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Spice Drawer Organization & Storage Ideas

Here are quite a few practical spice drawer organization and storage ideas you can use in your kitchen.

There are so many possible ways that you can store and organize your spices and seasonings in your kitchen or pantry, and in this article we're focused on those who want to store them in a kitchen drawer.

Using a drawer for storage can be a great way to keep your spices close to where you prepare food or cook, and also to keep them concealed since they aren't sitting out on the counter or in a rack this way. It also keeps the spices from taking up precious cabinet space.

However, when you choose to use a drawer spice rack, there are some steps you need to take to make sure your spices stay organized and handy like you plan for them to.

Drawer Organizers & Inserts Help Keep Items From Shifting & Becoming Disorganized Inside The Drawer

Just throwing your spices in a drawer will quickly lead to chaos, as one reader, Holly found out. She sent in these photos, below, that showed how her kitchen spice drawer originally looked, and then how she organized it to become much more functional.

Before and after of spice drawer organization project, to show how adding dividers to the drawer help to keep the spices from shifting, and more organized {on Home Storage Solutions 101} #KitchenOrganization #PantryOrganization #HomeOrganization

The simple solution Holly used was to add drawer dividers.

You can choose drawer dividers, a spice drawer organizer, inserts, or even shallow baskets to help you organize and containerize this space. The reason this works so well is that all these types of products help you keep the spice containers from shifting around in the drawer, which keeps the organization system you have in place from moving around when the drawer is opened and closed.

Here are some available organizers, racks and inserts meant for your spice drawer. The one you choose depends on the length and depth of your drawer, as well as the shape of the spice containers you've got (including if all the containers are uniform in shape and size, or a variety of shapes).

In addition, here's another idea for keeping your spice containers from moving around in the drawer -- magnets! That's exactly what another reader, Debbie used. Here's the photo she sent in below:

How to organize your spice drawers so all your herbs and seasonings are easy to find when you're cooking or preparing food {on Home Storage Solutions 101} #KitchenOrganization #PantryOrganization #Organizing

Debbie said, "I did this project several years ago, by buying small tins, labeling them on top of the name of the spice, and leaving a tag on the bottom to write down the expiration date of the space that I was using. In general this works very well but because the bottom of the tins was slippery and the bottom of the cabinet drawer was slick as well, every time I closed the door the spices got all rearranged and jumbled and it became more challenging to find what I was looking for. I purchased some magnetic paint for six dollars and coated the bottom of the drawer. I bought small adhesive magnets and put them on the bottom of the spices and now nothing moves!

I thought that was definitely a very clever idea!

Choose How You Want To Group Your Spices Within The Drawer

Organized kitchen spice drawer {on Home Storage Solutions 101}

Photo courtesy of a reader, Amanda

Once you've added some type of inserts or containers to the drawer to help you keep things from shifting, and to keep it organized, it's up to you how you want to arrange the spices within the space.

Some people prefer alphabetical, but honestly I'm not a huge fan of that method because it seems a bit arbitrary for real life use.

Instead, I suggest grouping your spices into flavor categories. You know what spices you almost always use together, such as Italian spices, or Mexican, or Indian, or baking flavors like cinnamon and cloves. Generally, when you grab one from this flavor category you also grab a couple others from the same category, so I suggest keeping them close to one another to make it easy to find everything you will use all at once.

Label The Top Or Side Of Containers To Make It Easier To Find What You Want

Finally, when you open your kitchen drawer, while cooking or preparing food, to grab a spice, you want to be able to find the spice you'd like to use quickly and easily.

While it helps to have the spices arranged in some type of order, as mentioned above, it is also important to have your spices labeled so you can find each one without having to pick up several, to figure out what they are.

This is especially true if the way you've arranged your spices shows the top of the containers when you open the drawer, instead of a label elsewhere.

Here's an example of how a reader, Ilene, labeled the tops of the containers in her spice drawer.

How and why to label spice cotainers in your kitchen drawer, to make cooking and preparing food easier {on Home Storage Solutions 101} #KitchenOrganization #PantryOrganization #OrganizingTips

Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas

I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!