As soon as my pie safe was finished (see my last post), I decided to tackle a project that has been on my to-do list for a long time. I cleaned most of the grains, baking goods, and spices out of my kitchen cabinets and got rid of the half-empty boxes, bags, and containers (yea!!) and put everything into brand new Mason Jars.
I can't believe I waited so long to do this project!! I am so happy not just because of the way everything looks, all nice, neat, organized, and pretty, but because now I can actually see what I have. And I love the idea that everything is all sealed up so it will stay fresh.
This project was super easy, fast, and cheap.
The materials:
Mason jars of various sizes (I used both Ball & Golden Harvest)
Tags (I got mine at Walmart for a few dollars)
Some twine (either Sisal or Jute)
A few teabags to dye the tags if your store only has the bright white ones, and like me, you aren't in the mood to go tag huntin'.
And a marker
I threw a few teabags into a cup of warm water until it got pretty dark. Then I dunked the tags into the water for a few minutes until they took on an aged look.
I got out a cooling rack, put some paper towel underneath to catch any tea drippings, and laid the tags out to dry.
After the tags dried, I snipped the little string that was on them off and wrote the names of the spices, etc on them. A quick tip at this point...don't wait until you put everything in jars to do the labels...it will be quite a pain trying to remember which jar is powdered sugar, which is cornstarch, and which is baking powder...trust me on this one!!!
Then grab the twine, attach the tag, wrap it around the jar a few times, tie, snip, and there you go!!
There ya have it. I can't believe I waited so long...now that I have this done, my kitchen almost looks semi-organized. I did decide to leave a few of the most common spices we use (garlic salt, basil, oregano, etc) in their original containers, but I'm so glad to have the seldomly used stuff (ground mustard and cardamom, anyone?) all neatly stored away.
I'm linking up with Susan's Metamorphosis Monday and Kimba's DIY Day. Stop by them both to see everyone's inspiring projects.
Merry Christmas everybody!!!
