I keep all my spices in a cupboard and always have to root around to find the ones I want.
My mother, for years, had a spice rack in the form of a rectangular wooden frame that hung on the wall. It had a hinged door on the front with an alphabetical list of different spices, with descriptions and uses; inside, four narrow shelves, each fronted with a wooden strip to hold the spice bottles in place. Very simple, elegant design. You could arrange the spices alphabetically (or by any other system you devised), and every bottle was visible at a glance. After my mother passed away, the rack was sold with nearly all her personal effects in an estate sale. In hindsight, I should’ve kept it.
Why can’t I find another one like it? Every spice rack I can find in the stores is in the form of a countertop carrousel, which takes up more space (and I don’t have much counter space in my kitchen) – and it comes with the spices, which I don’t need, I already have spices. I can’t find the kind of spice rack described above even in high-end kitchen-supply stores like Williams Sonoma.
I keep a couple of Lazy Susans in one of my kitchen cabinets, and they’re full of spices. This would solve your countertop problem. I don’t know where I’d even be able to put a spice rack that hangs on the wall, wall space is even more precious than counter space in my tiny kitchen.
Got any handy friends? Ought to be easy enough to build.
I have two shelves for spices. One my handy hubby built when he was making the kitchen cabinets. The other is just a wall shelf that I bought at an Amish consignment auction; it’s just the right size for my larger jars.
I saw one like that at a Goodwill, of all places. I mean, it’s unpredictable what they’ll have, but check out flea markets, Goodwill, and Salvation Army stores.
I bought several wall-hung metal shelves from Ikea a few years ago that work perfectly for my spices (and paper towels, and I bought an extra hanging rail and S-hooks to hang my measuring cups). The style I have is apparently discontinued but the sort of look like a cross between this and this. Extremely handy.
I’ve been using these magnetic containers on metal strips, for spices and other assorted small stuff. I think I got them at Linens ‘n’ Things, or maybe Bed, Bath & Beyond. The nice thing is that you can configure them any way you want. I like the 45-degree angle setup.
The bottom has a magnet, BiblioCat. The nice thing about the magnetic storage dealies is, most of us have at least one giant metal thing right there in our kitchens to stick them to.
The bottoms are magnets, and the openings are on the side of the lids, and the corresponding sides of the containers, so you just twist the lid to get the size opening you want.
