Welcome back to Foodie Tuesday! Now that we're getting settled into our new house, I have been OCD about organizing everything RIGHT the first time so we can start out with a clean slate.
While I'm at it...have you checked out my ultimate 1-chore-a-day-to-a-clean-house list?
It's a life saver.
Anywhoo...
Today's food/savings tip is an easy one:
Organize Your Spices
I used to keep all of my spices in a cupboard. It wasn't big enough to hold all of them, though, so they were scattered between 2 or even three. The ones that got shoved to the back were basically lost to me, so in unpacking my box of spices I realized I was wasting money by buying duplicates of spices I already had...but just couldn't find!
Who really needs 3 containers of bay leaves? Oh, brother...
To fix this problem I tried a few solutions at my new house, but have settled on this one...
Use a drawer!
Yes, it monopolizes a precious drawer (and yes, my drawers are huge), but it FINALLY is a system that works!
A few important things to do (in my view) is:
- Choose a large drawer so they mostly all fit, ideally close to where you cook (near your oven and/or stovetop)
- Let's call it like it is...all my spices STILL don't fit in one drawer, but I got close. My big awkward spices (like my huge container of taco seasoning) I keep in a cupboard above the drawer, so they are still all close.
- Alphabetize them so you can easily find what you're looking for and know where to put it back where it belongs.
- Make sure the labels are facing OUT so you can scan them easily.
And that's it! It's a simple concept, but it works - cooking has become much more easy and FLAVORFUL (now that I actually know what spices I have lying around).
Note: If you don't have a drawer to spare, what I did in my old house was keep them in a cupboard with the most commonly used spices near the front. I kept an alphabetical list taped to the cupboard door so I knew what I had when browsing through recipes.
Easy, eh?
Happy Tuesday :)
