I like this one on the back of my pantry door. It holds small mason jars of mostly herbs. Can also hold standard 2.5 oz spice jars. Uses space that would otherwise be wasted.

Easy to make with some stock moldings and little spools or spindles from Hobby Lobby to make the railings. Shelves are adjustable. Could be made to hold any kind of container you like. Originally, it looked like this:

Here's a closeup.

Big can of worms. The topic, not the spices. :)

I reuse the jars spices came in rather than trying to keep a matched set, but mine aren't on the counter. For on the counter, consider size, opacity (exposure to light isn't good for the spices/herbs but it's pretty), shaker tops (do they have them and do you want them), scraper bars for leveling your spoon, etc.

Spices:
Bulk--cheaper. Theoretically fresher because they supposedly turn over faster, but I don't believe it and there's no way to know how long they're sitting there. The Indian stores are better, and I'd buy whole spices there, but I'd have to know them before I'd buy ground there. A spice grinder isn't a big investment.

Small boxes--Spicely Spices are available at the Whole Foods I often shop at. I like these because they're good, though not very best, quality, and it's just enough for one or two uses. Great for less used spices.

Ordinary jars--Many good companies. I like Spice Hunter and some of Spice Islands for quality, and some others for particular spices. Usually a big turnover, at least in a populous area. Can be reused for loose spices from packets or boxes.

Specialty Store--Penzey's and The Spice House have common origins. Both are online and have bricks and mortar, though Penzey's is in more areas. There are also Pendry's, Spice Warehouse, and some great, less known, others, all with online/catalog sales. Vanilla Saffron Imports is a little company that mostly sells saffron and vanilla (duh). Excellent vanilla and the very best saffron.

Penzey's have their own kind of jars. They have plastic tops, supposedly so that when you drop them the top will break rather than the jar. The jars are the thing I like best about Spice Islands. :) They have metal caps and I drop them all the time. I don't remember ever breaking one, but it could have happened a couple of decades ago. I reuse all the other jars too (after careful cleaning) and they do fine but I like SI the best, even though I don't buy much from them anymore. Penzey's will sell you empty jars which you can fill with their large packets or anything else.

Penzey's spices and herbs aren't as dry as others. Some people call this "fresher". I call it "wetter". Either way, you have to compensate in your recipes. They're very good quality but are also less resistant to variations in temperature and humidity for storage.

Given all that, you still want jars? The only ones that I've bought as spice jars are the little hexagonal ones with the rare earth magnets in the lids. They're the perfect size for the little Spicelys which is easier if you're measuring than a full sized jar. (They sell a steel plate to put them on if you want to hang them on the wall instead of on the fridge or something.)

I also have an Indian Masala Dabba, which is a covered round container with seven (or more) tight fitting interior cups for spices. It works like a painter's palette, but I haven't gotten into using it yet. You have to go through a lot to make it worth it, so it's more of a novelty, and might be demoted to paperclips. :) In general, you want to keep your spices whole until you need them, toast them just before grinding, etc., so it's more for if you're going through that much spice in a day, as "prep bowls", rather than storage.

I have whole spices and an herb garden, but I also use commercial pre-ground spices and dried herbs. If I get the result I want, I don't get snobby, and sometimes it's nice to have someone else doing the work.

I wouldn't get filled jars in a spice rack unless it's worth the price without considering the spices. You have no notion how long they've been in there, or how they've been handled, since it's furniture rather than food.

When I was in college, I had an Americana style spice rack screwed to the wall. Two shelves with turned dowel guards and a Federal mustache arch top. I think it held sixteen standard bottles. The bottles are a bit bigger nowadays, so it would be ten. I liked it a lot. I now have a six foot tall built-in, pull out spice rack and I'm running out of room in it. :)

If you have a high shelf, a tiered lazy susan is a good bet. If you have a shallow drawer, you can get an insert with angled trays that maximizes space and shows you the labels on the front. If you have a deep drawer, you can label the tops and stand them up. If you have counter space, buy whatever looks nicest.

I do alphabetize my spices/herbs nowadays. I used to do them by cooking or baking and the ones that went together next to each other, but at a certain point it gets confusing. :)

Wow Bellsmom that looks pretty neat but with my luck I would slam that door and they would be all over the floor. I do keep my foils, plastic wraps and baking paper on my pantry door but they take a tumble every once and awhile.

