Over the holidays when I was baking something several times a week, I realized that my spice cabinet was in complete disarray! I had spices that I knew were more than 5 years old, 3 bottles of the same spice, bottles that had rolled to the back of the cabinet, etc. It was a mess – not to mention a waste of money!
So as part of my New Year’s resolution to organize something in my home each week, this week I have taken on my spice cabinet.
The first thing I did was purge all of the spices I knew were past their prime. Most of my spices had a “best by” date so if it was more than a few months past that date, they were tossed. Seeing all that money in the trash hurt my wallet!
Here is a quick list on how to determine spice freshness if there is no ‘best by’ date.
Ground spices – 2-3 years
Whole spices – 3-4 years
Seasoning Blends – 1-2 years
Herbs – 1-3 years
Extracts – 4 years
I then organized the spices in alphabetical order on my small lazy susan – I’ve promised myself they are going to stay that way! I had to buy a few new spices over the holidays and I placed a sticker on the bottom of those with the date they were opened.
I would like to slowly rid myself of lots of spice bottles and convert to magnetic tins so that I can free up cabinet space and be less wasteful by purchasing only the amount of spice I need for a few months from the bulk bin at my grocery store.
How do you organize and store your spices?
By Melissa
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I do a lot of cooking and a good amount of baking so I am constantly updating my spices. I have a shelf in my big cupboard that I use for the main spices (and there are a ton of them). The most-used jars are on the Spice-Around (a Pampered Chef thing) which is by the stove. The unused ones are in the garage, doubles are in the basement pantry and large bags of much-used spices are in the freezer. I have all the chiles together, I have separate sections tht are organized alphabetically like ethnic food group and BBQ section.