I have a dear friend who is an elegant man. If he buys something, he gets the top of the line. I was headed to his new apartment years ago when he asked me what supplies he needed. It’s almost impossible to answer accurately until I see what you have. I did, however, suggest he get a label maker. Who doesn’t want to go crazy and label everything? OK … perhaps it’s an occupational hazard.

Brother P-Touch has a basic model that I believe retailed for round $20 at the time. If you were lucky, you’d get it on sale for $15! When I arrived at his place I was stupefied to see he had purchased the top of the line, well over $100 version. It did everything except make dinner. But that’s my friend!

Spice Up Your Decor

Today I want to talk about spices and I bet you don’t believe I can connect the dots from label maker to spice organization. Am I right? Let’s go. I have another guy friend who loves to cook. He gets going with spices and the next thing I know the kitchen smells like a 5-star restaurant. He’d never buy top of the line. He’s a practical, utilitarian shopper. The ways to stores spices are many these days so let’s consider a few things because we can make both the top of the line and the practical shopper happy in their spiced up kitchen.

• What kind of cook are you? Do you think salt, pepper, basil and maybe some oregano are every spice you need? I would suggest you keep your stash in a cabinet near (but not too near) the stove. You might use a small lazy Susan and add your oils and vinegars. (Does anybody know who lazy Susan was?) Heat from the oven can reduce the potency of the herbs so keep them handy but not, for example, on a shelf right above the stove. Here’s an elegant lazy Susan to spice up your counter or cabinet: https://a.co/d/7RsKgBJ

  
• Do you love to cook and have every esoteric spice known to the best cooks in the world? You can store your spices on the counter, in magnetic holders attached to the refrigerator or in a drawer. Here are some choices to spark your creativity. Let’s begin with beautiful, streamlined bottles and labels: https://a.co/d/brszvKW Here’s what they look like:

• Now this choice means you will decant all the bottles from the store into these uniform containers. If you are an avid cook, I can easily imagine you’d want this because if something is beautiful and organized we’re more apt to use it!

• There’s a wonderful tool known as a shelf creator. You place it in a cabinet and voila! you have 3 levels instead of one flat surface. They come in wide widths, medium and narrow. Here’s what they look like with these bottles:

  

   

  Here’s a link to a shelf creator and you can noodle around and find all the sizes: https://a.co/d/a4ukWvF

  

• These bottles would be gorgeous in a drawer and here’s an example: https://a.co/d/dgpGXSG

   

  With this choice the spices are hidden away and you save counter space. You do need a kitchen with lots of drawers.

• Some of these bottle kits come with a spice tray that holds the bottles on the counter. If you have tons of counter space, this can be an elegant look. It’s a little more money than the one above but the kit has more options: https://a.co/d/dgpGXSG

• I’m not a big fan of anything being on the refrigerator but if you 86’d the flyers and photos and placed your spices on the side, they’d be in easy reach as you cook. By the way, yes, I do alphabetize your spices! Here’s one version of this choice: https://a.co/d/a0QjKt

Tie It Up in a Bow

Some of these spice organization tools are pricey and some require initial and ongoing effort to stay useful. If you are that person, go for it! The first friend I mentioned would absolutely do anything to have practical and elegant in one solution.

If you want down & dirty and are happy with the tins and jars the spices come in, make that your choice. My second friend wouldn’t drop a dime on expensive solutions but he does keep his spices handy in a cupboard by the stove. He’d could use a shelf creator or a lazy Susan.

Finally, you don’t need to do all of these at once. Start slow and see how you like the changes. By the way keeping spice jars filled is a wonderful chore in case you have kids or teenagers looking for ways to be helpful an/or earn their allowance.

And now ~ a word about my 8-week class!

I was so focused on May 6th as the start I totally forgot about tax day on April 15! In honor of those of you who had to pay, I’ve reduced the class to $99.00. It’s the steal of the year. Deets at my website