When working with client’s kitchens I’ve
found the most chaotic minutia when it comes to spices and tea. Tea
comes in huge boxes with little packets. Needless to say these boxes
take up a lot of room! The beauty of tea packets is that most times
they are cute and brightly colored like the ones pictured above. So I
like to keep them like a card catalogue. Now we Macguyver those boxes.
Don’t sweat going to the store to buy containers! Just cut or rip the
flaps off of one side and condense the rest of the packets. You’ll find
you have much more room left in the drawer. Then you can keep tea
strainers, coffee filters, and or sweetener and sweetener packets in the
same drawer! If you have loose or non packaged tea, keep it in the
container it came in and lay it next to your makeshift containers. I
promise you’ll have more than enough room in that drawer for all you
need.
Same goes for spices!! Racks are lovely but we always have surplus because all of the spice tends to not fit in those little jars. Also, we tend to knock over standing spices to get to the ones in the back. That personally makes me nuts! Lay them flat in a drawer label side up. Horizontal or vertical works fine depending on the drawer. Organize your spices by sweet and savory, or alphabetically (whichever works for you). Any spices in bags or the like can lay separately in the same drawer. NOTE* If you have bulk spices marry them to the appropriate jar and keep bulk in a separate area. (ie. the pantry or bulk cabinet)