How to make a DIY Spice Drawer

The spice cabinet tends to be one of the messiest places in the kitchen. Quit searching through all those spices when you need something and make a new system. With a DIY Spice Drawer, you can see everything in one glance for a quick grab. Less time searching, more time making some great meals.

A few glass jars with bamboo lids with pretty simple white spice labels on a wooden cutting board with some oregano leaves for added effect

What stays and what goes in this DIY Spice Drawer?

Step 1: Go through every spice you have. There’s a good chance there are expired spices or duplicate spices in your spice cabinet somewhere. The key is to figure out what gets used routinely and what doesn’t, then combine those multiple half-full jars of spices. What hasn’t been used in a while can go.

When deciding what you aren’t using, a good rule of thumb with most anything you are decluttering is if you haven’t used it in the last 6 months to a year, you don’t keep it. In other words, that spice jar with the McCormick’s label from the 1980’s needs tossed (I may know this happens from experience).

Combining duplicate spices is so easy to do with the larger spice jars I used. These glass jars with bamboo lids from Amazon come in so handy: They are 2.5 oz, so they fit one average sized spice you buy at the store of 2.1 oz or less with no problem, and there is enough room to dump in a little more if need be.

Here is a list I compiled of the most common used spices in the average home:

Oregano
Basil
Thyme
Parsley
Garlic Salt
Garlic Powder
Celery Salt
Onion Powder
Lemon Pepper
Cream of Tartar
Dill
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Salad Supreme
Paprika
Cilantro
Bay Leaves
Cinnamon Sugar
Chipotle Seasoning
Chili Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Nutmeg
Cajun
Cumin
Crushed Red Pepper

The fun thing about this: You can make your list anything you want, based on what YOU use. I loved making my own labels so I could cater it directly to our needs and to make our favorite recipes.

Make a list of what you are keeping, for 2 reasons:

To determine how many jars you will need to order (the jars I linked come in a pack of 12 or 20, but there are other varieties)
To make your labels (I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to make these.) You could also buy the water resistant printer paper I used and just print the labels, cut them yourself, and stick on the jars, if you don’t have a cutter machine.

I don’t know about you, but if something looks pretty and functions well – it makes me want to use it all the more. This is just the same in the kitchen.

Determine how much space you have to work with.

I have a drawer cabinet right by my stove, which was the perfect spot to make this DIY Spice Drawer.

I measured the length and width of the drawer and the height and width of the jars to see how many would fit. For example: My drawer was approximately 18-3/4 inches wide side to side and my jars are 2.5 inches wide at the bottom, so I figured out how many I could fit width wise and how many rows I would have.

Don’t stress if there is extra space. The point is to have all your spices in one place with labels you can see quickly.

What if you have more drawer space than you need?

Easy fix with this bamboo spring hinged drawer divider. I put one behind the spice jars, width wise. This helps the spice jars not to move around with opening and closing of the drawer and gives you space in the back of the drawer for whatever else you need. (Utilize all the space you have!)

Gather what supplies you need.

Whether you use these type of glass spice jars or tiny Rubbermaid containers, whatever you use will be easy to see when you label the tops in your DIY Spice Drawer. No more searching and moving spices to see what is in the back of your cabinet.

For the labels, no matter what jars you use I would highly suggest the water resistant printer paper. I’ve put these under water and wiped my wet fingers over the labels while cooking and so far, so good. They stay beautiful and don’t smear.

Want to buy labels instead of make them?

You don’t have to make labels – Amazon has a nice variety of labels to choose from. I particularly like these Kitchen Pantry Labels for Food Containers. This set has round labels for the tops of the jars and labels for the sides, just as I made at home, and they seem to have every label that I use.

Label your jars first.

A close up picture of two glass spice jars with bamboo lids and pretty labs of parsley and basil with some parsley leaves on a wooden cutting board

Don’t put your spices in those pretty jars without being labeled first. It would be bad to mix up the parsley and oregano, wouldn’t it?

Another word of advice: Label the jar lids to be seen in the drawer AND the sides of the jars. This way, if you are using a few jars at once you don’t get mixed up that way, either.

Transfer all your spices to your new, pretty jars!

The purpose of this is to get rid of all those spice containers from the store and make everything uniform and organized. Once those store bought plastic spice containers are empty, toss them right away. Don’t be tempted to keep any of them. I did not keep any and I have no regrets. The next time I go to the store I will come home right away, empty the store spice container and dump it right in my pretty glass jar.

The key to not having extra spices around that won’t fit in the jars: I know not to buy more spice until the glass jar I currently have is about 1/4 of the way full or less. That way, when I buy more I know all of the spice will fit in the glass jar and I won’t have to store any extra. (That defeats the purpose.)

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We keep some spices in large amounts.

For spices that we use a TON of, I do buy the large sized containers from Sam’s Club or Amazon. This way I never have to worry about running out. I store these in my pull-out cabinet by the stove where I can easily see them.

An open kitchen cabinet displaying some large sized spice containers and baking ingredients

Examples of what we keep in large doses:

Italian seasoning
Garlic Salt with Parmesan (LOVE this stuff!) We use it to make our homemade garlic butter sauce for Homemade Pizza crusts and put on bread to make sandwiches on our panini press!

Want to know how to make our Homemade Pizza and white pizzas from scratch? We make our own crust, pizza sauce and white garlic sauce from scratch. So delicious!

A personal pan homemade pizza cut in 4 on a wooden cutting board

Simple Homemade Pizza

Skip the pricey pizza delivery with this pizza that has all the from scratch goodness: From scratch pizza dough and two homemade sauces to choose from.

If you want to go crazy, arrange your spice jars by use or type.

A close up picture of several spice jars with pretty labels arranged in rows in a drawer

I put my common ones on one side and my less used ones on the other side. This means I know exactly where to look when I open the drawer, saving me even more time. If may seem a little obsessive, but it makes me happy, so there ya go.

Do you see this? I mean, how can this not make you happy?

A full kitchen drawer of beautifully arranged spice jars with bamboo lids and pretty while labels

This DIY Spice Drawer is one of my favorite organizational projects I’ve done recently. Once I figured out how to do the labels, this job was so simple. I love a job that takes little time and makes a BIG impact, and this was definitely one of those projects.