Spice Racks Blog

This weekend I am going to a housewarming party for my friends from college, and I found a great gift idea. So great in fact, I decided to blog about it and share this incredible, extremely useful, low cost gift.
The gift I made for my friends involves just a few components and takes just a little bit of time, but when you are finished, I think you will be very impressed with the result. The gift is homemade spice mixes in customized glass spice jars! It is a great gift because you get to exercise your creative / gourmet side by creating the spices and decorating the jars, plus it is also very low cost, and it’s a gift your friends can reuse for years!

set of 16 glass spice bottles

First, I purchased a set of 16 glass spice bottles from stacksandstacks.com. Then I headed down to my local farmer’s market to find all the herbs and spices I would need to fill 16 jars. (I designated 6 to be mixes that I create, and 10 to be just the spices I purchased as is.) Then I decided what spice mixes I would make; I decided on Montreal Seasoning, Italian Style Seasoning, a Herbs de Provence Mix, a special Beef Dry Rub, Santa Maria Style Seasoning, and a special Chicken Rub. I mixed up all my spices and prepared them to go into the jars.
Then I headed down to the local arts and crafts store and bought some glass paint, which should not be too difficult to find at any arts store. I then decorated each jar to match its respective contents. After the paint dried I filled my six spice mix jars with the mixes that I had prepared earlier, and then I filled the remaining jars with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, etc.
There you have it, a great, low cost way to give your friends a home-made, well thought out gift that they will be able to use for years to come.

Don’t let messy drawers slow you down, whether you’re working in the office or the kitchen. A basic drawer organizer can help save you time and effort when searching for what you need. Throughout your home, drawers in any room can benefit from a little help.

expandable bamboo kitchen drawer tray

Use a drawer divider to sort toiletries or makeup in your bathroom, by creating smaller compartments within your bathroom drawer. This is a great way to speed up getting ready in the morning. Make sure you choose a drawer divider that is made of a material that can be wiped clean like plastic.

For knife storage that helps keep the blades sharp, try drawer knife storage with individual slots for each knife. This is a great option for a home with small children, since this keeps knives out of reach. Spice drawers can get messy, but with an drawer spice rack with angled ledges you can ensure that spices don’t spill and labels are readable.

Have an extra wide drawer with the contents rolling around? The expandable bamboo kitchen drawer tray from Stacks and Stacks allows you to fill the drawer so you really get the most out of your drawer storage. Made of environmentally friendly bamboo that is easy to clean, this tray is great for the kitchen where spills and crumbs can be difficult to clean up.

To help contents stay in place choose a drawer organizer lined with a nonslip material. A nonslip coating on the bottom also helps the organizer itself stay positioned in the drawer, important when using an organizer smaller than the drawer itself.

From post-it notes to pens and pencils, a drawer organizer provides slots and spaces for all your office supplies. Also great for crafting supplies, the junk drawer or even the garage, drawer organizers have as many uses as you can think of!

From the bathroom to the kitchen, cleanup doesn’t have to be a mess of bottles and scrubbers. By equipping your cabinets with the right organizers and drawers you can make it easy to find everything you need for a faster cleanup. The easier it is to access cleaning equipment, the more time you can shave off cleaning time.

reversible under sink drawer

When it comes to storing liquid, an open rack is a good way to make sure containers can dry off. Look for durable metal construction that can stand up to everyday use. The reversible under sink drawer features a slide out drawer that makes the back corners of a cabinet easy to access. This is great in the bathroom for storing everything from extra toilet paper or paper towels to cleaning products or toiletries. In the kitchen keeping dishwashing soap or extra sponges clean and ready to use is easy when they have a special storage space of their own. Under sink space can be the hardest to organize with awkward pipes that get in the way. A tall and narrow design is a good way to make the best use of this space.

A portable basket is a more compact, portable way to store cleaning supplies. By keeping them all in one place you can carry everything you need with you as you move from room to room. This is an ideal option for cleaning smaller spaces. Make sure you use a basket made of metal or plastic that has plenty of ventilation so bottles can quickly dry off.

For a heavy duty clean or a quick freshening up, when you’re done cleaning up, putting away cleaning supplies doesn’t have to be a hassle if you have the right tools. Spend a little time creating just the right storage and save time every time you clean!