MONEY SAVER: Storing Spices

I recently reorganized my spice drawer (more on that later).  I used the same size jars for all my spices to create a uniform look.  The problem with using the same sized jars is that I ended up with extra spices.  As a MONEY SAVER I buy the spices that are sold in little bags instead of the jars unless the spice I want is only sold in a jar.  I certainly don't want to trow away my extra spices, but what do I do with them until I need them?

my extra spices

Freeze them! Did you know that spices store very well in the freezer?  It is well known that over time spices loose their flavour and potency.  Freezing allows you capture their "spice" (pun intended).  But I didn't just want to toss half open bags of spice into my freezer.  If I just "tossed them in" there was
A. a good chance they would be lost for all time and eternity in the depths of my freezer.
And B. there was also a good chance they would burst open (being squished by a roast or some other heavy freezer item) leaving a very large frozen mess for me to clean up.

What's a good Mom to do?

I devised a system to store my extra spices.  My daughter helped too!

My daughter helps me organize the extra spices

  



















The How-To
1. Gather your spices, zip-top bags, a pen, masking tape or blank labels and a basket.  Count how many packages/jars of extra spice you have to determine how many zip-top bags and labels you will need.
2. Place all your spices in the zip-top bags.  Remove any extra spices from jars and recycle jars.  Squish them flat with your hands to remove extra air from the bags.


3. Organize your spices into alphabetical order.
4. In a staggered manner apply your pieces of masking tape or labels to the top of the zip-top bags and label each bag.
5. Place all bags into a freezer-proof basket or into an existing basket in your freezer.

Voila! Organized freezer spices!

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Tomorrow "TIME SAVER: Finding Time Stealers"