Spice Cabinet Makeover + Tips to Organizing Spices in A Cabinet

A before and after of a spice cabinet makeover and the best kitchen organization products to use. Use this step-by-step guide to organize the space dedicated to your spices no matter if it is in a cabinet, drawer, or pantry.

A few weeks ago, I shared some of the most amazing ideas I could find about organizing spice storage. There were so many great ideas and it got me itching to purge my own spice cabinet and use some of these kitchen organization ideas. There is just something about having your cabinets and drawers in the kitchen organized that makes you want to cook in the kitchen more.

I shared this photo also a few weeks back on social media of what my current state of mine was looking like. Really I had just shoved anything and everything that could fit in there and had truffle bowls, utensil holders, and outdoor plates and glasses mixed in.

There really was no good reason for this except that when we moved in 2 years ago, I just used whatever free space there was and threw things in the cabinets. Then over the last year or so I found myself adding even more into every nook and cranny. Can you relate??

Where Can You Put Your Kitchen Spice Rack?

I’ll be honest at first I had our spice storage in our pantry and a friend came over once and asked me why I didn’t have it next to my stove. I thought about it and thought I would probably be able to access everything better if it was closer to where I cooked.

I thought about possibly putting them in a drawer but ultimately decided I did not have enough space to do that and settled on this cabinet to the right of our stove. But what I didn’t do was change the way I had them set up which just did not function for a cabinet scenario.

Ultimately the best places to house all your spices are the pantry, a drawer near your stove, or a cabinet like the one I am using.

So that was what it looked like before I got started, and now below is what it looks like now. It is SUCH a big difference.

How Do You Organize Spices in A Cabinet?

To begin the process of organizing spices in a cabinet, you first need to pull everything out. As you do this, start to purge the ones that you don’t use and that are old.

When Should You Throw Away Spices?

So this leads to the question, how do you know when a spice is old and needs to be thrown away. Basically spices do not go bad but over time they lose their potency. Generally, they will stay fresh for about four years and dried herbs will last about 3 years. So if you have some dried basil that’s been in your cabinet for more than 3 years, its time to toss it!

After you have purged and tossed what you don’t need and it too old to use, you will want to clean your cabinet shelves. I love this e-cloth and use it for the majority of my cleaning. You don’t even need to dampen it to get all the dust up but if you have some spots that need a deeper clean then you will want to dampen the cloth.

What Can You Use For a Spice Rack?

Okay, so this was probably my biggest conundrum when tackling this project because the spice shelves I was using just were not cutting it. They were two-tiered shelves and you just placed the spices in them. In theory this should work but I could not find the ones I needed and since all the jars were different sizes, everything fit awkwardly.

So through searching online, I found this three-tiered one that would fit in the same space as the two-tiered one, but this one has its shelves on a slant (thus making more room for one more layer). Why I love this one so much, is that I can fit more spices and all the jars are uniform with labels. Having all the jars be the same size is such a space saver and the labels make it easy to see everything.

This set even came with this little sifter to help with transferring all the spices from their original jars to these glass ones. It’s made from silicone and easy to wash.

The labels come in either white or black and apply like stickers. There are so many and even blank ones with a chalk pen just in case they don’t have the one you need.

How Do You Categorize Spices?

I used alphabetical order to organize my spices. You can either do that or put them in an order that makes sense to use like the ones you use most maybe on the top tier.

I used these acrylic lazy susans for my taller spice jars that were specialty spice blends. I have been collecting these spices from this company for a while now and they are my absolute favorite!

How Do You Organize Spices in A Small Cabinet?

The best way to organize these was for me to place the tiered stand on the lower shelf of the cabinet making it easier to get to. There are so many little jars that if I placed this on the top shelf I most likely would not be able to get to them all.

Then I used the lazy susans for the top shelf so I could see what was in the back.

The lazy susan on the bottom shelf is our most used spices that come in oversized containers. These would not have fit in the little jars and I go through them so much that I needed to keep them in their larger containers.

And that’s it my friends! What do you think? Are you ready to go tackle your spices now? Here are my favorite things to organize spice cabinets and drawers with. You can just click on any of the photos below to go right to the products.