Get Kitchen Spices Organized With An Item You Can Easily Thrift

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If you're a dyed-in-the-wool foodie, it's likely you scour local food markets to keep a ready stock of all your favorite vittles and the spices to flavor them. However, if you're not also sniffing around the local thrift shop, you may be missing out on something that can give you next-level organizational capacity for your spices: A second-hand letter holder. The fanciest of these thrift store finds are constructed like cabinets. They sport letter slots in the front, which are attached to a cabinet door that opens to reveal a key compartment. Typically, this feature becomes a catch-all where you can stash your mail and your house keys in a spot right by the front door. In its repurposed state, the mail slots become spice bottle shelves. As for those hidden key hooks? They're just the thing you need to hold your measuring spoons.

Not all mail organizers feature this design, of course. Some boast all-in-one designs. That is, the mail slots and the key hooks are all fastened to a single board instead of having a hinged cabinet design. However, they will still work for organizing spices, since critical components — the mail slots and the key hooks — are also there. When you're looking for one of these bad boys at the thrift shop, you should also keep in mind how many spices you'd like to store in the mail organizer. If you only keep about eight or 10 essential spices in the cupboard, then you may get by with one that has only one or two slots. If you have a lot of spices, you'll need a bigger size.

Not all thrifted mail organizers will work for this DIY, though, since to hold the spices, the slots need to have front, bottom, and side barriers. Some fancier organizers are open on each end of the slot. While they'll keep your mail organized just fine, the design could potentially allow the spices to roll out of the open sides due to the lack of a barrier. They're a bit like a car without any doors to offer an analogy. 

Another thing to consider is the size of your spice jars. Although there is no standard spice-jar size, many are about 2 inches around and 5 inches tall. Given that the letter slots could be shallow, your new repurposed spice rack may be better suited for thinner bottles. Mozeat Lens clear test tubes with lids would work well. They're just over a half-inch thick with cord lids, which gives you a bit more leeway when it comes to fitting the jars into the slots. The lids are equally easy to remove when you need to get some spice and easy to replace when it's ready to go back on the shelf.

Finally, you don't have to rule out an otherwise stylish mail organizer that has no key hooks for the measuring spoons. Those can be added in just a few minutes and with minimal tools. For instance, these RELBRO small screw hooks would fit the head of a key or the top of a spoon with a ring on the handle just fine.