Easy $1 DIY Spice Racks!

Sooo... This week was a bit different... I'll get into to that later, but this is one of the projects I finished lately and wanted to share with you!  I made spice racks out of these!
Cooling Racks
They worked out perfect for my pantry! Seriously awesome and cheap!!

The week started out again with no church :( We got hit with quite a snow storm, but we wouldn't have been going anyway.  Poor sweet Hubby came down with a stomach virus that put him out of commission for a couple of days.  Good report is, he's doing much better and will be back to work tomorrow. :)

Back to the spice racks! I'm going to be a bit transparent.... don't judge me... Hey, this is the real deal here.
Pantry Shelf Before
Yep... that's my "spice/cooking" shelf. It was a jumbled unorganized mess. One day, I just had it and needed to get that shelf into shape. Pronto!  I hated searching for spices. I had duplicates (that I didn't know about). There were ones that kinda looked the same and I would use the wrong spice in a recipe. Yeah, not fun!

I wanted a spice rack that I wouldn't have to clean.  I could have made one of those cute wooden ones, but they would eventually need to be cleaned and really... I'm just too lazy. So, I wanted a wire shelf, no cleaning! :) And more importantly, I didn't want to spend a boat load on one of those fancy smancy ones.

So, I kept searching through the Dollar Tree, just believing that I could find something there that would work.  They had these little wire baskets, but they were too shallow and the spices would've just fallen out, because I wanted to mount them on the pantry door.

In my search, I found those cooling racks, and made them into DIY Spice Racks! It only cost $3 for all of them!
DIY $3 Spice Rack

I knew those cooling racks would work! Hubby didn't think they would, that it would break the weld. But heck for $1 I'm willing to try it!  And I'm happy to say that it worked!  Yeah, a couple of the welds didn't hold, but they work just fine!

Here's how I did it.

Bend the little legs flat as possible.
Bend legs flat

It will look like this.
Legs flat
Then bend up the one side at the 4th wire. I used needle nose pliers to bend it.
Bend Side
Then skip one wire and bend the other side up.
Spice Rack
I used this method for the smaller spice containers.  The larger ones, I made them wider at the bottom by skipping 2 wires and then bending up the other side.  It works great! You can see in the next picture.

Now the sides, aren't too fancy.  I racked my brain trying to find a workable solution for the sides from twine to wire.  I had this woven type of ribbon and just glued the ends together with my glue gun.
Side Straps
Hey, it works! And you can see how I put them on the pantry door.  I measured and hung them with screws that had a large head on them. After they were hung, I tightened the screw to hold in place. Pretty simple.

They don't bang around when I open the door and none have fallen.  I can find all of my spices sooo easy and they are organized so I don't use the wrong one... :P
Spice Rack Complete

Sweet!!

And now look at my pantry shelf..... I even labeled some of my flat container spices. Love it!!
Pantry 'After' Shelf
Blessings,
 photo New Lori 100_zps2lw4mgnc.jpg

26 comments

  1. I don't know how you came up with that, but good job! Looks great!

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    1. Wow, this is an ingenious idea! Thank you so much. I am going to try it.

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    2. Great idea..... going to do this for my spices. Thank you for the idea.

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  2. Hi! Thank you! I'm all about easy and cheap!! Thanks for stopping by! Blessings!

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  3. Wow! That's genious. Love it. Thank u for sharing.

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  4. great idea for craft supplies also!!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!

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  5. Can't wait to share with my friend, she went online...found them (almost identical) but expensive and shipping made them out of her range.

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  6. I am so gonna try this....I have to wear a hard hat when I open my spice cabinet lol...danger zone for sure! And buying the supplies for that cheap makes this project even better! Thanks for the idea!

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  7. Brilliant and then some. Thanks so much.

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  8. I look at those racks at Dollar Tree all the time, thinking I could do something with those, but what? And there you are, I plan to use that same idea in other places as well, especially in pantry for cake decorating supplies, etc.

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  9. Great idea if you choose to store your spices at room temp. You are very creative. I have always kept my spices and seasonings in the door shelves of my deep freeze. They stay fresh indefinitely. I use round labels on top of each container to easily identify them. They are stored in alphabetical order. I also keep a list of the spices I have on hand so I don't duplicate. Storing this way also allows me to buy some spices in bulk at a lower price. No worry about them going stale or loosing their flavor.

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  10. Nice,easy and cheap: what else could be better? congratulations!

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  11. I love this! I think it would be cool to use silver duct tape (folded onto itself to eliminate the sticky part) in place of ribbons on the sides to match the silver wire.

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  12. Oh my goodness.....I had purchased some of those racks before but found they didn't support what I was needing them for and I just stuck them away. Now I have a great use for them....'Thank You'! I'm excited about doing this project.

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    1. I love it when I've saved something and then found a great use for them!! Good luck! Thanks for stopping by!

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  13. Great idea. I also use a shoe holder (with all the pockets) as my spice rack. Also on the back of the door :)

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  14. Great idea. I'm so glad you came up with this idea. I just love it.

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  15. Great idea. I clipped the wire that would have the little feet facing the wall and used the 2 segments to seal the ends.

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  16. Thank you for sharing your project! You saved me money and a trip to the hardware store. Was going to make wooden rack but yours is so much better and cost efficient.

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  17. These are AMAZING!! I am going to clean out my spice cabinet (yes, I have a whole cabinet dedicated to spices) and put several of these inside the cabinet door. Unfortunately I don't have a door on my pantry.

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  18. Yeah, Lori! Congratulations for your great idea being in a magazine!!!

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  19. I will have to make some thanks

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  20. You missed a trick! You should use the "feet" that you flattened to hang them - like a hook. Your screws look a bit on the small side - I'd use a washer and screw to make them really secure.

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  21. Bonjour Lori,
    Super idée pour du rangement sur mesure, tellement simple, si peu onéreux. Merci pour ce partage. En revanche, je ne suis pas sûre de trouver ce produit en France. Je vais chercher une alternative... Mille mercis pour vos idées créatives :)

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  22. you could even use the flattened legs as the holder for the screw to make it more secure

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