Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

Before organizing the entire kitchen, lets zero in on a very important aspect of the cooking paraphernalia. Let’s focus today on herbs and spices. It is very handy to store spices atop the stove. Spices are readily available when cooking and its easy to add a pinch of oregano or a dash of cayenne. However, herbs and spices deteriorate very fast especially in the presence of heat, or light or steam. It makes more sense to store them in airtight containers or tucked away in a drawer or shelf out of the sunlight.

You might want to choose a drawer or shelf right next to the stove and add an organizer such as in the picture to store your herbs and spices. Prefilled spice bottles in designer racks may look great but the spices in them may be old and offer no punch to your cooking. The wise and organized chef or cooking novice may prefer to find empty spice bottles, fill them with fresh herbs and spices of their choice and cover them with gorgeous customized labels available these days. Or you might like labels which are meant to cover your jars to further protect them from light.

Imagine your spice drawers looking like Emeril’s! It would be incentive enough to create a rush that will see you through organizing countertop, shelves and your entire kitchen!

You might want to alphabetize them. Start from the top with “anise,” “allspice,” etc. and move slowly down the alphabet to the bottom or better yet, qwertize them so your hand will automatically go to the spice or herb of your choice just like it would on your keyboard!