Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Spice It Up

My new old 1992 trailer came with a nifty kitchen. It's been busy since I moved in because I make food from scratch at home. In my old motorhome over the years I had built in several spice racks to hold my bottles and jars.

When I moved into this rig, I didn't know where to put my spices so I could find them again. So I lined them up on the back counter, left to right, A to Z.

That worked beautifully but the kitchen had a perpetual cluttered look with all those spices hogging the entire backsplash.

The wall above the counter on the far right is 22 inches deep by 22 inches high to the upper cabinet. But the back wall of the trailer is at an angle so the top of the wall measures 19 inches, not 22. I did some measurements and calculations to determine that the right sized spice rack would hold all my spices on that wall.

I searched hundreds of spice racks on amazon and just didn't find anything workable to maximize the area and store all my spices in an easy to find manner. My cabinets are pretty full and digging around a cabinet to grab a dash of this, a sprinkle of that and a smidgen of this is cumbersome when one has 50 bottles of herbs.

Then I came across a display rack for nail polish used in manicure salons everywhere. I ordered one to see if it would work with my spices. It came with six separate shelves. That is what had me excited to choose this economical option. I only needed 4 shelves, and that would leave me 2 extra shelves for sawing and then attaching to the other 4 shelves to extend them all across the side wall at the weird angle.

Many of my spices would not fit the shelves. So I ordered spice bottles that would. I chose square rather than round for a neater look. Also if you choose square for a motorhome, it means you can put little felt pieces on the sides and the bottles will ride quietly down the bouncy highways.

Recently I acquired a heavy duty vice for free. I was told I could rummage around a shed and take what I wanted including the vice! My friend installed it on my work bench in the shed. So it was easy to place the shelves that had to be custom sawed into the vice, then saw away.

Drill holes, screw up the entire rack, all 4 shelves plus the extra custom sized ends. Next I transferred my spices and herbs to their new bottles.

Here is the finished rack with room for more spices, which I am missing a few herbs I favor. At the end is my little salt and pepper set I use at the dining table. Above I stuck a battery operated motion light. When you reach for the rack, the light comes on and when you are done, it goes off.
I am super excited!

It looks oh so cool. I have it A-Z left to right, top to bottom.

It's the nicest spice rack I have ever owned. I am quite pleased with it.
I bought a spice labeling kit that came with blank labels too, but they had enough preprinted labels that I have not had to label my own yet.

Cooking is a joy to just grab the herbs I want and have a nice happy home for them all between uses.

7 more days to my birthday!

YIPPEE!!!


3 comments:

  1. THIS is what makes your house a home! They are the perfect solution. I cook at home and use a lot of different spices too. Our place came with a pull out in the cabinet, but they are not as easy to keep in order. The square jars are such a good idea too! Enjoy. You are going to fall in love with your home.

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  2. Looks so nice and neat, I hate clutter drives me crazy. You sure can come up with some neat things

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  3. You are absolutely creative !
    The spice rack is wonderful and looks so neat and tidy.
    Good job!

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