Spring Cleaning! Clean out the Spice Cabinet + $1 shelves from Dollar Tree

  One of my spring cleaning tasks this month was to clean out my spice cabinet.  It was a mess.  And I was certain there were spices in there that I’ve had as long as I’ve been married (7 years).  And then, I found this small, three-tier organizer at the Dollar Tree!  I instantly thought of my disastrous spice cabinet in which I couldn’t find anything if it got pushed to the back.

So I came home with my little $1.00 shelf and proceeded  to purge my cabinet.   Now, when I started, ever square centimeter of this shelf in the cabinet was covered so you can see I did a good bit of purging and now I can see more of what I have, thanks to my $1.00 tiered shelf!

Here are some tips for cleaning out your spice cabinet.  I have rarely found any spice containers with dates on them!  So here are some tips for checking for freshness:

• Are the colors still vibrant or are they faded and washed out?
• Are they still aromatic?
• Do the feel crumbly and brittle?

Shelf life guidelines:

• Herbs last 1-3 years
• Ground spices 1-2 years
• Whole spices 2-3 years
• Extracts 4 years, except for vanilla which lasts forever
• Seasoning blends 1-2 years.

I got these tips from here.