An Ode To An Organized Spice Cabinet

I've been plagued- like most people I know- by an unorganized spice collection.

Spices are so awkward to work with- different size bottles, bags, pouches, shakers...it's just this ridiculous puzzle in the cabinet.  The only other thing I can think of that's such a pain to keep neat is board games!  

I was fed up.  So beyond fed up.

I Pinterested my little heart out looking for the solution.  

I considered those magnetic boards some people have made but seriously...my spice collection is on the large side.  I didn't want to give up that much wall space to something like that, as cute as they were.

I LOVED the idea of using a typesetter's drawer- but I gave up trying to find one that had evenly spaced slots for spice containers.  It would have driven me batty to have differently sized openings.  Cause I'm crazy like that.  :-)

I needed a way to keep things straight in that cabinet- it was way past time.

Last summer I found myself in The Container Store with my lovely sister-in-law and knew it was time to take action.  I didn't really have a plan at the moment...but I was definitely in the right place, right?

Something Out of Nothing: Remodeling My Stairs

Our stairs were ugly.

Well, not just the stairs, pretty much the whole house, to be honest.  My husband purchased this home 2 years before I moved in with him, so I was lucky enough to never have to deal with it's full-blown awfulness, but I still got stuck with the carpet and ugly paint colors.  

The woman who lived here before us really REALLY liked dark blue.

The countertops were dark blue.

The linoleum in the kitchen was a dark blue pattern.

The carpet throughout the entire house was dark blue.

Ugh.