Keep Your Spices Fresh and Easily Accessible

You pride yourself on being one of your few Greenville/Spartanburg friends who actually cooks every day. Meals ready to go, trips to a swank restaurant, or even a fast-food place are your versions of a rare treat. Because you cook every day, you need to have your spices at hand. There are some meals where you just don’t have time to check the labels of every single jar and move them out of the way or even have some of them get lost in the back of a drawer or cabinet. Here are some ways to keep your spices and seasonings organized and always fresh. 

First, some words about freshness

Though some people swear they still have a jar of cinnamon that they bought 10 years ago and it’s still as potent as ever, herbs and spices don’t last forever. However, there are things you can do to make sure they stay fresh for as long as possible.

Keep them in a cool, dark, dry place

Don’t put herbs and spices anywhere near a heat source, especially by your stove. The one exception may be a pull-out drawer between your stove and a floor cabinet. Still, the rule of thumb is to keep seasonings away from heat. 

Spices also need to be kept in the dark; light will leach the colors out of the brighter ones, such as turmeric. If they’re stored in a humid place, spices inevitably absorb the humidity, clump up, and lose much of their freshness. Other seasonings not only clump up but also harden to the point where they can’t be used at all. Spices should also be kept tightly sealed in jars or bags because air can rob them of their flavor.

Organizing your seasonings and spices

There are many ways to organize spices that save you from having to scrabble for them when you’re in the middle of cooking or prepping a meal. Some experts claim that the best way to organize your spices is in a dedicated drawer that can be built for you by companies such as Kitchen Tune-up. Although it’s possible to organize them in the jars and containers they come in, placing the herbs and spices in identical containers makes it easier to store them and to measure whatever sort of drawer inserts you’ll need to keep them stable. Make sure to label the containers and place the labels face up so you can immediately see what you’re looking for.

If you don’t have the drawer space, you can store your spices in small, stackable containers in a wall cabinet. Again, make sure to label them and have those labels facing outward so you can see what you have. Another way to store your spices and seasonings and to use space that's not often utilized is to store them under wall cabinets. Install a magnetic strip you’d use for knives on the underside of the cabinet, glue magnets to the metal lids of jars, and simply stick the jars to the strip.

If you want to learn more ways to organize your seasonings and spices and keep them fresher longer, go to TheHomeMag’s pages on Facebook and Instagram.