I know you are asking about tidiness hacks, but I wonder whether the space gets untidy because you are asking too much of it. Currently you are using it to store oil, vinegar, condiments, salt, pepper, and other spices. And cupcake wrappers.

The optimal use for that top shelf, which is way too tall for spices, would be for tall items like oil and your bottles, and possibly the salt and pepper that you use every day. Spices would go on the shorter shelves below. So instead of storing bottles on their sides on lower shelves, they would go up top and spices would hang out below.

• Do you have enough space to store all the spices you use, or do you end up keeping other spices elsewhere in the kitchen?
• You can get storage containers for baking spices and store those (assuming you use those infrequently) in the adjacent lower cabinet, or wherever you store your baking powder/soda etc.
• You can organize grilling spices and keep them where you keep your grill tongs and accessories.
• Just keep items in your pull out that you use at the stove with more frequently used items higher up, lesser used items lower down.

Ours are a mish mash in the pantry too. We have a couple things in spots where they are frequently used - cinnamon with the tea bags, etc.

This is why people usually recommend other solutions instead of these spice roll-outs. I didn't add to both of the kitchens I designed. A large top drawer works great for the small jarred spices and then all the oils/vinegar go in the upper cabinet right above that drawer.

Yours look as good as it will get!

Ugh, I hated having spices in mine in my other house. I used it for cleaning sprays and sponges, lol. Now my husband lives there and he put the spices back in. Yes, they fall over; yes, he can’t find things, but he just loves his cabinet 😂.

I’m not sure what you mean by ”hard to maintain.” One small change you could make would be to add labels to the tops of the spices to differentiate all those look-alike tops. They sell sets on Amazon, but you could use a label-maker instead or even a Sharpie and masking tape.

That's why people on here say not to use those pullouts. Who wants to bend down to find anything?

Our spices are in a drawer the taller ones are in an upper cabinet.

We have exposed shelves

Do they have to stay exposed? Could you close them in? Could you use a basket to hold the cupcake holders, spices or something else lightweight?

it’s hard to maintain.

What do you mean "hard to maintain"? Be specific: Do you need more space? Or is bending down to get the spices difficult?

but I wonder whether the space gets untidy because you are asking too much of it.

Good point. This is a small space, and the shelving moves, giving lightweight spices an opportunity to "move". This area is better suited to the heavier oils and vinegars.

One small change you could make would be to add labels to the tops of the spices to differentiate all those look-alike tops.

That idea is small but powerful!

Do you have enough space to store all the spices you use, or do you end up keeping other spices elsewhere in the kitchen?

I personally don't like the idea of breaking spices up across the kitchen. Spices do overlap, and that could get confusing.

Other thoughts:

- I've seen very cute glass hexagon spice jars (magnetic) that stick to the side of the refrigerator. They have them on Amazon.

- You say this is your only space in the kitchen to store spices. What's immediately off the kitchen? Might you have an adjacent mudroom with a cabinet for spices? Or a wall? Could you add a small cabinet in the adjacent dining room that could hold spices on a Lazy Susan?

- If your uppers are on the high side, you could potentially add a shallow shelf underneath for your most-used spices.

- Consider what else you're storing in your kitchen. Could you move something you use only occasionally (I'm thinking of small appliances, excess glassware, or holiday serving dishes) to a less convenient space ... and move the spices into that cabinet?

- Storing spices in matching containers makes organizing /finding easy ... but if you go that direction, 1) you need to be honest about whether you're willing to do the decanting into those matching containers and 2) you need a secondary spot (can be inconvenient) to store the not-yet-going-into-containers bottles.

Well worth it to rethink overall storage in order to make a flat drawer available for spices, whether laying flat or at least all in one layer like Hike Bike's.

I do have spices in two places in my kitchen, with baking stuff in a bin in a cabinet and cooking stuff in a drawer (the categories aren't perfect but this mostly works).

If you have a pantry with a swinging door there are also spice racks you can mount on the door, this is really nice as it gets them at eye level so to speak.

I would use those skinny pullouts for vinegars and oils, maybe utensils. Then I'd find a drawer elsewhere for spices. I've had every manner of storage and this is my favorite.

Why do you feel a need to have it organized? Is it because you can't find what you want, or because looking at it gives you a headache? Each problem can offer different solutions.

Personally, I feel no need for organization, LOL

^^^Looks fine to me!🙂

I guess to each his/her own. I use my spices regularly so searching through shelves for the spice I want would drive me bonkers (and has... That was my first storage method as I learned it from my mother. I have since changed my spice storage and after a few iterations landed on a drawer. We lived in an apartment while we built our house that only had a single drawer stack, and the top drawer was spices). If you only use spices occasionally it wouldn't be that bad. Or if you have a photographic memory.

I have a pullout like that and recently reorganized it to be just the oil, vinegar, soy sauce stuff like that in bottles (took out 2 of the shelves to hold tall things)

Then I put the more used spices in magnetic containers as suggested above and I also have a drawer for more spices.

I should have added - I (unfortunately) also have two pullouts like that, one on either side of my range, and I find them inconvenient in location and size. One holds my measuring tools in the top basket and kitchen textiles in the bottom. The other holds my "kitchen junk" stuff in the top basket (bag clips, bottle stoppers, measuring tape, etc), and cleaning supplies in the bottom.

I had my spices all in pull out spice rack but it wasnt good having to keep bending down to see the names clearly and searching around so i put all the larger stocks of spices in there ( to refill smaller jars), and i put a wooden two tier rack on my counter top ( its actually a shoe rack!) but was perfect for the job. I transferred all smaller spice containers contents into small similar like jars so i could put larger labels on them ( much easier to see ) and i put them in groups ( dried herbs/ powdered spices/stock seasoning) in small containers besides cooking area so i can grab and go, saves time and easily accessible. All condiments and oils are on a big turntable at one side of cooking area too.

Those pull outs really do look to be not all that functional.

I have a very small kitchen and limited countertop space, but I keep my two most used oils, peanut and olive, in whimiscal or vintage bottles and I keep them handy right on the countertop where they are in constant use. Even though my space is limited, I use these two bottles often enough to warrant allowing them to occupy that space. I also keep three whimiscal and repurposed bottles for vinegar, again, because I use them so very frequently. Why whimiscal or vintage? Because it gives me pleasure. I have those shaker tops on them.

I have pared down my kitchen and than means that I also use only whole spices and such that I buy in what ever quantity that I need, from a co op store.. Those tiny little canning jars are great for small things like this. Mine are in a pull out shelf that is more like a drawer. I have canning jars of all sizes and use them for all manner of things, including canning. The result is that I have only what I reallly want and use. There are no little jars of things that used to be red but are now faded and lumped up.

My first approach to any such dilemna is to pare it down, simplify and get rid of everything else. I love, love, love my pared down kitchen! I dont miss a darned thing that I eliminated, not one!

I would be tempted to use that pull out for bakng sheets and narrow loaf pans and maybe a few cooking accessories. But to have to search for a small bottle of something like that would not be acceptable, to me. Storing things is one thing, but keeping them handy for real use is quite another. This pull out doesnt look really useful for a myriad number of small things.

I really needed to see this thread! Love the labeled storage containers idea. I think that's what I'll do. It's sort of a mess right now.

I put a piece of steel in an ornate picture frame and my spices in labeled magnetic jars stick to the steel. Endless fun organizing. Alphabetically? By color? By flavor? By cuisine? By type?

I had one like that and altered it to be for trays. It was a pain to hunt for spices down low.