How To: Prevent Buying Doubles

Posted on February 5, 2013 by bneato

how many times has this happened to you? you find yourself at the grocery store and on a whim, you decide to pick up ingredients for a new dish. only you don’t recall if you’ve got the thyme and oregano that the dish calls for. you’re pretty sure that you don’t have the spices and decide that it’s better to be safe than sorry and make the spice purchases. only to get home and realize that you are now the owner of double jars of thyme and oregano. oy vey. for me, this only had to happen once to realize that i didn’t want it to ever happen again. and since spices (in my kitchen) last forever (because I rarely cook)–it would take me a decade to get through them all. my solution? EVERNOTE!! follow along as i show you how to create a quick and easy reference tool for your future grocery shopping trips!

Continue reading →

more spices

Posted on March 11, 2011 by bneato

this is another spin on using a magnetic strip or square for housing your spices. my friend abby (who is my go-to gal for all things home decor) sent me a pic of her set-up. she writes, “Metal board from Pottery Barn; Spice containers from IKEA (though The Container Store has better ones—these can be challenging to open). Arranged by cuisine: Asian, Indian, French/Italian, Mexican . Jars on stove hold salt and coarse ground pepper and the spice mill’s for the fine pepper option.”

visit abby over on her inspiring blog, beauty in the every day; finding the b.i.t.e. of life

ps; read the march edition of the bneato newsletter right here

off-the-counter spice racks

Posted on March 1, 2011 by bneato

apologies in advance. it seems that every spice rack pic on the blogosphere looks like it was taken circa 1982 (so i bookended those pics with two of my own to keep you in this decade). as you know, i’m not a cook (but most of my clients are) and one challenge they all have are containing and storing their spices. i personally like to take spices off the counter whenever possible—so without further ado, here are my all time faves…

magnetic stripssssssssssssssss. love these for taking spices off the wall. my only issue is that this set-up requires a little bit of work–BUT they’re so pretty once you have them on display (thanks for the pic, regina)

going vertical with a wire spice rack gets my vote. this bad boy can be hung on the inside of a cabinet door or the interior of your pantry door. the spice stack rack (while a tongue twister) keeps your cooking condiments out of sight but super organized.

i’ve actually never used the pull down spice organizer but i must say i’m intrigued. very intrigued. and one of my go-to solutions for clients is the in-drawer spice rack.

since i rarely use anything but salt, pepper and tapatio, my spice collection is at a bare minimum. so i repurposed a valentine’s day heart caddy back in the day and it serves me and my spices perfectly by keeping them contained.

flickr friday

Posted on April 16, 2010 by bneato

in the past, i didn’t really cook (unless you count steaming brown rice). but as of late have found myself in the kitchen almost every evening. i know mom–shocking, right?! and even though i wouldn’t know my way around a spice rack without a recipe, i love the idea of storing them in these modern (and magnetic) containers on the side of a fridge. saves countertop space, drawer space (and your sanity when looking for your spices).

share pics of your organized home by uploading them to the bneato flickr pool.

image: auntie clara