Remember when I shared my newly organized kitchen utensil drawer last week?  Well, I also organized the unruly kitchen cabinet above the utensil drawer.  I initially set out to organize our spices, but I was on an organizing streak, people.  I couldn’t be stopped.  So I organized (and cleaned!) the entire cabinet.

Let’s start with a before image of the cabinet.  Woof.  Tons of spices on the bottom shelf, a bunch of stuff on the middle shelf, and even more stuff on the top shelf.

I could never find spices because they were stacked on top of each other.  I’d dig into the pile hoping to pull out the garlic powder and I’d get parsley flakes instead.  It was rough.

So I picked up some tiered, wire shelf thingies for about $3.50 each at the Walmart (please don’t judge me).  I pushed the shelves together to make one big tiered shelf.  Don’t they remind you of the risers you stood on for choir concerts in elementary school?  No?  Well, that’s what I think of when I look at them.

I arranged the spices in categories– grilling, cooking, and baking.  My cooking wines and oils are arranged in the empty space on the left.  Now, some of you may be saying “Well, that’s great, but you can’t see the spices on the second and third shelves”.  That’s partly true, but I’ve been using this system for a week, and I’ve already memorized where my most used spices are located.  Maybe I’ll label the caps one day.  But for now, this system is  working for me, and it’s a great improvement from what I was doing.

I corralled our spice packets in a shallow plastic basket I had laying around.  Now when I need a packet, I grab the basket from the second shelf and flip through the packets until I find the one I need.

So here’s the freshly cleaned and organized cabinet.

I put our varieties of salts and peppers on the second shelf along with the spice packets.  The third shelf houses my recipe boxes, toothpicks, and kitchen scales.

Now the entire cabinet is organized, down to the cabinet door with my hidden kitchen organizer.

How do you organize your spices?
Do you now have the sudden urge to clean one of your kitchen cabinets?

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I hope I’m not the only person out there who’s guilty of a ridiculously messy kitchen utensil drawer.  By ridiculously messy I mean when you open the drawer it gets stuck because you have so many things jammed into the drawer.  Or when getting into the drawer you have to be careful not to cut your fingers on the rogue cheese grater.

Enough was enough.  I had it with my hot mess of a drawer and decided it was time to get it under control.  During a trip to the store I picked up three drawer organizers for about $5 each.  I took everything out of the drawer and wiped down the drawer for good measure.  Miscellaneous crumbs have a tendency to sneak into drawers.  After the drawer was lemony fresh, I grouped the utensils together in the organizers– rubber spatulas, spoons, and spatulas.  And here is the end result.

Can you tell I have a thing for rubber spatulas?  They’re my favorite kitchen utensil.  Well, next to my corkscrew, of course.  As with diamonds, chocolate cake, and semi-nude photos of Channing Tatum, you can never have too many rubber spatulas.

Now, some items were evicted from the kitchen utensil drawer.  They are finding a new home very soon.  I have a plan.  I just need to execute it, and when I do you’ll be the first to know.

This little organization project took me all of 15 minutes and cost me all of $15.  Time and money I’m perfectly fine parting with if it means not having to battle with that drawer anymore.

What does your kitchen utensil drawer look like?
What’s your favorite kitchen utensil?
Got a must-have kitchen gadget you’d like to share with the rest of us?