I love a quick project to simplify an area of my house. Recently I cleared out the junk drawer and it was great. Every time I open that drawer I smile. This week I decided to do a little spice rack decluttering project.
Spring always re-ignites my interest in simple living/minimalism. This year, it feels more intense. I think it's because we spent the month of March in a small rental house living with just the necessities (and lots of warm weather and sunshine!). Our home is not cluttered, but it does seem like it's always a battle to keep it that way. Spending a month in a home that was fully, but minimally, furnished and stocked felt really good. Now that I'm home, I want more of that feeling here.
Over the last few years, I have been getting rid of stuff that we were holding on to but never seemed to use, so my kitchen cupboards are in pretty good shape. However, the spice cabinet always seems to annoy me. I decided it was time to finally do something about it.
Before
I know it wasn't horrible, but I struggled to find the herbs I was looking for and always seemed to knock three jars over while trying to pull out a spice bottle I needed from the top rack.
I got rid of a few bread pans, a muffin pan, and other baking pans I don't ever use. This will allow me to move the shelves around a little bit to better fit all the spices.
In Progress
Not a big change, but a few things were donated and the top shelves have been moved up a little to make room for a spice rack I found on Amazon.
I also sorted out my collection of vinegar. It was a little bit out of hand so I tossed the ones we don't really use. There were also a handful of random spices that were old (and I can't even remember why we had them).
Now on the main event...the actual spice rack. I used a 3 tiered shelf previously, but as I said earlier, it was difficult to pull out anything that wasn't in the first row. I also don't like the visual clutter of all the different bottle shapes and labels. So, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a rack with matching jars so everything looks uniform and organized. After counting up my spices and measuring my newly enlarged space, this is what I ended up purchasing:
This rack can stand on its own or be hung on the wall. This one has 32 jars but it also comes in a smaller version.
I probably could have used an even bigger one, but this one fits comfortably in my cupboard.
If you want to take a closer look, you can check it out here: https://amzn.to/3nHFjgJ
This is an affiliate link, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
It comes with labels for every conceivable spice and several blank labels if you have something unique that you need to label.
Transferring all my spices into the new jars was about a 2-hour process, so I just popped on an audiobook and got to work.
Finished Project
This new spice rack opened up so much space! I can now also fit my daily tea supplies in this cupboard and get them off my counter, as well as this small recipe box (that I really need to sort through one of these days).
For the cost of the spice rack and a few hours of my time, I was able to get rid of the daily annoyance of my spice rack and remove some clutter from my counters. This might be just a small thing, but when it bothers you every single day, it's worth taking the time to fix it!!
What is one small decluttering project you could conquer that would make your daily life feel just a little nicer? Let me know in the comments, then set aside a little time to work on it! You won't regret it.
Happy decluttering!
Tracy
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