Fall is the season for baking and holiday cooking. Are your spices as organized and easy to get to as you’d like? Here are some sleek and stylish storage ideas for spices.
The sleek look of stainless steel is still a hot kitchen trend. These contemporary tins, mounted magnetically to a stainless strip, can inexpensively update kitchen decor or they can be mounted on the inside of a cabinet door for pure functionality. Just be sure to label these cute pods, or you might be mistaking your cinnamon for your cumin.
If you have go-to spices for favorite dishes, then this is your solution. This divided spice tiffin traditionally holds Indian spices, but has been updated with included spoons and levelers in each tin to make measuring a snap. Stack them in a cabinet, divided into categories like: Indian, Italian, East Asian, soups, to the table (for the little things you need for each meal), oatmeal toppings, and even sundae sprinkles. Seriously, what kid wouldn’t adore a mom with an ice cream sundae fixin’s tiffin?
Image above from http://www.indianasapplepie.com/spice-tiffin/ and spice tiffins on Amazon (affiliate link).
My favorite is this no-tool, trim-to-fit solution that can be customized for a kitchen drawer, keeping everything at the ready and alphabetized, if you choose. It is the most functional for the no-fuss cook, since it does not require you to re-package or re-label your spices. http://www.amazon.com/Wide-Spice-Insert-Drawers-White/dp/B0000E1VSJ
Wherever you stash them, spices are best used, not stored. McCormick used to have a helpful site to help you determine how old your spices are; hopefully they’ll bring back their page with this info. The experts at Spice Islands recommend storing spices for only 1-4 years at the most. So forget the bulk purchases at the warehouse stores, unless you really do use bulk amounts in your home cooking.
