Kitchen organization is a work in progress for many of us. It seems that once you get one cabinet organized, another becomes a bottomless pit of forgotten foodstuffs. The worst offender is often the spice cabinet or spice drawer or wherever all the seasonings end up at the end of the day. Instead of digging to find them, organize them–with science!
This periodic table of spices was built by Wayne Hammond who was suffering from an out of control spice drawer. It was hideous.
Hammond came up with a brilliant solution that not only makes use of an otherwise unused space in his kitchen, but adds a wonderful nerdy bit of science to his cooking. He designed a periodic table of spices using botanical taxonomy as his foundation. This yielded a fantastic chart that looks just like the periodic table of elements, but with things like garlic, chives, and parsley.
He constructed the whole thing in a spot housing a doorless kitchen cabinet that measured 11″d x 17″w x 30″h and originally held wine bottles. He removed the wine bottle racks and had metal shelves built to hold his spices. The chart he developed is now on the walls of the cabinet and it’s all highlighted by a spotlight. It’s just that cool.
You can get the full details on how it was made over at Make including a downloadable PDF of the periodic table. It’ll make you feel like a mad scientist every time you cook!
(via ThatsNerdalicious)
My older son has recently discovered the power and glory of spices and would love this! I’ll need to show him the PDF. I’m not quite sure we can completely reproduce that rack design, unfortunately.
His “messy spice drawer” looks like my “neatest spice shelf”