My seasonings collection is too large to be contained in a rack. I have a whole shelf level dedicated to it in my pantry. Two sides of the U are 8"x48', and the center is 18"x24".

The sizes of what I have on the shelf really depends on how much of what I use. For the 12-18 basics like thyme, dill, and so on, I get the large 5-6 oz jars from GFS. For smaller use like cayenne or ground cloves, I buy smaller jars from the local grocer. I also grow some of my own herbs and those get sealed up in pint sized mason jars- I use a vacuum sealer. I also have a handful of oddballs like specialty salts and seasonings like old bay or powdered mustard, and those just are in the jars or tins they come in. I also have big boxes of different "regular" salts like kosher, table, and pickling salts.

For my actual what I keep out on the counter, I have a black pepper shaker, table salt shaker, an old fashioned diner style large sugar pourer for kosher salt, a nutmeg grinder, and a trio of quart sized rubber stoppered dark brown glass jars to hold parsley, dried minced garlic, and dehydrated minced onion that I make up by the quart jar. I make a few of those quarts at a time and vacuum seal those too.

If you do buy a spice rack, I would suggest you buy one with empty jars- you never know just how long the rack has been sitting on the shelf, and those herbs and spices might be rather stale. Also, make sure you consider how you are going to use that rack and where it's going to go- for example, I was once gifted with a countertop spin rack- nice idea, but I had a tiny kitchen and it sucked up a ton of counter space for what it did. Or don't get a large wall mounted rack if you don't have a lot of wall space.

I would also recommend you try to get whole spices and invest in two spice grinders- coffee grinders work great and are usually cheaper than ones specifically listed as spice grinders. Why two? One for "dark" like black pepper, cloves, and so on, and one for "green" like herbs. You still have to clean them just as much, but you get less chances of carryover flavoring if you forgot to clean out your grinder.

I use a Spice Stack for most of my spices/herbs. I can use most of the original spice bottles. It keeps things organized. I will try to post a picture tomorrow

Mason jars work great and you can get them all different sizes from small jelly jars to big quart ones. Yes I know you have to buy them by the box but you can also use them for dried beans, rice, pasta, all kinds of things.

I spent years frustrated with spice storage. One day inspiration struck as I sat looking at a section of blank, inside kitchen wall. Called a carpenter and explained my idea. He said, "simple construction. It will work well."

The distance between wall studs is 16". Following my idea, the carpenter removed a fairly long section of the wall board, exposing two studs, side by side. Inserted shelves to hold the spices between the studs, cut a door which hinged to one stud and closed over the other. Repainted that wall. A simple idea to consider.
Sold the house. Sorry, no picture available.

Round lazy susan in a cabinet. No particular order.

Timely topic. I spent a good number of hours this weekend addressing my spices trying to discard and rearrange. I bought the As Seen on TV Spicy Shelf thinking it would solve some of my storage problem. It didn't work for my space. So I am sticking with the 3 tier Expand-a-Shelf from the Container Store that I have been using.

I do have a drawer with the most used spices. I bought these jars in Italy; they were 50 cents US with the spices. I emptied the spice before going through customs...just in case they thought I was with the drug cartel.

Bellsmom, very nice.

Try Pinetrest, the have a lot of spice organization ideas.

I discarded one 13 gallon garbage bag full of expired spices, teas, cocoas. I here by pledge to stay away from Pensey's, the Spice House, Home Goods, and all on-line ordering opportunities until there is a real need to make a spice purchase.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spicy Shelf

This post was edited by mustangs on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 7:06

I have a built-in spice rack that is in a sliding door in the back of my lower cabinets in the peninsula next to the wall. I did not realize I had it until I got new counters, but before I was able to use it, I had bought a butcher block table to hold my electric slicer, and that table blocks the pull-out. I might use it if I could access it, but I hate lower cabinets and keep my spices in upper cabinets, which are easier for me to access. I arrange my spices by the way I use them - I have a section for Italian, one for Japanese, one for Thai, one for Indian, etc. There is a bit of overlapping, but the spice goes into the section that gets the most use, and I can always find it easily.

