Looks great! : ) I think I'll be doing the same! What are the dimensions of your drawer? I know I have Breezy's!

Looks nice badgergal. Oh, and I love how they are alphabetized.

2littlefishies: my drawer is 12 9/16 in. wide, 2 3/4 in. high and 20 inches long. Forty of the TCT 4 containers would fit in it perfectly.

Ooohhhh...where did the tins come from? That looks fantastic.

It's my drawer's long lost, but not evil, twin separated at birth!

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. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Specialty Bottle spice tins with clear lids

Did y'all use mainly the smaller one? I can't tell by the pic, just wondering, they would hold a regular size spice jar?
What brand labeler do you use? I love the clear!

Susie--I used dozens of the smaller TCT4 tin. I have a row of the larger TCT8 in the back for spices I use a considerable amount of like chili powder and cinnamon or that are bulkier like bay leaves and star anise pods.

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.

Love this idea. I have my spices/herbs labeled (handwritten for now) and used color coded stickers to differentiate type of spice/herb. (I wrote the name on the sticker). Green for herbs, red for hot & spicy, yellow for curries, etc. Could you do something like this with a label maker?

They look great.

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

I am working on my spice drawer!! My jars have black lids and I wanted clear tape with while lettering for my label maker. Would you believe they don't make it!!

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

huango - it would be great if the lids had the shaker part AND screw off lid. Maybe they make those?

Thanks Breezy, I've been meaning to get a label maker but it just always leaves my mind with all the "main" decisions being made right now.
I did write it down though!

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!

That looks wonderful, both of yours. Do you keep the baking spices in the same drawer as the savory spices? No smell/taste transfer?

I use clear tape with white lettering all the time at my work, houseful... I use the PTouch by Brother, TZ tape.

Annettacm, I have the PT90 by Brother. I went to Officemax and looked online, so I assumed they didn't make it. Do you think you can find out where you get it?

Huango: the lids on the tins have a snug fit. They are not screw tops but they need just a little twist and then lift the top off. I haven't tried opening them with my wrists- don't think I have the talent to do that! They do not have holes for shaking the spices out.
Sjerin: I have the baking spices in the same drawer as the savory spices. I always kept the store bought containers of spices in the same cabinet and never thought twice about smell or taste transferring. I can not detect any smell coming out of the metal containers and I have a very good. "sniffer" on me.
Houseful: I put the crushed red pepper under the letter R. I have to redo a couple labels though because I decided that ground cloves need to be labeld as cloves. I can visually see that they are ground and not whole ones. Gotta change that mincesd onion label too! Who would have thought that even organizing spices involves major decision?

I love this! Perfect for my new spice pull out!

Badgergal, I have to look today, but I think the stores put it under P. It is funny the things we can obsess over!

Sjerin--like Badgergirl, I store all my spices together. Always have and never noticed smell transfer. If my drawer wasn't located so close to the baking zone I might have separated them as to how I use them.

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.

You -- all of you on the Kitchen Forum -- are ENABLERS! I just ordered a gazillion of those little containers since I realized the only thing in the drawer in my prep space next to the range is 5 potholders. Surely I can find someplace else for them and avoid having to go to the upper cab on the other side of the range to get spices/herbs. I'm blaming all of you for this! By the way...thank you! At least I know where MY Brother P-Touch is (tee hee).

Java

Houseful, I looked, too.... you are right... for the PT-90, I don't see it. Maybe you could invest in a PTouch that uses TZ tape. They aren't super expensive (20 - 50 bucks maybe, depending on size and where you buy it). Or at the very least, ask friends or family if they have one, and you just buy the tape to use as you borrow it. I agree that the white on clear would look great on those jars.

I was going to reply earlier but I had to get my camera out for this one - the advantage of having a father in law who loves carpentry projects! I asked for a removable caddy that held standard-size spices, with space for storing bulk spices in bags underneath. If I built it again we'd do it better, but even as-is, I love it!

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!

Here is a link that might be useful: 4 oz plastic spice jars ~4

I love this concept! I saw a pic on pinterest where someone used baby food jars and painted the lids with chalk board paint. It was a cost efficient idea. I just don't have a baby. LOL

Thanks Annettacm. I may do that eventually, but first I thought about a white paint calligraphy pen. Don't know if they make them, but I am going to look around.

in case this is helpful here is another drawer with different type of jar. thanks to lascax - i cannot take credit for it, i just copied her fab idea!!! thank you thank you thank you, i love it!

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

Your tins are great as you can fit many in a drawer.

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.

Java's right...ENABLERS! I thought I was doing OK, but seeing these pics...I've got some work to do. I tried the round stickers and they don't stick. The MStewart stickers stick, but you can't print on them (REALLY Martha???). Guess the PTouch will come out next...(like I have nothing else that needs done..ok, so I could stay off the pc long enough to get it done...ha).

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.

So happy that you guys posted about these spice drawer ideas. I just realized that I have room in one of my drawers to do this. I remembered reading these posts and came to GW and did a search on "Breezy Spice" - makes me envision Breezy as a member of the Spice Girls. ;)

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