saving the spice cabinet.

When I initially organized my pantry a couple of years ago, I also tried to come up with a prettier/more efficient way to store my spices. I used some spice jars I found at Ikea, labeled the jars, and considered it a done deal. However, after only a couple of weeks, I started noticing that some jars weren't closing...

...causing a lot of my spices to dry out quickly.

Attractive, right? But being that the real world gives you bigger fish to fry than spice cabinet dilemmas, I really didn't have time to deal with this minor problem, so when we moved in to the house, I threw my spices into the storage rack on the door and called it a day!

While my spices were looking all organized and pretty in the door, the truth was that I wasn't even using spices out of these jars! Truth be told, about 80% of them were dried out, and even if I could use them, nothing bigger than 1/4 teaspoon would fit in the jar's opening when it came to measuring! Textbook definition of first world problem.

Since I couldn't use the spices out of their pretty jars, I just started buying spices as I needed them and tossing them into my bulk spice bin that lives in the pantry.

A practice that quickly turned my spice bucket into a spice bonanza.

Cute, right?

Not at all impressive.

A couple of weeks ago, though, I finally had time to deal with this BIG TIME DILEMMA! I bought a couple of flats of these 4-ounce mason jars...

...and a packet of Avery's 2 1/2 inch round, glossy labels.

I then emptied out my spice bucket and sorted the spices into two groups: specialty/bulky spices and everyday spices.

I transferred the everyday spices into mason jars and scribbled a label for them on a post-it for the time being.

After all of the spices had been transferred into jars, I created a cute, but simple round label for each of the spice jars and applied the label to the lid of the mason jar!

Once all the jars were labeled, I loaded them back into the pantry door's storage rack!

Placing the spices in the mason jars solved both of my problems: the mason jars provide an airtight seal AND they have a wide opening that will allow all of my measuring spoons to fit easily inside! Oh happy day!

Now that all of my everyday spices are in their new happy homes, my spice bucket only holds a couple of bulk spices and specialty spices!

You are now talking to one happy cook!