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It’s day #6 of the 30-day organization challenge. We are still in the beloved center of the home – the kitchen! The next few days, we hope you will see some major changes and transformation with just a small task each day this week.
Day #6 Challenge – Organize the Spices and Medicines/Supplements
I have a big corner cabinet that houses my spices and our meds/supplements. It can become quite a disorganized mess with all of the bottles between the two shelves!
Now you may not have as many spices as I do, or you may have a lot more. I find that every year I am married, I accumulate that many more spices. Spices last forever too, so they don’t get thrown out often. When you are first married, you start with the most basic of spices and then every time a recipe calls for something new, you buy it, but still have tons of it left over to use gradually over the next decade (it seems!).
Here’s the three shelves – spices, meds/supplements and trays/misc. specialty baking shelves before.
For some thrifty DIY organization, I just used a few things from around my house, including this plastic container that I decided to use to corral all of the infrequently used spices so they don’t get in the way/mixed in with the frequently used spices. I might end up finding a second container around here for the frequently used spices too, but I will give this a go for now.
Then the second thing for this shelf was to put all of the baking cups in a glass jar to store them so that they don’t get messed up and mixed in with everything and they are all in one place. I think this is a going to be a great solution for those!
Spice cabinet after
Medicine and supplements shelf after.
For the meds and supplements, I actually have 5 gallon sized ziploc bags. I wrote one of these on each: immunity, pain relief, digestive, kids care, allergies. Then I placed each bottle in that bag, so when there is a need in our home, it is easy to find the bag and get the medicine or supplement that is needed quickly. I have actually been doing this for a few years, but I just spruced it up and made sure that they were in order and threw out expired ones this organization round.
All of it after!
The top shelf just needed a re-stacking and a few things put back into place. But now my serving trays are easy to get to again!
What ways or ideas do you have for organizing spices and meds/supplements?
And don’t forget…. to help you as you are working on the kitchen for the next few tasks, don’t forget to see these clever ideas and get some DIY Organization Inspiration!
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Barb
I have a double cupboard that’s filled with spices, a section in my pantry, and an under-cupboard drop-down spice holder that my husband made. In the pantry I have a double-decker lazy susan for my baking spices. In the regular cupboards, the top shelf is for all of my Asian-type seasonings. The middle shelf has a 3-tier cabinet organizer with the spices alphabetical, and the bottom shelf has two single-level lazy susans, the left one is my most used seasonings/spices, the right one has all of my salts, peppers, and meat rub-type mixtures. In between those I have larger jars of taco seasoning and pizza seasoning. The drop-down spice holder has my “canning” spices. I guess I use a lot of seasoning in my cooking!
Lynda
You think 16 years is a long time – well I can easily beat that! I have spices in my cupboard that my great-grandmother had! She died over 30 years ago. I am hanging onto the containers now because I am sure they are antiques or soon will be. This is a great challenge and organizing in this will add spice 😉 to your life.
Kathleen
I honestly do not like the way you organized the spice or medicine cabinets. Since the kitchen is the heart of the home, I feel it is important to be able to read the labels easily and quickly.
Mind you, I go through and date check my spices once every year or two. To save money, I buy smaller size spice bottles.
A couple of years ago, I redesigned my spice rack. I went to TJ Max and bought a clear, plastic utensil holder. I placed it length ways on its side and inserted the spices on the new clear shelves. I placed the most frequently used spices on the top shelf. Because I only have one counter in my kitchen, I put the spice rack to the right of the sink. There the spices are easy to see and access, but are far enough from the water, so they do not get wet.
Please rethink your organization of these two cabinets and let us know what you did.
With sincere thanks. Kathleen