As we begin the process of designing a kitchen for a client, there are typical questions that help us understand how the current kitchen does or doesn’t work. We then know how to proceed to correct problem areas. One common complaint is storage and retrieval of spices. The bottles are small, and often hard to reach, but most often almost impossible to find. I find the analogy of a library a good starting point for explaining how we can help make this problem go away. Imagine going into a Library to find a specific book. The books are on the shelves, but they are going every which way, and the titles are all turned where we cannot see them. That’s the frustration you feel when you are searching for that tiny container of Cream of Tartar. Some solutions:
The door mounted spice rack
This unit is mounted to the door of the cabinet, and the shelves are often cut back to allow the door to close. You now have a wall cabinet that is essentially sliced in half. Half has the tiny bottles lined up on the back of the door with ALL THE TITLES FACING OUT. The other half is a great place to put the oils, teriyaki, soy sauce, vinegars, as well as the large containers (COSTCO?) of dried onions, bay leaves, etc. Commonly used canned goods can go in there too. Make chili every week? Tomatoes, beans, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, it’s all right there.
The spice drawer
If you have a lot of drawers in your kitchen, you may want to line one or two with spices. A zig zag shaped “stepped” platform lays there with the bottles relaxing at an angle. Again, the labels are facing you. Only the smaller containers will fit but it is organized.
The pullout spice base
This piece comes in several sizes, but a 9” wide one will hold a ton of spices as well as bottles of oils. I like to locate it close to the range. The shelves are adjustable, and you can arrange the bottles so you see one layer from the right and one layer from the left.
The spice lazy susan
This is something you can incorporate in any kitchen, new or not. Target and Container Store both sell very nice lazy susans for this purpose. They have a non-slip surface to keep the little bottles from scooching around. Don’t get the bigger one 11”?).It won’t fit in your 12” wall cabinets. The 9” one is perfect. You can even put different categories of flavorings on different susans. Imagine all your baking stuff on one. (vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, etc.) Maybe all the herbs go on another. Maybe all the sauces, oils, vinegars go on one. If you place them so all the labels are facing out, you can just spin them and find what you’re looking for.
This will make cooking less frustrating and much more fun. You might even bake more often if it’s not hard to find what you need. Don’t want that stuff around the house? Make it and take it to work. You’ll be a hero.
-Julie Hendrickson
