Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Spice Drawer

Ah, January. A clean slate for a new year. For me, that means it's time to get organized. New budgets, new binders, new menu planners (this year I'm using the Dutch kookagenda I received from my in-laws--more on that in a future post).

I see a lot of organizing in my plans this year in the de Jong Dream House. We've been moved in for almost a year so we have a pretty good idea of how we function on a day to day basis.

One of my favorite organized spaces in my spice drawer. I cook most meals from scratch every day. (My son is allergic to dairy so it's easier). When we were planning our house, I really wanted a spice drawer under the cooktop. Some kitchen designers said it wasn't possible, but our amazing carpenter made it work.



I used tension rods from Target to create the dividers. We could have spent a lot more during construction to have dividers put in, but this is more flexible and allows for more options if I ever change the type of jar I use for the spices.



The drawer is full extension, which is really convenient because it allows me to house all of my spices there.

Of course I had to use my label maker.

Here you can see the drawer in context. The other two drawers and nice and deep for all my pots and pans. I just love having everything I need right there.

In case you're wondering, we buy our spices in bulk at a local store. They come in these convenient containers, which will fill up my little jars about three times. When I buy spice, I write the date on the container, like this. 

I keep all overstock spices in our freezer.

I didn't used to date my spices, but now that I have, I know that I go through a larger container about every six months. Because of the quick turnaround, we don't have to worry too much about damage to the spices being under the cooktop. It's a great solution for us.

In case you missed it, you can tour our whole kitchen here. I'm happy to say that our original organization is still holding up.


Thanks for stopping by! We'd love if you follow us on Facebook and/or Pinterest.

Linked to: 

It's Overflowing
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia 
Serenity Now Print this post

38 comments:

  1. love it! Do you think the stove puts off enough heat below to affect the spices?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did have some concern about that, but my spices have held up really well. I do rotate through them pretty quickly so they don't have much time to go bad.

      Delete
  2. That is amazing! I never would have thought of it. Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Tension rods are my best friend. I have them hung under our sinks to hold cleaning bottles. I use them in our deep sill windows for curtains, too!

      Delete
  3. that is totally bringing me to my happy place :) i love a nice organized kitchen!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, Jen! Great idea with the tension rods. Thanks for sharing and linking up at my social hop.

    Have a crazy beautiful weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by! I'm celebrating my birthday this weekend. It will be crazy and beautiful for sure! :-)

      Delete
  5. What an awesome idea! bet it makes finding the spice you are looking for easier then finding them in the random corner I have in my pantry. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! And much easier than walking around the island like I had to do in our old house!

      Delete
  6. That is a wonderful idea and less expensive to boot. Thank you for sharing.

    Visiting from Overflowing with Creativity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it was MUCH less expensive than the custom inserts...and offers more flexibility.

      Delete
  7. Wow!! That is genius!!! What a great idea!

    I host a weekly Friday link party that I would love for you to link up at if you are interested.

    I can't wait to check out more of your site!

    Ashley
    www.simplydesigning.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love this! How smart are you...now if I only had enough drawer space to carry this out!

    Christy
    www.confessionsofaserialdiyer.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was just looking at your kitchen. Do you ever use that desk area as a baking center. I purposely put in a lowered counter so I would have to knead bread in heels! It would be pretty easy to add a drawer there and still be pretty close to your stove and prep space to the right of it.

      Delete
  9. This is so clever! Thank you so much for visiting my link party!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can I just start off by saying I LOVE YOUR KITCHEN!!! I live in a tiny apartment with NO counter space in my kitchen, and I am SO JEALOUS. That's a huge drawer! And you did an incredible job! Wow. Thanks for linking up to the Craft Yourself Crazy link party!

    Chloe
    http://rainbowsandhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! We lived in a little apartment for a few months when were waiting for this house to be finished. My counter was about 2' by 2'! I did a LOT of crockpot cooking!

      Delete
  11. I love a cheap, flexible organization idea and this qualifies. I don't need it because I have a different solution in my kitchen but my daughter so needs this in her kitchen. I am sending the link on. Visiitng from TT&J

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I am so happy we did this. I use it multiple times a day!

      Delete
  12. So clever! Love it! Thanks for sharing, Jen! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is such a great idea! I never would have thought of using tension rods in a drawer! Thanks so much for linking up at Thrifty Thursday--we'd be glad to have you back anytime!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I'll be back. I'm working on a post of all the ways I use tension rods to organize.

      Delete
  14. Hi, I love your beautiful home and kitchen! The tension rod ideas is genius, pure genius! lol! Hopped over from Tuesdays Treasures. I have a link party, Share Your Cup Thursday. I would love if you shared sometime!
    hugs,
    Jann

    ReplyDelete
  15. Just a suggestion, I would put your follow button more towards the top. Took me a while to find it sweetie!
    hugs,
    Jann

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! We've been making some cosmetic changes and I didn't see that it was stuck down there.

      Delete
  16. wow - great idea! I am thinking I need to do some organizing in my kitchen - appreciate your inspiring idea! xoox, tracie

    ReplyDelete
  17. This turned out beautifully. I love how the molding echos the windows.
    Thanks for sharing
    Traci

    ReplyDelete
  18. Replies
    1. Allison! You are one of my blog heroes! (Have you seen our dining room? http://www.dejongdreamhouse.com/2012/11/diy-dinette-decor.html)

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  19. Love love love this!!

    Thanks for linking up! I am showing this off on my blog tomorrow!

    Ashley
    www.simplydesigning.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  20. This is awesome.. I love the use of rails to customize it for holding spices. Thanks for stopping by! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting! I love tension rods! They are so versatile! I actually did a whole post about it: http://www.dejongdreamhouse.com/2013/01/uses-for-tension-rods.html

      Delete
  21. Great idea! Do you recommend most people have it so near the heat source, though? i also want to make sure that my kids don't get into one of those vertical pull-racks.... this does seem like a better option. Or a spice rack mounted on the wall. Have you ever had that? Do you have a preference for one or the other?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get this question A LOT! I cook from scratch almost every day, so I go through my spices fairly quickly. We only keep a small amount, and the rest are in the freezer until needed. I doubt anything keep in our drawer is older than 3 months. So for us, I haven't noticed any issues with the spice being under the heat source. Granted, we have gas, too, which would make a difference because it cools much faster than if we had electric heat. Induction would be even better. So, to answer your question, it hasn't been a problem for us. The vertical racks are nice, but I'm sure I would always knock over the spice jars and make a big mess! I saw some that were used for pot and pan storage, and thought it was brilliant! In our old house, all our spices were keep in the pantry, which was a bit cumbersome. (We didn't have a wall close to the stove, so a rack wouldn't have worked. Even in our new kitchen, we don't really have a wall close by that would work.)

      Delete

We love hearing from you!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...