A couple months ago I hit a breaking point with my spice storage situation. I’d been corralling all my spice jars in two plastic containers in one of my kitchen cupboards, but the containers were too small to neatly hold all the jars and too large to easily pull out of the cupboard. Over time a not-ideal solution morphed into a disastrous one, and the spice jars ended up piled into those containers every which way. It was a mess. Of course, the most maddening part was I could never find the spice I needed when I needed it! I’m sure the number of times I’ve said “UGH! Where is it?!” is well into the hundreds. Time for a redo. I decided to move all my spices to the shallow, wide drawer that was being used to store kitchen utensils. Most of the tools in there weren’t my everyday tools (I keep those in a utensil crock on the counter), so I cleared them out, divided the drawer with a bamboo drawer divider (so I could still keep some tools in there), and then bought a bunch of these 4-ounce glass mason jars ($32/set of 40) to transfer my spices into. Then I labeled the jars with a label maker and voila! Easy-to-read, easy-to-find, impossible-to-screw-up spice storage! I love these little jars. At about two inches high, they’re shallow enough to clear the drawer height but deep enough to hold a full regular jar’s worth of spices. I also love that they’re wide enough I never have to worry about being able to fit my measuring spoon into a narrow jar opening! I didn’t need all 40 jars that I purchased, but I did need 34! (Six lesser-used spices are still stored in a cupboard.) If that’s too much for your pantry, you can also find sets of 12 of this jar style. Cheers to good tools – and solutions to problems! -CambriaProduct and Lifestyle Director
