We all have that one cupboard or shelf that is a mess in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter how organized of a person you are, the spices you use every day seem to go everywhere and get hidden in the mess just when you need them. But there’s an easy way to keep your most used spices (and even those for occasional use right at hand). Youcopia sent us one of their SpiceSteps systems to check out and try in our cupboard.
Like most people, I love keeping my every day spices on the cabinet shelf right next to the shove. I have a larger collection in the pantry, but the every day ones need to be close by. Since we moved into this house, I’ve emptied, cleaned and reorganized this shelf several times when that one spice I needed for a recipe got away. But over the course of a couple weeks, the shelf gets messy again and things get buried. If I don’t have a good idea of where things ended up the last time I used them – I just pull everything out to find the one I’m looking for in order to make dinner.
I installed the SpiceSteps in a matter of a few minutes in my kitchen. The hardest part of the whole set up was emptying the shelf and giving it a good wipe down from random spills. The SpiceSteps are just over 10 inches deep and just over 11 inches wide. The measurements means they will fit in standard upper cabinets without sticking out, and I believe I could actually fit two next to each other on one shelf. Since the SpiceSteps are under 4 inches tall, there is still plenty of room on the top level of the stairs for taller spice bottles.
Once the SpiceSteps were in place, it was as simple as adding the spices back into the area. I found that I was able fit more spices that migrated up to the next shelf on the SpiceSteps. It was easy to fit all of the different sizes of spice bottles I had. Because of the stadium style stairs the spices go on, you may not be able to see what is in each bottle, and if you have several from the same brand it may be hard to identify the correct one you’re grabbing for. Youcoupia thought of that too and not only includes a sheet with labels for the most common spices, but also a blank sheet so you can write or print your own.
I love how easy it was to set up, and I’m even using the space under the SpiceSteps for storing recipes that I don’t want to lose and need often. You can find the SpiceSteps at Bed Bath and Beyond and on Amazon.
