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Yes you do! -
Get a plastic tote from lowes or home depot for the "extras." I keep my go to rubs and spices on the shelf and keep those I seldom use in a tote and store it in my closet.Comment
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They will take up much less room if ya pour them all into one big container.
As someone else here sez - follow me for more great cookin' tips.
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True, this. Most of them are different proportions of the same ingredients. I sort them into those with smoke flavor added, and those without. Neither is better, it’s just so I can choose. Otherwise it’s the half a bottle rule: when it gets below half a bottle, it gets mixed. -
And we would call it.....All-Purpose (literally!) Seasoning.
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What's your favorite pork rub?Comment
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The real solution is to cook more and use them more often. Once you are out of spices start over. Think about how much fun that will be!!Comment
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I put in shelving units...Comment
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I'm interested in what people do as far as spice/rub organization.
A couple years ago, my wife got tired of everything taking up the upper cabinet space, so she borrowed an idea from the neighbor where you would write on the top of the lid with a sharpie (for black caps, she used a strip of masking tape) and stuck them in one of our rollout shelves in a lower cabinet. The idea was, you pull out the shelf, look down, and can see everything at once.
Well, after about 6 months that was driving me crazy. Not only was it a waste of space (vertically in the lower cabinet) but, believe it or not, the sharpie rubbed off pretty quickly and the one's with tape, didn't really stick for long. Plus, most of the stuff I had was different sizes and shapes, so it didn't really fit together well and wouldn't stack.
Last summer, I bought a couple packs of the 3 ounce canning jars. Poured the contents of the single spices into them, printed a label (I really like my Brother label printer for stuff like this), and now, since they are the same size, I can at least stack them. They're in alphabetical order, so that helps me find what I need faster. Also, the canning jars seal better, so I'm guessing the spices will last longer. Just a guess though, we'll see.
I need some more canning jars at this point because I still have quite a few in their store bought containers. And I need a better stacking solution. Right now, I'm just using the carboard tray the jars came in. And probably need some larger jars for the commercial rubs.
I have plenty of woodworking tools, so I really have no excuse to not have something better.
edit: They might be 4 or 5 ounce jars. 3 sounds kinda small... Anyway...
Last edited by dpearce; July 9, 2025, 09:11 AM.Comment
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I use AkroBins to separate into general categories.
Their design patent expired years ago, so plenty of other branded ones are interchangeable. This is roughly the size I use:
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Timely post. I had cleaned out a bunch of old stuff, and just bought some new stuff. Now, I am trying to figure out how to store my spices where I can get to them easily. My cabinets are too high for me, and the builder put the smallest cabinets possible in here. I don't have as much as you do, but what I have is crammed into a small space.
Maybe you can install one of those pull-down shelves. I am thinking of doing that.Comment
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We actually moved since my original post and we replaced the chaos with something a little less chaotic.
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Ok, with all those spices do you monitor your expiration dates. Not that they will kill you but they do loose their taste over time. We recently cleaned ours out, had so many expired, some by years, that we maybe used once or twice. Bought an organized spice rack that comes with empty glass containers and printed labels. When our house sitter friend showed up she was impressed and thankful that she,could find things now. We eliminated a lot of the spices as I stopped making rubs from scratch.Comment
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Most of my commercial rubs don't have expiration dates. I just have to remember when I bought them and at my age, that's not possible.
I keep some in the freezer. IDK if that preserves them or not.
Malcolm Reed spoke to rub freshness in his podcast once, he said they're good for a couple of years but will lose their " pop " .
Matt Pittman of Meat Church, says if you order directly from him, he guarantees the rubs were made up fresh the week of purchase. -
I did that a few months ago, and got rid of a lot of stuff. I also decided to replace them as needed; I’ll use cardamom once every couple years, y’know? Maybe never again?
One thing I found interesting: I have a big jar of Badia granulated garlic that I bought years ago. YEARS. 10? 15? And it’s still potent. I wanted to toss it, but it’s still garlic.
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Expiration dates may be hard to find or read so I have started writing the expiration date on the container with a marker. If there's not one, I write a date 3 years out, but may go to 2 years.
I'm not worried about spices becoming less potent because I can just add more, but I do worry about them losing all of specific flavors within the spice.Comment
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We went through a kitchen remodel last year and though I have a bit more room than you do, I did a few of things:- Went through all my seasonings and tossed what I did not use. I was amazed at how many seasonings/rubs/salts I had acquired but just never used.
- Kept only what I really use in the kitchen - in the kitchen. The seasonings I seldom use but wanted to keep, I store in the garage.
- There are a lot of seasonings that are in small containers. So I arranged the shelfing on the first level to accommodate just them. Provided extra space for the larger containers above.
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The cabinets in the house we’ve moved to are smaller than we were used to. On top of that they are dark ash which is beautiful but seems to suck all the light from the room. It’s dark when I go digging through the spices in my cabinet. I need light to see what I'm looking for. Like you I want more room and I want white cabinets. The cabinet guy just left about an hour ago. In a week I’ll know what this little upgrade is going to set us back. By the way if any of you want some nice ash cabinet doors and a few drawers I’m going to have some to give away.Comment
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This mess has taken on a life of its own. We’re talking complete overhaul of the lower cabinets. Then there’s the latest good news. The wife wants new granite! This is taking some getting used to. I was raised by depression era parents who just didn’t replace stuff that wasn’t broken beyond repair. Now I’m replacing granite for a new color. She’s an incredible wife and we’ve been blessed so I’ll go along with her. That new boat just keeps getting bigger and nicer. I may use your idea on lights. -
You could get one of those camping headlights! :-)
Seriously we added two more light fixtures to our kitchen which is pretty small (largely because we put a fairly good sized butcher block in the middle of it) and under upper cabinet lighting. I love a bright kitchen. Think the portable pucks might be a good solution. However, I often wear a headlight for work and that does a nice job too!
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