Organizing: Spices!

As we began the new year of 2012, I (Christy) felt the need for some additional organization, especially in our pantry and kitchen cupboards.  We buy a lot of bulk goods and it's hard to neatly organize the numerous bags and little containers that we collect.

Organization does not always equal simplicity, but it can contributes a lot towards it!  However, I'm learning that organization often seems to require the acquisition of more stuff!  Containers for this and dividers for that.  I'm still working on a balance, but I think a middle road is good here.  My pantry is not going to get any better unless I figure out a way to store our bulk food in a neat and non-cluttered manner.  This will probably not happen without the purchase of some type of storage solution.  So my approach is this: buy wisely (quality), minimally (don't go overboard), and take it in stages.  The pantry doesn't need to be finished overnight!  I've made a few purchases so we'll see how it goes :)

One of my storage solutions is already in place, and it's one I'm immensely pleased with!  Uncle Tim created this beautiful spice rack for our overhead shelving (see below), but it's not enough for all the spices we have.

We previously stored what we couldn't fit above into a box in the cupboard but it was cluttered and time consuming to find each spice.  We don't have drawer space or counter space.  I've seen those magnetic fridge ones but I didn't want to clutter up the side of the fridge.  Here's the solution I found for a great price:

If you're looking for a similar solution, check out SpiceStor and look for the 20 extra clips.  They can be cut apart to accommodate larger spice bottles.