Looks great!

I thought I posted to the original thread but I don't see me on there.

I'm a Penzeys fan, too! I do mine a little differently. Spices/herbs taste best if used within at least 6 months or so, I try to use them within a year. I have 'stages' of storage.

I have a VERY tiny kitchen so I can't do what you all do so that dictates my choice. I get the big bags of Penzeys & put them in a stand up box with cardboard 'file tabs' for categories like 'Baking' 'Herbs' 'Curries, Chilies' & so on. I have a lot. I put the big box in the bottom of my French Door freezer. I keep most-oft used bags of spices/herbs in the freezer shelf for easy access.

I store the smaller jars in the door of my fridge. I know cold storage isn't optimal but it's better than going stale in the cupboard before I can use them all.

I color code & name them with sticky tabs on the top of the label. Green is herbs, & another color for baking, & so on. I store by the color code so I can quickly find what I'm looking for. I keep a few used-daily spices/herbs in my kitchen cupboard.

Thanks, Melaska. I know about the 6 month rule, and most of mine are a year old--but, believe it or not, most are not too much older than that. If it's not an often used spice, I keep the bottle less full so I can turn it over faster. I refill from bags stashed in my downstairs freezer, so I keep the ones upstairs pretty fresh.

Cj

cj47...I figured you knew the 6-month thing - especially with how well you've organized your spices. What did you use to label yours?

I love it when someone follows up with how they solved the problem the posted about. Thanks!

PS. Green over your collection.

CJ, thanks for sharing your spice storage. That original thread was full of great ideas, I remember when it was originally posted--I saved several to my clippings.

Melaska, what a great idea to color code! I keep mine on the top shelf of my corner susan, but it's always so hard to find what I'm looking for. I try to keep baking spices at one side and cooking on the other, but the shelf is completely full and they do tend to wander to the wrong side. My family have all witnessed me having meltdowns trying to find a certain spice when things are braising and boiling and I'm in a hurry--spices being flung around and nasty words being shouted at the chaos! I've recently bought a label maker and have been labeling the spices as I use them. I think it's early enough in the process to go back and relabel a few to start the color coding. Thanks again for the idea!

flwrs_n_co

Can you get those light-colored highlight markers & just color them? That way you won't need to redo the labels.

I got the bottom 2 bins from Brylane Home that has helped tremendously in my food storage. They really help for the fridge & freezer. Maybe you could use some for your spices? I'll link below as well.

I use one for my cheeses and another for everything I need to make my 'speedy enchiladas'; tortillas, cheese, sour cream, individual Ziplocs of my homemade salsa & grapes. (I know grapes sound weird, but I love the combo of spicy foods with cool grapes). So easy to just grab the whole thing & not look for the separate elements all over the fridge.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fridge Bins

I've heard about the 6 month life, but how does that work when many seasonings are only harvested during the fall - once a year - so someone is storing them that long LOL!!!!

Quality spices (like Penzey's) last so much longer than the ones found at most grocery stores.

I'm still working on how I'm going to store my spices. I like to keep the seasonings and spices separate. I'm planning on shelves on the back of my baking center - it's out of direct sunlight and away from heat. I could get two shelves about 40" long (they would be one container wide), and then I could use one of the drawers for the rest and the bulk items.

Just got my baking center upper hung on the wall yesterday, so the spice storage solution will be in the works for a while yet.

We are in the final stages of redoing our kitchen. We put in a cabinet just for spices. It is on the side of one of our floor to ceiling cabs. It is 6 inches deep x 24 inches wide X 9 feet tall and it holds all of our herbs and spices.

I'll link a table on herb & spice storage below...I couldn't save this as an image so did a screenshot so it's kind of fuzzy.

Herbs and Spices Shelf Life

Here is a link that might be useful: Herbs and Spices Shelf Life