How I Arrange My Spices

Did I tell you about the spice rack I made recently? Well, I mean that I copied from Alton Brown? You've seen Alton Brown, right? Well, in one of his episodes, he showed how he has all his spices arranged. Instead of the typical containers, he emptied each one out into little tins with clear lids, stuck velcro on the back, and stuck the tins on the inside of his shelf. "Interesting...", I thought. "I bet I could pull that off!" And then I forgot about it completely for several months. 

But then one day my husband and I were at Michael's when we came across the cutest little tins, just like Alton uses (we are on a first name basis now), except that they were even cuter, since they were heart shaped! The problem with heart shaped tins is that I'm married, and my husband isn't into the heart shaped stuff. So this is how that went down...

Me: "Awwww......look! They are just like Alton Brown's! I have to have them!!"

Husb: "Yeah, but what if they don't fit. And they are $30. Isn't that a little much? Are you listening?"

Me: "They have heart shaped ones!!"

Husb: "That's not happening.."

Me: "We're buying these! If we don't buy them now, they might be gone forever!"

Husb: "I'm not having heart shaped tins in the kitchen. Plus, we both know it's a project you'll start and won't finish"

*** Them are fightin' words!! But we both knew he was right.***

Me: "Excuse me? That's not true! Besides, I've always dreamt of having little hearts in the kitchen!"

***My husband has said many times that I get strange ideas and if he just goes with it, I'll usuall forget about it completely.***

Husb: "Maybe this is one of those things you'll just...forget about.."

Me: "Sorry, but no. This is not one of those things. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and you know that!" 

Husb: "Yeah, I know, but you keep forgetting about it."

Me: "Hey look! They have bright green candy melts!!" 

And just like that, I forgot...that is, until we came back to Michael's a few months later and all they had were the circle containers. No hearts. I'm pretty sure my husband arranged it that way. 

But guess what..I finally did it!

Has it made my life easier? I don't know yet. I'm still deathly afraid they will all fall off, leaving me with red pepper flakes and basis all over my stove top and behind my fridge. I do like that they are all right in front of me, labeled, and I can see what's there! 

Our local grocer allows you to scoop out your own spices, and you can get them in small or huge quantities, which is what I'll probably do in the future in order to fill these bad boys up. Meanwhile, I have a container of the overflow in my pantry. 

And "eventually" I'll put them in alphabetical order. Eventually.

But overall, this was super, super easy! And I have some extra little tins to use for other crafty things I'm not creative enough to think about, or that I've thought about and already forgotten. Just sayin'.

If you'd like to be a copycat (like I am), you can find these in the wedding section at Michaels. :)