnel is that you can adjust it so that the funnel mouth is larger if your spices aren't flowing as freely as you'd like. Plus, the paper makes a taller funnel, so that there's less spillage on your countertop.

Let's face it, if you have been cooking and collecting spices for a while, chances are you have some you never use and probably never will. So, rather than letting them continue to take up precious real estate in your spice rack, you should probably think about tossing them. Not only will this allow you to get rid of anything expired, but it'll free up more room for organization.

Some people like to limit their collection to just a handful of spices they know they'll regularly use. However, if you're like us, you may use a variety of spices constantly and not feel like you need to edit your collection — but, chances are, you still probably do. There's that old meat rub you bought when you were going through a meat-smoking phase, that off-brand everything seasoning that tastes weird, and that spice you bought 10 years ago that you didn't like and forgot you even owned. Those can go, along with the extra two backup jars of the spice blend you used to love and haven't touched in five years. Of course, you may also want to get rid of some spices that are past their best-by dates.

If you want to ensure you always have the freshest spices — and that your spice rack won't be bursting at the seams —  you'll want to pay attention to their "best by" dates. That date isn't always about spoilage. Instead, the date is mainly about how long you can expect your spices to taste their best. Some with more moisture-prone ingredients may be a caked-together mess past that date, too. If spice quality is important to you, you're going to want to keep track of this time marker.

While you can keep using most spices for years, that doesn't mean that they taste as good as they should. Dried herbs aren't really as great after one to three years sitting in your cupboard, and ground spices aren't as flavorful after two to three years. Whole spices still have a decent quality for about four years, but many of those whole cardamom pods that have been sitting in your cupboard for 15 years are probably dried-out duds by now.

If you aren't using the original packaging for storage, it's not a bad idea to add a label to the bottom of your spice jars to remind yourself of this date. You can either transfer the best-by date to the label or you could even make a note of the date you filled the jar to indicate how long you've had it.