Sometimes little used spices sit in our spice racks for years–even decades.  After all, how many times a year do you really need poultry seasoning or pumpkin pie spice?  But, did you know that ground spices can lose their flavor after a few years?  Here’s how to know when to throw out your kitchen spices, and start over:

Basic Guidelines: How long do spices last? According to OChef, ground spices maintain their freshness for 2 to 3 years, and whole spices such as cinnamon sticks maintain their freshness for 4 years, and probably even longer.

The Nose Knows: Open up the container and give it a little shake.  Does it have the same robust smell you remember?  Is there any smell?  If not, pitch it.

Cool Tool: McCormick offers a How Old Are Your Spices online tool for determining the age of your McCormick spices.  Enter the code on the bottom of the container, and they’ll tell you exactly when the spice was packaged. Just FYI- if your McCormick spices are in metal tins, they are at least 15 years old!  Time for a shopping trip!

The spice rack above will hold 16 different spices.  It’s made of sugar maple, has a rotating base, and the bottles are included.  If found it at Kitchen Universe.

We have a lot of open shelving in our kitchen that was becoming a chaotic mess. I wanted to have a sense of pleasure when looking at my kitchen, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money rebuilding the whole thing. Here are some cheap and easy ideas to help beautify your kitchen clutter.

• spice rack - I found mine at an antique mall for $12, but they’re also relatively cheap brand new. Mine is pretty and practical; it hangs on the wall close to the stove where I use it. It has a drawer for extra, odd-shaped cooking ingredients (like boullion cubes, etc) and an extra shelf for taller condiments.
• cookie jars - Once again you can pick up a flee market bargain or buy new. These are great for anything you want to keep fresh or for any extras like plastic flatware and take-out condiments.
• canning jars - I picked up some of the old style at the antique mall, but you can still buy them new online. These are great for beans, rice, nuts, pasta, tea etc. or even silverware and cooking spoons.
• trays and bowls - You might even have extra decorative ones around. Putting things like vitamins, condiments, tea boxes, etc. on a tray or in a bowl suddenly makes it look organized.
• utility racks - with these you can hang almost anything from utensils to bowls and pots.