While I love being in the kitchen and I love to cook, I don’t always have time. When I am short on time, it feels stressful to get in the kitchen to cook. One of the things that helps make cooking while short on time a little less stressful is having a kitchen that it organized. Being able to find things in the kitchen makes it quicker and easier to get things done. I think that is why I HATE cooking in a messy kitchen. Finding a way to organize my spice rack has helped me save time in the kitchen.
How to Organize Spices
You need to figure out where you are going to store your spices. Spices are best when they are kept in a cool dark place. It helps them keep their flavors longer. Avoid direct sunlight and other heat sources, like the heat from the oven. The most common places to store spices are in a cabinet or a cupboard, in a pantry, in a drawer, or on the counter. When you store your spices on the counter, try to only store the ones you use most often. Where you store your spice will often depend on how much space you have and where that space is located. If storing the spices in a smaller cabinet or space, try using a Lazy Susan.
Decide on what kind of containers you want to use. Sometimes people chose to leave the spices in their original containers, but sometimes people chose to use special containers. Maybe you have a spice rack that uses a certain size containers. Maybe you want to use a different type of container. There are many different ideas for spice racks. There are lots of ideas on Pinterest and Facebook, but some that I have seen are: tic tac containers, tiny mason jars, baby food jars, and jars with magnetic lids. This set of glass jars for spices works great too. Here are other spice storage ideas.
Arrange alphabetically or how the spices are used. If you chose to group the spices together by how they are used, ie baking spices, vegetable spices, meat spice, etc. When storing spices by groups, they can be stored all in one place or in different parts of the kitchen depending on where you are using them.
Label the spice jars. You want to be sure that you can find which spice is which once you have gotten them together. If you have take them out of their original containers, be sure that they are labeled and that the labels are easy to read. Make sure that the labels are in a spot that they can easily be seen. Take into consideration how the containers will be stored. Think about adding the date onto the spices. Like I said, as spices get older, they lose their flavor and you will need to replace them. Dried spices have a 1-3 shelf life when they are unopened. Once spices are opened, the shelf live is 12-24 months.
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