Now, you may have them shoved in the back of a cabinet or maybe they’re sprawled out across your kitchen counters, but this all probably feels a little too cluttered for your liking. So what’s a spice lover to do? Luckily, there are a variety of organizational tools available for keeping everything from your paprika to your pumpkin spice in line. Below, we rounded up 15 of the best spice organizers you can get your hands on today. From classic jars and shelving to some more innovative finds, we promise you’ll find something you’ll love.
Have a spice organizer that you swear by? Tell us about your favorite organizing finds in the comments below!
It took me years to accept that I am, undeniably, a messy person. Regardless of how big my space is or who I share it with, keeping my home neat and tidy has always been a struggle. Despite having a home that’s clean, in the hygienic sense, and decorated with great care and intention, I’ve never quite been able to summon the energy to make my bed every morning, consistently pick my pajamas up off the bathroom floor, or do my dishes every single night. For most of my life I’ve fought against these messy tendencies, but now, I’ve grown to embrace them. Just as often as my home is perfectly organized, it’s in a complete state of disarray — and I’m slowly becoming okay with that.
I love my home most when it’s filled with my favorite people. In a dream world, my place is somewhere friends meet to do nothing, picking over whatever’s in the fridge, playing a movie in the background while we chat or nap on the couch, and sometimes decide to stay the night when the trip home feels too arduous. Despite my love of hosting, I always find myself extremely stressed before having guests over — even more so when friends unexpectedly pop by — because I feel obliged to tidy away all signs of my messy lifestyle. But now, after years of failed attempts to change my ways, I’ve concluded the only way forward is to find comfort in the joy that is a slightly disheveled home.
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I believe there is an intimacy to be found in mess: a dog-eared magazine lying open on a coffee table, an empty bottle of wine left on a kitchen counter, an uncapped skincare product sitting on the edge of the bathroom sink. For every item left out of place, there is a thread of connection waiting to be found. To me, this intimacy is what makes visiting a friend’s home, as opposed to meeting them in a bar or restaurant, so special. But when the reality of our lives have been tidied away before arrival, it’s easy for those meaningful threads to be lost.
Celebrity and influencer home tours are often presented as “revealing”, “unexpected” or, in the case of Emma Chamberlin’s viral Architectural Digest tour, “deeply personal.” As thrilling it is to know which celebrities have a $7,000 polished brass bathtub and see million-dollar homes styled without a single object out of place, I can’t help but imagine how much more exciting it would be to see these homes with something, anything, slightly ajar, like their bedroom after they’ve spent an hour deciding what to wear or their kitchen after they’ve hosted a group of celebrity friends for dinner. I apply the same level of intrigue to my own friends.
To me, the most meaningful home compliment I can give or receive has got to be: “Your place feels so homey.” Of course, soft cushions, warm lighting, and good heating all contribute to feelings of hominess as soon as you step over the threshold, but mostly it’s the feeling that a home is inviting you to be yourself, to slouch, to curl, to pull a book off the shelf and flick through its pages without fear. There is a sense of comfort and closeness that I only feel when I arrive at a friend’s house and see their mess.
For every person who lives in a constant state of tidy (I know they exist and I have nothing but respect for them) there’s got to be someone else like me, whose home is a little scrappy, unkempt at times, but, most importantly, lived in. If that’s you, consider this your sign to let go and welcome people into the home you really exist in — not the one you’ve spent a frenzied two hours cleaning before their arrival.
Design pros — they’re just like us. While their social media feeds may make you think otherwise, even the most seasoned DIYers and interior designers struggle to bring order to the various corners of their homes.
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Some have chaotic closets, others have beauty products that expired years ago. There are too many odds and ends to store away, too many this-and-thats to remember. Whatever the struggle may be, their biggest organizational issues are familiar: Everyone wants a more orderly home, it’s just hard to get there sometimes. But the good thing is that it’s not impossible to do, as long as you make time to start.
Here, six designers share their biggest organizing dilemmas in 2022, and how they finally brought order to the chaos.
I needed to get my office in check.
“My most rewarding organizing moment in 2022 was transforming my office, which also serves as my pottery studio, from a catchall space back into an office and studio space,” says Samantha Hoff, owner of Pottery with a Purpose.
“Having a space with dual functions makes it hard to stay organized, and though my Instagram and website may be perfectly curated, my real life is not! I have ADHD and depression, and sometimes they show themselves in different ways.”
