Keep Kitchen Spices Organized With A Clever Repurposed Solution

Spices are the heart and soul of a flavorful meal. They're like kitchen pixie dust: You add just a little sprinkle, and the entire pot is almost magically transformed. It's no wonder home cooks are always stocking up on more options in their pantries. However, you realize soon enough that the bags or sacks most of these flavor gems come in are so huge that organizing them in your ingredients' cabinet becomes a challenge. So what do you do? Rather than rushing to buy a set of spice jars, just open your medicine cabinet and you'll find the unlikely solution to your spice storage woes: old pill bottles.

There's a striking resemblance in shape and structure between those ubiquitous orange medicine bottles and store-bought spice jars, which makes them ideal for the role. Besides, this genius upcycling hack that'll make you rethink tossing your empty medicine bottles takes only a few minutes and doesn't require any specialized tools, which are all great advantages to have for any DIY project. At the same time, you'll save yourself the headache of figuring out how to recycle the medicine containers since most curbside recycling programs don't accept them.

Once you're ready to give your old pill bottles a new assignment of organizing your kitchen gold, the most important step is the cleanup. Start by emptying the bottles, then take your time to thoroughly wash them, making sure no residue is left behind. When it comes to removing stickers on the container, you can soak the bottles in hot water, and the labels will peel off easily. Alternatively, use a hairdryer to warm up the stubborn labels for easier removal. Finally, rinse and dry the bottles.

It'll do you good to introduce a few modifications to your new DIY spice container. First, add your own custom label for easy identification of what's inside each bottle. You can try zero-waste DIY label ideas for glass jars, like using a permanent marker or biodegradable tape. As for the cap, the child-safety mechanism can be advantageous in instances where you need an extra-secure lock, e.g., when traveling. However, you'll need to remove it to make frequent opening easier when you're on a cooking spree. If your medication bottle has the "push-down-and-twist" mechanism, you can remove the inner part of the cap and just use the outer part with the normal twist-to-close function. If you have double-sided, reversible caps, just flip the cap over and use the side with the normal twist mechanism.

Beyond the similar shape to store-bought spice jars, and having a secure child-proof cap that's ideal for preventing spillage, repurposing prescription bottles as spice jars offers other unique advantages you may have never even thought about. The orange hue, for example, isn't decorative, and neither is it there by accident. Its original function is to block UV rays from sunlight to help preserve the potency of the medicine inside the bottle. Therefore, when used to store spices, this orange translucent color continues to serve the same purpose, keeping those flavors fresh for longer. Even so, you'll still need to choose the right kitchen storage spot to prevent spoiling your spices.

The translucency of pill bottles also allows you to see how much spice you have left in each bottle without needing to open them. And, if you have the bigger prescription bottles, they can easily fit a spoon inside for scooping your spices — something your typical-sized spice jar may not allow you to do. So, take advantage of all these benefits and turn your pill bottles into a pantry storage solution for your spices.