December 2022 tiny projects challenge: Day 2

For today’s tiny projects challenge, I chose the bulk herbs and spices that were outgrowing the container they were stored in in one of our cabinets. In 2016, we renovated our kitchen and at that time chose a Kuggis container from IKEA to store the herbs and spices that came in anything other than a bottle. (The bottles of herbs and spices live in a pull outs next to the range.)

In order to access the bulk herbs and spices, we had to dig through them, which is obviously less than optimal. Last month, I purchased The Everything Organizer XL Cabinet Depth Pantry Bin with Dividers from The Container Store, thinking it would work well for this project. I was very happy when it did!

Here’s the messy before picture, with the bin inside the cabinet.

And here’s how the bin looked when I took it out of the cupboard and put it on the counter.

It was a simple job to empty the container, throw out old or unloved spices and sort the remainder into categories. I used the new container I’d purchased for four of the categories, plus a separate pantry bin I had on hand. The project took less than 30 minutes.

Here’s the after picture, with all the herbs and spices stored neatly in the cupboard.

(I know that black-on-clear labels for clear bins isn’t standard, but my husband really prefers less obtrusive labels, so it works for us.)

Everything fits into the categories at the moment, but this may take a little maintenance effort in order to keep the categories from merging.

These are the categories I created in the divided container:

• dried herbs
• chiles
• bulk herbs/peppercorns (combined in one section)

The separate container holds:

• cinnamon sticks
• vanilla beans

My husband is the main cook in this house the main user of the bulk herbs and spices. He says he thinks this will work well for him. It’s certainly an improvement!