If you like to cook, chances are you have a lot of spices and, therefore, lots of tiny bottles that are hard to keep organized. Even though you want to see and quickly access them all, they always end up shoved into some obscure cabinet corner. In order to solve that dilemma in our house, I turned small canning jars into spice jars.
Placing all the spices in containers of the same shape and size makes storing them easier because they’re all uniform. I also love using the canning jars because the top opening is wide enough to fit measuring spoons (even a tablespoon!) into the jar to measure the spices easily when cooking. No more dumping spices from that awkward original container onto the counter while trying to measure a half teaspoon!
MATERIALS
| MATERIALS NEEDED |
| 4 oz. & 8 oz. Canning Jars* |
| Black Acrylic Paint |
| Paintbrush |
| Sharpie Paint Pen, Extra Fine Point** |
| Cardstock (optional) |
| Black Sharpie (optional) |
*I used 4 oz. jars for most of our spices but for the few that get used more often, like salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, etc. I bought a set of 8 oz jars. Having two different sizes works for me since I custom-built a shelf for them. But if you want them all to be the same size, I suggest only buying 4 oz. jars.
**I used a silver pen but I can no longer find the silver pen in stock, so I’ve linked a white one instead.
TIME COMMITMENT
| ACTIVE TIME: About 2-5 minutes per jar, so it depends on how many jars you’re making |
| Painting takes about 2-4 minutes |
| Writing on them takes about 1-2 minutes, but happens after the paint has dried |
| DRYING TIME: 5-15 minutes for the paint to dry |
STEP BY STEP
STEP 1 – CLEAN
Clean all the 4 oz. & 8 oz. canning jars. You can wash them in the sink or run all the glass parts through the dishwasher. After they’re washed and dried, wipe the jars down well to ensure the paint will stick.
STEP 2 – PAINT THE SPICE JARS
On each jar, use the black acrylic paint to paint a small black oval large enough for your label. The jars I purchased already had an oval indent so I could freehand my paint.
However, if your jars don’t have an indent or you want more consistent labels, you could create a stencil. Do this by cutting an oval out of medium cardstock. You can make the stencil as large or small as you’d like, just make sure to leave enough room for the name of the spice. Trace the label onto the jar using a black Sharpie, and then fill that circle with black paint.
STEP 3 – WAIT FOR PAINT TO DRY
Let the paint dry. Depending on how many spice jars you’ve done, the first ones you did might already be dry enough for the next step.
STEP 4 – WRITE NAMES ON SPICE JARS
With the silver (or white) Sharpie paint pen, write the name of the spice onto the jar. If you mess up, you can paint over the name with more black paint and try again after the black paint dries.
STEP 5 – TRANSFER SPICES
Transfer the spices from their original containers into the canning jars and close the lids.
TIP: I write the expiration date on a piece of scotch tape with a Sharpie and place it on the bottom of the container.
STEP 6 – ORGANIZE THE SPICE JARS
Arrange your spice jars wherever you want to store them in a manner that will work best for you. I have our spices arranged alphabetically on two small shelves I built to sit at the back of the counter. This way, we can easily see and access all the spices at once. The shelf only takes up about 4 inches of counter space, and in my opinion, it’s totally worth it.
If you don’t want to build a shelf you could also choose to store them on an expandable shelf in the pantry, in a shallow drawer (in this case I would put the labels on top), or anywhere else convenient in your kitchen.
TIP: Whenever a spice is running low we’ll buy a refill, but won’t put it in the jar until all the old spice has been used up. There are also times when we buy a spice container bigger than the jar on the counter, so we keep the overflow on a rack LIKE THIS ONE in the pantry. Check it out in action in my PANTRY POST along with some other pantry organization ideas.
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