Are your kitchen baking and spice cabinets a mess? Today, I’m sharing a few baking and spice cabinet organization tips for the January Pinterest Challenge!

In case you’re new to the blog, the purpose of the Pinterest Challenge is to motivate all the participants (and you too) to not just pin, but to make it happen! This month’s challenge is about organization and storage, so I chose to share some of the ideas from this small RV pantry organization pin.

Save space by using a spice filing system and vertical modular storage. Click to Tweet

Baking and Spice Cabinet Organization Tips

Baking and Spice Cabinet 2014

Six years ago, I reorganized my baking and spice cabinet using items I already had on hand. This is what it looked like after I reorganized in 2014…

I had spice bottles on an expandable step rack and kept mini spice bottles in a large plastic container. The upper shelves held chocolate chips, extracts, and other baking items. Everything was grouped together and I used containers I already owned, so this didn’t cost me a thing!

Baking and Spice Cabinet 2019

Fast forward to the end of 2019 and this is a ‘before’ image of my cabinets…

Overall, I still had all my spices grouped to the bottom shelf, but they were creeping into the second shelf. It also became a pain to find what I needed. The spices did not have a set placement order, so I would have to shift the bottles around and would end up knocking the bottles out of the cabinet. Because of this, I made sure to not have anything below my cabinets when I was rummaging through the spices. I mean, nobody wants a spice bottle in their batter, right?

The upper shelves also became a problem. There were too many things hidden behind each other and became a huge issue as I would end up buying multiples of things I already had.

2020 Baking and Spice Cabinet Organization

This is what my baking and spice cabinet looks like in 2020! So much more organized and I can easily find what I’m looking for without knocking things out of the cabinet!

So, how did I accomplish this new organized cabinet? Well, again, I was inspired by this pin –>> 10 Tips for Small Pantry Organization. The thing that initially inspired me from this pin were the spices stored in cute mason jar bags. I liked how the bags were upright and alphabetized, which saved space and made finding spices easy.

Create a spice filing system

I loved the look, but this was a FAIL! I would NOT recommend using these mason jar bags because these are not durable at all. For some reason, the resealable zipper would detach from the sides of the bag and make the bags unusable. Very disappointing.

Since I really loved the idea of having my spices in bags and alphabetized, I searched for an alternative bag and found reseable food grade bags as a replacement for the mason jar bags. These are durable, cheaper, and meant for food storage…win! They aren’t as cute, but these work so much better and I’ll be transferring all the mason jar bag spices into the silver food bags (hubby already broke 2 of the mason jar bags).

Here’s what the spice bags look like in their new storage bags and divided plastic storage bin (helps kept the bags upright). I love the new file system, which makes finding spices so much easier and saves a ton of space. I was able to get the entire lower shelf condensed into half!

A few spices that I use a lot were kept in their original bottles and grouped with other miscellaneous spices in an undivided plastic bin.

Update: 11/6/2023 While I loved the filing system, my kids didn’t like putting the spices back where they belonged. This made it difficult for me to find what I needed, so I switched to a wall unit. Everyone LOVES it. It uses an unused wall space, freed up more cabinet space, and looks aesthetically pleasing.

To purchase:

• Spice bottles with labels ( 25, 36, 48, and 66 bottle boxes available)
• Acrylic Shelves (4 shelves)

Use Stackable Modular Storage

For the other half of the lower shelf and middle shelf, I decided to use affordable plastic storage containers from Target. These containers made it easy to stack and made use of vertical space. The small containers were the perfect size to house things like baking soda, baking powder, and food colors. The medium containers were great for various extract bottles, chocolate chips, gelatin packets, cocoa powder, and kosher salt. The large container was good for various bags of candy melts and Jell-O boxes.

If you would like to purchase these containers, I’ve linked them below:

• 4″ x 4″ x 8″ – 2 bags of chocolate chips, cocoa powder, etc… I use these for baking items that I tend to purchase in larger quantities.
• 4″ x 4″ x 4″ – These are great for baking soda, baking powder, salt, etc…
• 8″ x 4″ x 8″ – I use these to hold 2 bags of popcorn, candy melt bags, and boxes of jello.

Note: Flour, brown sugar, and sugar are kept in larger containers in a pantry.

Here’s what a before and after of the baking and spice cabinet looks like. Using a spice filing system and changing to a cube stacking system, I’m able to clearly find my items without everything falling out of the cabinet. Yay!

Bottoms shelf: spices, salts, baking powder, and baking soda.

Second shelf: extracts, cocoa powder, Dream Whip, custard powder, food coloring, food gels, gelatin, Jell-O, evaporated milk, condensed milk, and chocolate chips.

Third shelf: Cake mixes, pie fillings, cranberry sauce, macadamia nuts, meringue powder, and ice mixes.

Fourth/Top shelf: Cupcake liners, cupcake toppers, sprinkles, and push pop molds.

If you want to create a spice filing system and make use of vertical cabinet space, here are the items I used.

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For more Pinterest inspired projects from this month’s Pinterest Challenge hosts, check out the links below ↓

 Now, let’s see what the other hosts have created ⇓⇓