Back in February I started a project that I left half finished until two weeks ago. I am not always great at judging how much should be on my plate. But, it’s finished and awesome and I’m even getting around to sharing it.

Back in 2010, when I first started to explore the real food movement, I discovered a love of spices. Once of the first blogs I started following was The Clothes Make the Girl and Melissa is well known for her use of spices. She has a few great posts on spices you can find here and here, which are great starting points if you are looking to include more spice in your life.

When we moved into our house I picked a spice cupboard and tossed everything in there without a lot of thought. Finding a spice typically involved several minutes of searching and often dropping at least one or two others in the process.

After a moment of serious frustrating, I went in search of a solution. Thanks to Amazon, eight months later I have an awesome spice drawer. Isn’t it pretty? The jars are 4.5 oz each with an opening wide enough for all my tablespoons.

The labels are technically chalkboard, but I highly doubt that they are reusable. I haven’t actually tried so maybe I’d be pleasantly surprised.

Along the side I’ve stored spices that don’t fit in the jars (bay leaves, red peppers) and spice mixes that I’m trying out. I like to try different blends but don’t plan to keep them on hand all the time; storing them in snack bags works better than using a jar.

My spice refills and various salts and cooking fats are now much easier to find in the old cupboard. Unfortunately though I displaced our coffee and tea collection for this project and this new layout isn’t working all that well. Instead of dropping spices while cooking dinner I now drop tea boxes in the morning. Once I find a better spot for the coffee and tea this will become bottle storage. Seriously, a baby changes everything. Apparently even kitchen storage!