Spice (Rack) of Life

He Said:

For a very long time I have been trying to figure out the best way to store (and retrieve) the myriad of spices that have accumulated in our kitchen. We've tried a million different things. Spice racks that fit in drawers; spice racks that stack and spin; spice racks on a lazy susan (that wasn't too bad, actually) but I was never satisfied. Surely there's a better way.

Well, I think that we've finally found it.


About two months ago we purchased a custom magnetic spice rack from a neat little company called, ironically enough, Custom Magnetic Spice Rack. The tins we bought were a mixture of round 2.5 oz, 4 oz, and 8 oz tins. They also sent enough magnetic strip to cover the number of tins that we bought. The tins have clear lids so that you can see when you're getting low on something (like cumin - man, we are always running out of cumin!) and we bought the labels that the company sells which covered most of the spices that we wanted to store. These things are great! As you can see from the pictures, they are handy and yet out of the way. I've always loved to cook and these tins make the experience that much better. The only drawback that I've found so far is that there are a few that have extremely tight lids and it can be a real bitch getting them off. Maybe I'll try switching a few lids around and see if that helps.

Anyway, if you're like me and looking for a way to store your spices in an easy, attractive (I think) and handy fashion, you might give these a try. I highly recommend them.

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She Said:

I am not the cook in the house. I'll gladly help out, I'll pick out recipes, I'll chop and prepare, but I don't really like to do the actual cooking. (Or cleaning up, but that's a whole other post!)

So, when we are in the kitchen preparing meals together (which is how we like it), and I'm reading the recipe and pulling out the necessary ingredients, it is so nice to be able to just swing the cabinet doors open (I find that we generally leave them open the entire time the meal is being prepared) and find what I need - fast and easy!

Plus, I'm about 5-foot-nothing and it was always difficult for me to find the spices that seemed to propagate on those shelves! This is such a great solution to a problem that has vexed us for years. And we regained counter space to boot - and who couldn't use a little more counter space, honestly??