Here is a picture of where we used to house our spices. It's corner cabinet with a built in lazy susan, and it is difficult to find anything you are looking for without other items falling over. Even if I purged some spices and cleaned out the cabinet, it still wouldn't be an optimal place for our spices. I decided to move them to a large, wide drawer located left of our stove where we keep our (many) kitchen towels and take out menus. The towels and menus would be moved to a smaller, deeper drawer and the items in that drawer will go where our spices were originally kept. Are you following all of that?
I purchased Round Metal Tins from Papermart in the 8 ounce size. Since the lids I purchased were solid and the new home for my spices is a drawer, I decided to make a label for the tops. I found the round frame design online and used Powerpoint to insert the spice names in the middle of the frame. I printed the spice label out on full sheet labels from Avery and cut the circles out using a Nestabilities circle die and my new Vagabond machine.
I made the decision to replace some of the spices we had with new ones. After searching online for spice shelf life, I found this basic guide:
- Ground spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric): 2 to 3 years
- Herbs (basil, oregano, parsley): 1 to 3 years
- Seasoning blends: 1 to 2 years
- Whole spices (cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon sticks): 4 years
- Seeds: 4 years (except for poppy and sesame seeds; 2 years)
- Extracts: 4 years (except for vanilla, which will last forever)
- When it doubt, throw it out
To help me with this in the future, I decided to place the expiration year on the bottom of each tin using Post-it adhesive roll (my new favorite thing).
I'm not sure if this post was 100% 'non-crafty'.....but when I have to complete a task that isn't all that interesting, bringing office or craft supplies into the mix helps me carry on.
