How to Make a Spice Jar Organizer from a Soda Crate

Seriously, I love, love, love this project. It mixes two of my favorite things… thrifting and organization.

I’ve seen these vintage soda crates at yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores for years; but the soda logos are typically in reds and yellows. If you’ve followed along very long, you know those aren’t my colors. This green, however, is exactly my color…

I’d never heard of Dr. Wells soda; but through some googling found out is associated with Dad’s Root Beer {which I have heard of, because our church gave a bottle to each dad on Father’s Day — fun, huh?}.

Since we moved in last year I’ve been storing our spices in a drawer. It hasn’t been incredibly functional because they aren’t in any type of order. I just make them fit.

And if they don’t fit, they get stuck in the pantry. This means that I forget we have it… and is why we own three bottles each of Nutmeg and Oregano.

With the soda crate I can store them in alphabetical order. I actually know what we have AND each spice is easy to find when I’m cooking.

Plus, I have a free drawer. The soda crate is slim, so it just sits against the back splash under the cabinets and doesn’t require much counter space. When we start renovating our kitchen, I may end up hanging it on the wall near the stove. Then this solution won’t require any drawer or counter space.

Here’s how you can do the same project at home:

1. Buy your vintage soda crate {a.k.a. the best part — yard sales and thrifting!}
2. Purchase glass spice jars that fit. I recommend these from World Market.
3. Use a label maker {here is the one I use} to create clear labels. I chose white text on clear because I thought white was easier to read against the metal lids.

This is completely a preference thing; but I trimmed each label across the top so that there wouldn’t be any excess.

I have to note, too, how much I love this label maker and 100% recommend it. I use it for all kinds of projects; labeling Christmas storage bins, glass containers in the pantry; photo boxes in the office and toiletries in the hall closet.

How do you store your spices?