Kitchen Utensil & Spice Organization

I finally got my kitchen utensils and spices under control! I shared my dilemma and photos of my crazy, messy drawer(s) here.  But just to recap, here's what I was dealing with:

 

Directly to the right of this drawer is where I was keeping most of my spices.  I knew if I was ever going to get the utensils under control, I needed to reclaim this spice drawer for utensil storage.  So the spices needed a new home. 

The other issue is that the spice collection had spilled over from this drawer into a cabinet directly above it. I was using one of these tiered rack things but overall I felt like there was just too much real estate being dedicated to spices.  So my plan was to reclaim all that space by making use of the unused space on the inside cabinet doors. 

I used a a MagnaPods sheet cut to fit the inside of my cabinet door.  If you've never heard of MagnaPods, they make a very thin steel sheet with a peel off adhesive back.  Basically you can turn any surface into a magnetic one.  Yes I know you can use magnetic paint but in my experience, it's super hard to work with and get an evenly magnetic surface.  The MagnaPods was literally measure, cut, peel and stick. 

I bought two sets of 4 oz magnetic tins from this eBay seller and one of the larger 16 oz tins.  They come with magnetic circles that you just stick onto the back.

 

 

Now the fun part!  I love my label maker :)

I used the larger tins for bigger spices like bay leaves and stuff I use a lot of like pepper flakes.  It would also be good for cinnamon sticks, etc.

On the other door I used these spice holders.  They're perfect for holding larger bottles and stuff that I didn't want to decant into the tins. 

 

So now I had an empty drawer and YUCK! This is why I wanted to get the spices out of the drawer in the first place!

I played around at Bed Bath and Beyond until I found a configuration of their Wilton Mesh drawer organizers that worked for me.   I knew I needed to err on the side of more vs. less organizers otherwise everything would end up a jumbled mess before long. 

 

Happiness!!

 

Also I was able to use 2 extra 16 oz tins to organize two things that we always seem to be looking for at the house but can never find - safety pins and rubber bands!  Now they're right on the side of the refrigerator and close at hand.

Phew...I feel much better now that that's done!  Now I'm off to figure out where I can use more MagnaPods sheets.  These things are awesome.