I have three of these, which hold almost all my spices. They are not labeled, so I have to open and close drawers until I find what I need, but I mostly remember where everything is. The spices are grouped by function, so all the baking spices are in one, all the pepper and “hot” spices in another, etc. There are a few odd-sized bottles on the shelf next to them.
Spices are in a drawer under my work area. No organization beyond most commonly used tend to be near the front. I have a variety of jars and usually can find what I’m looking for by the lid, but if I want something I don’t use a lot, I just start pulling containers and sniffing contents until I find what I want. Paprika, smoked paprika, chipotle and cayenne all kinda look alike…
Then there’s the section of ancient spice tins, some going back decades that I just can’t throw out and may have been refilled at some point, or may just contain the original contents.
Hey, so I’m not a spambot or anything (a girl can dream), but when I posted something similar to this OP on my Facebook, one of my Friends pointed out that The Spice House has a free shipping offer right now, but only tonight and tomorrow. Code is SPICY2015
Figured those in here might be interested. I just used it and it works. The awesomeist thing about my new organized spices is that I can see what I’m short of and what I’m not!
(I found six partial jars of Chili Powder, y’all. Six. Oy.)
I have the same stair steppy thing that FCM does (and one in my studio for inks and paint tubes) and an old school apothecary wall rack. The wall rack has the baking spices (there are only six jars) and the remaining spices
tend to be grouped as Italian, Mexican, Thai and other. The salt dish and pepper grinder are on top of the stove.
That’s pronounced mar-ee-yah-WAH-nuh.
When we finally bought a condo, one of the first pieces of new furnishings was to get these guys to make us a huge-ass spice rack. I figured it wasn’t conceptually much different than a CD rack. It has I think 7 or 8 shelves that hold I think 7 jars each. I love it - I was getting really tired of trying to dig around all over the place at the lastminute while frying spices for curry on high heat. Overflow spice bags and containers live in the pantry or in wire bins, and we decant into the smaller jars as needed. The jars are these.
generally, they are alphabetical, but some very rarely used things like Iraqi baharat and star anise live together on the very top shelf.
My spices are in the jars they came in, arranged alphabetically on a lazy Susan. In the gap in the centre I’ve got the two things that come in larger jars (Black Peppercorns and Mixed Herbs). There’s an overflow container than has half a dozen mixed jars in no particular order that are likely to be overlooked and duplicated.
By height. And those that are used more often typically end up in the front.
I built a set of nesting frames out of wood, that each hold two of these:
They fit one on top of the other in the front section of one drawer in here:
The top rack is filled with the common spices - cinnamon, cayenne, dried oregano, etc. They are alphabetized (unless someone else tries to cook in my kitchen!). The bottom two are also alphabetized, but they hold the less common spices, like berbere and fenugreek.
This is the second customized spice set up I have made. The last one was brilliant, and sized for Penzey Spices one ounce jars. Unfortunately, they changed form plastic to glass a while back, and the glass ones no longer fit.
Ah, good. No hose needed, then.
My Ikea kitchen has a drawer for spices, right under the stove, no higher then a little jar lying down. Like this, only mine looks less neat. I bought lots of little standard jars that are easily refilled. The advantage is that the spices are out of the light, damp and heat.
I also have a big lovely looking retro tin can on my shelf. In there I keep stuffed little ziplock bags with the lesser used spices. If I’m honest, such spices get bought for some special recipe, get used once, and then get thrown out five years later. The tin is also where I keep the the economy refill bags of much used spices. (thyme, black pepper, salt, in my case) . from those I refill the jars in the drawer.
I also have four ziplock bags in my freezer with frozen parsley, basil, cilantro and mint. I’ll buy whole bushes of the herbs on the market, wash them, remove the biggst stems in a haphazard way, and then just stuff them in the freezer bags and in the freezer. The leaves break easily when frozen, so chopping them up before freezing is not necessary. The defrosted herbs don’t look very visually appealing, but the taste is fantastic, much better then dried herbs. And frozen basil tastes even better then fresh basil.
Heh heh.
I have so little room in my kitchen, it drives me mental.
I have a three-shelf thing that I put the spices on. I keep the “baking” spices on one shelf, and the “regular cooking” spices on the rest of the shelves. Any containers too large for this are stored on the vertically-taller shelf below.
Yeah, I have crossover between baking/sweet and regular/savoury.
I would love to have more room and a better storage option. Sigh.
The best scheme I’ve tried thus far is numerical by CAS number of the primary component of the essential oil, e.g. 97-53-0 (eugenol) comes before 104-55-2 (cinnamaldehyde), etc.
Spices and such occupy the top part of my hutch. Used to be in alphabetical order, but lately it’s not really organized.
Sure, but how do you order 97-53-0 whole vs. 97-53-0 ground?
And don’t get me started on anise and fennel. Little bastards need gas spectrometry for every batch. 
I keep my spices in a smaller cupboard next to the stove, probably about 4 cubic feet or so.
3 shelves:
Bottom shelf (easiest for me to reach) holds the spices & herbs I use the most.
Middle shelf holds blends I use the most
Top shelf (which I need a step stool to reach) holds spices, herbs and blends I don’t use often, and bags of bulk spices for refilling the bottom shelf jars.
If I buy whole, I don’t store ground and grind as needed. I also never buy anise.
I worked with a guy who wanted to organize our chemical storage room this way. We did not.