(pretty sure she would eat snow no matter WHAT was in it . . . ughhhhhhh!)
In case you haven't heard, we had a nice little snow fall here in Alabama today, which means getting just about anything done around here went right on out the window! I did however spend about five minutes re-organizing the spice cabinet that I tidied up last Spring, so I'm sharing that post again tonight. Hope you understand the repeat . . . when snow comes to Alabama, everything else comes to a hault!
My spice cabinet has been a mess for months . . . despite several attempts to re-organize. Because I'm such the penny-pincher, I've refused to spend any moo-lah on items that could better organize my spices, which has led to crazy disaster every night as I start to cook!
Finally, as I was cooking this week and got knocked in the head by a pie plate (yup, it was that bad), I decided that this was just ridiculous. (Seriously!) You see, we've been married for almost sixteen years, and I've never done anything to make this mess better. . . I've tidied it, but there was just no system in place! So yesterday I ran to Walmart and spend $30 on a few items to Fluff it Up. (Why on earth did I wait so long?) Here are the results . . .
I found a pack of Ball Jars containers for $7, and purchased plastic lids to match
 for the tops. I added my more frequently used baking products to those (things like baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, yeast packets, etc.) I also purchased a few racks
to give me extra space, and baskets for the top to keep all of our cookie cutters & cake decorating items in (I've made every single birthday cake for my kiddos, so I have quite a stash of goodies up there!) My favorite purchase were little tiny Ball canning jars that are just perfect for a few seasoning mixes I keep on hand – cinnamon sugar, homemade Ranch dressing mix, and Italian Seasonings. (They're so cute, but you can hardly see them – they're hiding just behind the powdered sugar shaker!)
This Christmas, my brother-in-law convinced me to purchase a nicer computer and it has made a huge difference in my productivity on PPP in 2012. (I spent my first year blogging on a $300 netbook . . . it was just awful!) I've started to realize that sometimes (when you can afford too!), spending a little money to purchase items that make you work more efficiently is just worth it. And you can imagine the amount of time that I've spent searching for spices in that mess up top has definitely hurt my productivity! So, while I don't want to spend too much on things I don't need, I do think it's okay to splurge every once in awhile on things that will make me more effective in my work (which is cooking for my family!) Especially since I saved enough money in my grocery budget this week to splurge on it . . . yayyyyy!
Do you have any other suggestions on organizing your spice cabinet? Leave a comment HERE to share!
I don’t have any new ideas for you….but I did this to one cabinet that held smaller things for exactly the same reason…head-bop! I also put all cake decorating stuff in a basket, and all those pesty little baking containers in another basket (so when I am baking, it’s all in one place)
What I did want to pass on and support you is to do it sooner than later—it makes such a great difference when you are already paddling upstream!!!!! Just do it!
Great tips Ruth – I may try to add baskets like that in our cabinets here!