For years, I have had a mishmash of spice jars gathering in my kitchen. Once, I bought a bunch of jars from Ikea (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40064702/), added spices, labeled them all, and thought I was done. I never liked the rack that they had available, though. Since I am renting, I didn’t want to screw anything into the wall, and these jars have their downsides as well (they take up a lot more space than a vertical jar, and there is no shaker lid). I also had to keep them in a drawer, which meant I was looking down at the unlabeled lid, requiring me to pull out a bunch of jars one at a time to get the one I wanted.
My next thought was to get a bunch of round canisters, which would affix magnetically to the refrigerator. Ikea even sells those, too (LOVE Ikea, btw) (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80102919/). These didn’t seem like they would hold that much spice, though, and again I couldn’t use them as a shaker. I also read some online reviews that said that after awhile, the canisters containing very finely ground spices (like cinnamon or ground sage) could become stuck.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I have spent HOURS over the last few years researching different “spice containment units”. I just wanted to love whatever I used, and to have it be super functional and simultaneously something that I would be proud to have on my countertop.
And… <drumroll> here it is!
I LOVE my spices now. I am using them so much more now that I can see (nearly) all of them. I feel so much more creative when I can scan them, easily remove a couple, add a dash of this and a sprinkle of that, and then put them right back so I can find them AGAIN (revolutionary concept, I know).
On a cute note, my ds8 has started to play a little game where he takes out several spices, pulls the lid off of each, and then holds them up together to smell them, to see how they “blend” together. I love how his mind is starting to open to new flavors and foods!
The Imperfect Homemaker 