How to Organize Herbs & Spices (Kitchen Organization Hack)

It turns out I’ve been storing my jars of herbs and spices in the absolute worst way possible… in a spice rack on my kitchen counters. Heat from the stove and light from the window speed up their expiration, making this an ineffective way to store spices.

Thankfully, I figured out a better way that keeps my counters clear, allows me to view all the spice jars at one time, AND keeps the herbs and spices fresh and flavorful. You’re going to love this easy spice jar organization hack, so let’s get into it!

Why organize your herbs and spices in a drawer?

I have more herbs and spices than Marco Polo, so not all of my bottles fit in my spice rack– which means I had additional bottles overflowing my cabinets. In addition to not fitting, here are more reasons why storing your spice jars in a drawer just make sense:

• They’re stored away from light and heat, which keeps them fresh
• You can arrange them alphabetically, making what you need easy to find
• They’re laid out in one space, allowing you to see exactly what you need (and how much you have left)
• You gain valuable counter space

NOTE: Many of these photos were taken years ago, and I’ve since added these inexpensive and gorgeous labels that make my heart sing every time I open my spice drawer.

Therefore, some photos have labels created with my handy label maker, and some have these gorgeous waterproof spice labels from Amazon as seen below:

With or without the fancy labels, the magnitude of this change can not be understated: every time I open my new spice drawer I get happy butterflies dancing in my heart.

How to Organize Herbs & Spices in a Drawer

No more trying to figure out where a certain spice bottle is located, or spinning my rack endlessly looking for the right herb. Enough of having TWO bottles of various spices, one in the spinner and the other in my cabinet. No more toppling of bottles. All it takes is a drawer, these handy dandy spice bottle drawer liners and a labelmaker.

You can also purchase new spice bottles so everything looked cohesive, it’s just a nice aesthetic touch if you can swing it but isn’t necessary. We’re reusing the spinning spice rack for the art supplies so I ordered 24 new spice bottles. This is what my stash looked like before the makeover:

That’s a lot of little bottles, yo.

There are many fancy ways to label your bottles, however most are time intensive and involve additional equipment like a vinyl cutting machine. I went super simple and used my favorite label maker, because done is better than perfect, am I right?

How to Easily Organize Your Spices

Materials:

Step 1: If you ordered new bottles, wash in warm water and dry thoroughly in advance of this project (at least 24 hours, you don’t want any moisture left in the bottles!)

Step 2: Pull out all your spices and do a sniff test to see which ones are expired. If they have no fragrance, they’ll have little taste, so it’s time to go. Make a list of the herbs and spices you need, and buy them on future shopping trips. This list will also be helpful so you know which labels to make. As you go, evaluate whether you really use each product. For example, my poppy seed bottle still had the seal on it from when it was given to us in the spice rack 13 years ago! Toss spices and recycle bottles as needed.

Step 3: Type out and print all your labels. There are many settings on my labelmaker, but I did the standard version because it was the simplest! Or, use these ready-made labels to make them extra pretty.

Step 4: Next, pour the spices in the correct jars. If I had two bottles of the same spice, I determined which was freshest and tossed the other (or combine if you have enough room in the bottle.) A small funnel helps in this process, but isn’t 100% needed.

Step 5: Place the spice drawer liners into the drawer to determine if you need to cut off any length. One they are the correct length, remove the adhesive backing and push firmly into place piece by piece.

Step 6: Arrange your spices in ABC order on your counter and start laying in the drawer in that order. Listen to the organizing angels sing. 😉

My overflowing spice rack and cabinets are now under control. If you have a drawer you can spare for it, I have to say, organizing your spices in a drawer is the way to go! We’re all huge fans, even my kids can now reach them and add a little cinnamon to their applesauce or oregano to their pasta. Win-win!

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