Over time, Hoff’s office space turned into what she calls “a completely unusable junk room.” But earlier this year, her husband helped her restore order. “I threw away many random bits and bobs collected from a pandemic’s worth of craft projects,” she says. “The tools and materials I kept now all have a specific spot to return to after use. Instead of feeling overwhelmed when I walk into my studio, now I feel inspired!”
I had to toss old beauty products.
“My most rewarding organizing moment this year was going through every beauty product I owned,” says Cindy Ngo, the founder of design studio Ink + Porcelain. “I love trying new products, but I had accumulated quite the collection and knew it was time to organize, categorize, and streamline.”
To tackle this big project, Ngo separated every item into bins: a donation bin, a recycling bin for Terracycle, and one for keepers. Then, she categorized. “I categorized every single thing I had in clear bins, so I can see what I own and reach them easily in my cabinet and drawers.”
I needed to streamline household belongings.
“My most rewarding organizing moment this year included decluttering a large amount of our household items during our recent move,” says Olivia Parks, owner of Professional Organizers Baton Rouge.
This kind of purge is a process — it takes time to sort through all of the items one accumulates over the years, says Parks. “But it made our move so much easier,” she says. “We had less to pack and were able to move in after one full day.” The benefits extend into the new home, too, she says. “I feel less stressed about our space. We now have much more room to grow into our new home.”
I had to catalog my clothing.
“My biggest win for 2022 was that I cataloged all of my clothing into sizes,” says artist Allison Eden, who says the move was precipitated by a fluctuation of weight over the past couple of years.
“So now when I’m a size 16 or when I am a size 10, it’s all organized,” she says. “This allows me to find and wear my best pieces and feel really good about myself at any size.”
I needed to ditch a purse.
“One of my best organizational changes was getting rid of my purse,” says Jill Abelman, owner and lead designer for Inside Style Home. “I also need my computer case each day,” she explains. “Typically, I am also transporting design samples — so I started to feel like a bag lady.”
The weight of all that added up, too. So Abelman decided to get rid of the most expendable object: her purse. “I changed my wallet to a small zippered pocket-sized pouch,” she says. “Now, I only transport this and lipstick tucked in my computer case.”
I had to make sense of my collections.
Jen McDonald, DIY-er and cofounder of Garden Girls, says her biggest organizing win was finding meaningful and systematic ways to display her family’s most prized collections.
“Vintage suitcases now house all of our most cherished Christmas ornaments,” she says. “And textbooks, yearbooks, piano books, and other favorites are organized behind glass doors.”
But how do you find the book you want when they’re all turned spine-side in to make a design statement? “The titles are marked in light pencil on the pages, and each section is dedicated to each member of the family,” she says, noting the important marriage between function and style.
Meg is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and four children. Meg is a counselor by education and an extrovert exploring the world by nature. Meg writes about education, travel, real estate, culture, parenting, adoption, and social justice.
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Yes, I’m essentially a professional shopper, but I’m still constantly amazed by the inventions that brands (and independent makers) come up with to simplify housekeeping, save space, and look good doing it. Yamazaki has been at the forefront of so many of these innovations for years, but the brand just continues to raise the bar. As part of its Tower collection, these Magnetic Spray Bottles practically disappear into even the most minimalist home decor schemes while allowing you to save counter, shelf, and cabinet space at the same time.
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This $12 spray bottle, available in matte black or white, holds your decanted cleaning solutions — be they for laundry stain removal or countertop disinfecting — and adheres (damage-free!) to any magnetic surface, from your dishwasher and refrigerator to your washer and dryer. Keeping these spray bottles at the ready, wherever you frequently use liquid cleaning formulations, means staying on top of regular tidying sessions, quickly addressing stain emergencies, and dedicating fewer weekends to deep-cleaning marathons.
Of course, the Magnetic Spray Bottles can be used for so much more than just cleaning. Try keeping your cooking oils in them, perhaps with some cool, custom labeling, and attach them to your fridge or oven border for easy access and quick, even application when you’re getting ready to sauté or bake. When you go to mix up your perfect salad dressing each week, why not keep it in a Yamazaki spray bottle attached to the inside of your fridge, saving shelf space and mason jars for other things? You can get as creative with the Magnetic Spray Bottles as you want.
As someone partial to decanting everything into attractive, uniform containers, I’m this close to buying 10 of these spray bottles myself, scattering them across my home, and having my cleaning solutions, air fresheners, and kitchen ingredients handy at all times.
