We are in the middle of a bunch of large, impactful projects around here. The entry way, kitchen, office and our room are all undergoing some changes. But we're also working on small stuff in between - the little projects that add up to a smooth day or a good looking result. Enter this small spice tin update. I've had these Grundtal tins, from Ikea, for five or six years. And it showed.

Yech. If you've seen these magnetic tins, or their more customized counterparts, around, you know they're pretty great for storing things through the super strong magnets on their back. We also use them to corral costume jewelry for Lou, and they're great for office organization. For spices, they're fine, and good at conserving counter and cabinet space. I do have to note that these particular Ikea ones occasionally break open, spilling spices everywhere, and more rarely become stuck, relegating a particular spice to the trash. Just a heads up. We're still using them, lo, these many years later, so I clearly view the tradeoff as worth it.

But I also clearly needed to clean and relabel these little guys. I mean, yuck. Reaching for these with food-covered fingers over five years has taken its tool. The labels were also really faded. The tins come with these little printed papers in them as a demonstration (in case you have a very small amount of beans or a very large amount of bay leaves to store, I guess), and I kept them and affixed pre-printed spice labels to the front. I'm sure Ikea doesn't mean for people to use the paper inserts, and I learned with interest that a lot of spices excrete oils that have greased the paper over time. See that extra cloudy one? That's cloves. Apparently it's excreting something that's fogging up the glass itself. I couldn't even get the film off. But anyway, I think some people just leave the spices visible through the glass, which is great, but I didn't trust myself to distinguish marjoram from parsley from oregano, so I kept the labels. Then I used them. They got greasy and gross and it was finally time to rethink. Not sure exactly which direction I wanted to go, I tried three different options.

First, I cleaned the puppies off, using my go-to rubbing alcohol and water spray and a microfiber cloth. Then, I tried these three methods: a wet erase (not dry erase) marker on a clear glass front; stickers spelling out the names on a clear glass front, and new paper labels from chalkboard paper and a chalk pen. You can probably guess which way I went. And not just because a picture of the finished project is up top. These were, admittedly, all quick and dirty attempts to see which I'd like the best, and I might have invested in a better wet erase marker (thicker, black?) or non-shiny, non-silver stickers if I wanted to go that route. But that would have involved purchasing something, whereas I had my pad of chalkboard paper and chalk pens on hand. And I just liked the look of the chalkboard best. Shocking, I know.

I hung the spice tins alphabetically, which is how I've pretty much done it except for when entropy occasionally takes over. I hope that happens in other people's homes sometimes as well. The entropy and the alphabetization. And, though cutting out these circles did take a little bit of time, it was no sweat. But if you're interested in having someone else do it for you (or you don't have a pad of chalkboard paper lying around, which I personally can't fathom), you can buy pre-cut ones here.

So there's a very small project that nonetheless has been making me happy all week. It's nice to have things nice and tidy and black and white, and it's easy to read the high-contrast, large-lettered labels which helps in cooking. Are you doing any small projects that make a difference? Do share, and we'll see you tomorrow!