Lars

Here is a picture of the spice stack

Mine used to be the back of the pantry door -- now it's a drawer under my baking counter and right next to the stove. The extract bottles, food coloring and such are in the cabinet above with the measuring cups. Mine is one of many pictured in the thread linked below -- I found the thread when someone else linked it as the best spice storage discussion ever. Hope it's helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spice Storage Thread from Kitchens

Mine is a moveable kitchen workspace-type table that has a door in one end with 3 narrow shelves; I think the shelves are 4" or maybe a little less deep. I love it, it is so easy to get into and holds quite a bit. Something like that would probably be easy to make (if you have someone who is decent at woodworking) at the end of a cabinet; if you have a little counter over-hang, it would fit right under it. Sorry, still no camera, so no pics :^(
Edie

I have an old wall hung spice rack that holds a decent number of standard (McCormick's sized) spice jars. I use that to store relatively small amounts of whole spices and flavorings only. I generally buy spices in bulk because I do a lot of canning, pickling and baking. I store the bulk spices, even the whole ones, in the freezer and keep only small amounts at room temperature. I grind them fresh in a mortar and pestle as I use them. I keep all dried herbs in the freezer as well as the very few pre-ground spices I have around. Spices and herbs lose flavor and quality quickly when kept in a cupboard -- especially one near a heat source. They keep nearly indefinitely in the freezer.

Like Bellsmom, I have spice racks in my pantry on the door. Wasted space utilized! I have two similar to the one below. I absolutely love them. Fits standard stuff and non-standard stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: wire back of the door

I use test tubes for my spices though mine isn't anywhere near as pretty as this one.
But here's what I did:
I bought a 3" thick, solid wood shelf and used a drill press to drill holes part way through the shelf. Using a drill press, I was able to keep the depth of the holes the same in a row. I changed depths by row so each subsequent row was higher than the previous one. Mine has 3 rows and is 30" long i.e. the width of the stove.

I made labels using a label maker and clear tape. If I made another one, I would use larger test tubes. I used plastic caps instead of cork stoppers. I thought it would keep them from spilling since I tend to be a tad clumsy in the kitchen. LOL The reality is the plastic caps are hard to get off.

Since I was in that Kitchens thread that Lascatx linked, before I had a completed kitchen, here's the result:

But this outcome is after decades of cooking.

For what the OP was asking, I think the Spice Stack that A2gemini posted looks like the best for compact space usage, easy to see labels, ability to use the jars them come in, and restriction of light. There are a lot of prettier ones that don't look practical at all. Like they're designed more for the size of the shipping box than for use in a real kitchen.

Having very limited counter space, I put one behind the other... both turn tables alphabetized, with the more used ones on the front.

of course, the baking spices are in another cabinet, along with mason jars with dried herbs from my garden.

Moni

Plllog, if I had been able to squeak a few inches for a tall pullout, I would have done something like that. Max I could have done would have been 3 inches by going with smaller ovens. That would work for smaller bottles, but not sure for larger ones, and I really wanted the larger ovens after having two that large baking sheets didn't fit into. Between larger ovens and seeing that my DH and boys couldn't put things back in they same place they came from on a full length door rack (same kind of space essentially) I needed something different. Had to come up with something since the corner pantry was going away -- the drawer works amazingly well for me. And the guys can alphabetize. At least when they pay attention, and that's most of the time.

Thanks everyone. I like the spice stack that a2gemini posted but will have to figure out the cabinet space. If anyone else have a suggestion please post. Thanks again.

Jkayd
Spice stack makes several versions.
BBB carries the smaller one. Mine is the larger version although they were talking about an even larger version.
I ordered mine on-line - one of the few things that were not local but at the time it was a new company{{gwi:807}}.
One thing to remember - always return the tray to the closed position. I forgot a few times and closed the door on the open tray. I knocked the tray off the stack and lost one spice jar lid on the landing. The rack popped back into the stack easily. - pretty impressive.

I just went to their website. They now have for sizes. Mine has 4 columns and they added a 2 column and 5 column version in addition to the original 3 column and the classic 4 column. It also looks like BBB and SLT both carry the 5 banger

I put mine on the second shelf so the UCL weren't cooking the herbs and spices. It fit perfectly on my bottom shelf but put on second shelf - so I have a bit of space above for a couple tins

Some day, I will add the labels but for now they are just alpha so it is easy to make changes.

Good luck

This post was edited by a2gemini on Sat, Dec 6, 14 at 15:58