I seriously will throw a party when I find that darned label maker! Oh the things I want to tag in my newly remodeled house....

I should take a new pic now that I've added my paprikas in the drawer. I'll link to the company, Specialty Bottle, below. Badgergirl and I both used the smaller TCT4 tins and the larger TCT8.

Love yours!! Your more petite drawer actually snuggles the tins better than mine. And wait until you're in the middle of a trenches cooking a big meal. You'll get a thrill from being able to see all your spices laid out where grabbing and measuring takes a mere second. You'll wonder how you ever got by reaching into a dark upper cab with toppling towers of spices.

And thanks for the kind shout-out. I can't believe I actually helped someone! You brightened the end of a sad day full of good-byes and made me smile. :-)

TCT4 hold 4 oz, which is about the same as a regular-sized spice jar. I buy almost all of my spices in bulk now so that was less of a consideration. My still-packed label maker is a Brother p-touch.

Can you share how easy is it to open the lids?
Are they sealed tight?
Often when I'm marinating, etc, I just want to pop the top off and grab the container between my wrists and shake it over the meat, etc.
I may have to alter my way of using these tins.

thanks,
Amanda

My question is: Do you store Crushed Red Pepper under C, R, or P? :-D

I have always just used two wide drawers with my spices in their original jars laying down, facing up, in alphabetical order! This way will be much prettier!

Houseful--I also placed red pepper as a R. Ground mustard is "mustard, ground" and mustard seed is "mustard, seed".

As to shakers, those little shaker tops were the the bain of my existence before these tins. I hated having to remove those little gadgets each time I measured. I'm much more of an OCD measurer than a casual shaker. Or I finger-sprinkle like I do with salt so I have more control. (Again with the control issue.) That said, I did keep a couple of those types when I emptied into tins. I thought they might be useful if I mix up any sort of blend that needed to be shaken on.

Never had the need to differentiate by type of spice like Mealaska does, but I like her idea of using diff colored labels like that.

The lids fit tightly enough that the contents don't spill, but are easy enough to remove for use.

Java

Stats:
* middle drawer of a 21" 3-drawer base cabinet, drawer interior dimensions 17.25 wide x 20 deep x 9.5 tall.
* The top caddy holds standard 4-oz spice jars (a 4.5-in height clearance for 4.15" tall jars). Size 17.125 square.
* Lift that out, and there's storage for bulk bags of spices underneath (also about 4.5 inches height).
* Caddy sits on runners that put a 3" wide space behind, to fit a row of tall things.
* The drawer is next to the stove, since I'm more of a "toss some seasonings into the pot" than a "measure into the mixing bowl" style, but if I want to do a complicated recipe I can always take the caddy to the prep area.
Things I'd fix:
- It started out really heavy. It was a real "oops! bad design" feeling until we fixed it. I'd been wanting to standardize my collection of 40 jars in 6 different sizes/shapes but felt it was kind of a frivolity - I justified by replacing with plastic instead of glass, which cut the weight down enormously! It's no longer a two-hand job. (though some of them are still glass at this point; I didn't change them all out, and I'm using 8oz canning jars for some of the large things (cinnamon sticks, parsley, chili powder))
- The tray should be cut down to rectangular instead of square, to allow a little more "tall" space in the back of the drawer. This would also help with weight. And sliding around. At one point I tried to convince my husband to do the modification, but he was unenthusiastic about that (understandably - it's kind of a fussy disassembly). Ideal size, 17x14 instead of 17x17? Depends how many jars you think you'll have.
- It rattles quite a bit; drawer liner helps keep the jars from sliding, but the eventual plan is to take a 1.5" hole saw and cut a grid of circles in 1/4" plywood so each jar has a little round hole that it sits into. When we have a spare evening and pigs fly. With no drawer liner, the jars pile up in one corner as soon as I pick it up, and the balance is off, making it not just heavy but awkward.

I planned this all out because these standard-shape 4oz bottles wouldn't fit standing up in the top drawer... at least the didn't in my old kitchen. As it happens, I could totally have fit them in these cabinets, but by the time we had the cabs here and I realized they'd fit, I was in love with the caddy + bulk storage idea, so I went with the middle-drawer concept. I like it. I hope this wasn't too much of a hijack of the thread!

jars from speciality bottle as well. plastic screw on tops.

I was fortunate to find these (on the left) while in Italy for 75 cents (full of spices). I emptied the spices--didn't want to be stopped going through the airport security in case they thought it was an illegal substance. They are glass with a shaker flip open top. The ones on the right were filled with sprinkles and on clearance for 50 cents. I wish I could find some of these bottles.

I do put my baking spices in the cabinet with the flour/sugar etc where they will be used. The rest are in this drawer next to the stove.

I'm off to Specialty Bottle to place my order!