Spice Up Your Life

I've done a lot to pretty up my spice storage in the past, from creating colorful labels, remaking a Goodwill spice shelf, and transferring my countertop spices into vintage bottles. 

But ever since I saw Jen's dollar store spice organization on her blog The Social Home, I've been feeling a leeeetle inadequate about the state of my cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, et al.

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See? Don't you feel bad, too?

For months I tried and failed to find some affordable glass spice jars. None of my local dollar stores have any, and the best options online would still cost me $1.49 - $2 a pop plus shipping. Since I was looking for 18 bottles to fit my Goodwill cubby spice rack (a $0.99 steal from my parents' visit last spring), at best I'd be spending $37. Not too hefty, but as a thrift-store junkie, this felt far too pricey to me. 

Lucky for me, Goodwill came to my rescue again in the form of this swiveling spice rack with 16 glass jars, all to the tune of $3.99! 

With my 10% discount (using my student ID), it rounded out to $3.50, or  about $0.21 per piece (16 jars and 1 rack)! Even the Goodwill checker seemed to realize that this deal seemed too good to be true. But, as she remarked, the nasty condition of several of the jars probably explained why some customers passed on this steal of a deal. See below.

I, however, knew that these bad boys could be cleaned right up with a nice bath and a trip through the dishwasher.

After they were sparkly clean, I decided to pop some lovely labels on my jars. I picked up some of the Martha Stewart labels from Staples and wrote out the spices by hand, since unfortunately there isn't a template for printing directly on these labels. I kinda like my penmanship, though, and these labels are cute as a button on their own, so it's okay!

So here's how these bad boys turned out:

And now fore a before & after, since I love 'em:

Considering that the alternative would've cost 9 times as much, I'd say I did pretty great on these thrifted glass spice jars. And they look right at home in my spice cubbies, which previously sat on my counter and held a mish mash of plastic bottles...

...but was relocated and hung on the wall to create a little more counter space for some new additions:

Can you spy them? 

Yep, they're some of the Wheaton jars I purchased this summer! I just popped filled them with some spices and popped them next to my utensils, under the cubbies.

I also added more Thrift Wish List purchases to my pretty-up-my-spice efforts: three more corked jars for spices I buy in bulk. Previously I'd tossed some salt, pepper, and sea salt in a trio and popped them next to the stove:

After finding three more when thrifting & antiquing this summer, I cleaned them, added more chalkboard quatrefoil labels, and moved them into the grouping.