Storing Bulk Spices

I recently wanted to make some Indian food so I made a trip to the Indian Food Store. Well, with so many goodies to choose from, I ended up coming home with lots of bags of delicious spices.

After making several meals I found myself with a small mess of open spice bags that had to be clipped close.

So, of course, I quickly convinced myself that I needed a mini-organization project! Organizing is one of my favorite things to do, so any excuse I can come up with is fair game.

Finding the Right Containers

In order to get started, I made a quick trip to Target and came home with some Ball jars. These pint jars are perfect because they are short and fat and seemed appropriate for storing spices.

I like the wide-mouth jars since it makes it easier to scoop things out.

I knew I wanted (and needed) to label them, so I made sure and get some that had at least one side of the jar free of raised lettering.

This pint design also has flatter sides making it easy to attach the label to each jar and not have to worry about the corners starting to peel off.

I cleaned the jars as recommended and got to work!

An Easy Way to Label

On a recent trip to Target, I gifted myself a label maker and was waiting to find a reason to use it. I have wanted a label maker since I was little! One of my cousins had one and always made labels for her things. I thought it was so neat!

It’s crazy that it took this long for me to get one!

I did a little research and decided on the Dymo LetraTag which was perfect for me. It’s tiny, easy to use, and the labels come out perfect! Plus, it’s a pretty blue, so that sealed the deal.

Of course, you don’t need a label maker to label your spices. You could use masking tape or pre-made labels. Chalkboard labels would look really pretty as well. In my humble opinion, though, a label maker is fun and makes it really easy to label anything!

Using the Dymo LetraTag

I had never used a label maker before, but I’m telling you, this one is foolproof. You just type in the words you want and hit “Print”.

You can choose upper or lower-case lettering. I decided to go with the lower-case for my spice labels.

After hitting print, your label will print out from the back of the label maker.

It has a handy cutting tool on the side you simply press for a perfectly clean cut. It’s so easy to label things and make them look pretty!

That day, I may or may not have labeled lots and lots of things in the house!

Look how nice they all turned out! You guys need to know, this isn’t a sponsored post or anything, I just LOVE my little label maker!!

For just a second, I struggled to try to remove the paper backing, only to realize the label ribbon is perfectly split in the back for easy removal. Once I figured it out, it was a breeze to peel the labels off.

The labels were easy to put on and I did my best to get them as straight as possible. I think they look great!

The Final Step

Finally, I poured all the spices into the jars. You could use a funnel to avoid a mess, but I did OK without one.

The jars I got were the perfect size for the bags of spices I had. Make sure to check the sizes of any bulk spices you get to make sure the jar will hold that amount.

The Result: Beautiful and Colorful Spice Jars

Tada!! Look at all those beautiful colors. The spices are labeled, stored and they look pretty! Can’t beat that.

These will now look perfect inside my organized pantry!

I hope you enjoyed this mini-organization project. Now you have an idea of what to do with all those open spice bags. For more fun projects, head over to my organizing section on the blog!