Variety Is The Spice of Life

Here's an idea that's been rolling around my head now for months. I've been wanting to move all my spices out of plastic containers into glass canning jars. I dislike the variety of sizes of containers that spices come in...it's visually disturbing to me. Looking at the ingredients themselves is so much more pleasing to the eye than brightly colored commercial labels. I like the way these jars look lined up on the counter...reminds me of an old-fashioned general store.

I used wide-mouth quart jars for ingredients that are spooned out, like most herbs and spices would be. Also for flaked coconut, which I keep in the fridge. For things that I will pour out of the jar, like dried beans, I used regular-mouth jars.

A quart jar sounds large to hold spices, but with a family of 6, I do a lot of cooking, and will have no trouble using them up before they lose potency. I always try to replenish my spices from the bulk food store, which is much, much cheaper than buying them in the supermarket. The few flavorings I use just a bit of I put into pint jars.

If you haven't tried the plastic lids available now for canning jars...they are great. I've seen the regular mouth lids in the grocery stores and stuff-marts, but I had a hard time locating the wide-mouth lids locally, so I purchased them here.

I designed the labels using Print Shop software, formatted an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet with 20 olive branch circles, then typed the names into a text box inside each circle. I cut them out, laminated them, and tied them to the jars with thin elastic. I used elastic because it will not come unintentially un-tied, but can be stretched and pulled off easily when I need to wash the jars.

This project took several hours over two days to complete. Because the labels are laminated, they will last a very long time, and I know I'll enjoy my kitchen so much more now that a lot of visual clutter has been eliminated.

How have you enhanced your home's beauty by reducing visual clutter?