When left to her own devices for a few hours in the Tiny House, Jamie inevitably comes up with a home improvement project that will enable a better use of our limited space, and yesterday was no exception. Up to now we’ve had our cooking spices (and other odds and ends) on a narrow board that sits above and slightly behind our stove.
old spice rack over the stove
This has been effective for the most part, but it makes me nervous that the spices tend to get pretty hot while we’re cooking. Also, we decided the shelf would be a better location to store drinking glasses. Jamie pulled out her trusty measuring tape (I swear – we only have 120 square feet but the woman has like 7 measuring tapes), examined the available space and noted that removing the gravity fed water system left a lovely 18″ x 14″ space on the side of our food cabinet, which would allow for shelves about 6″ deep.
measuring for the spice rack
We hemmed and hawed a bit about whether it should have a side (I voted no, Jamie voted yes) and she came up with a compromise we’re both happy with. Each shelf has a 2.5″ side on the end away from the wall which keeps the spices where they belong but doesn’t completely block the shelves off. I was a little concerned with completely walling that 6″ space off as we need to protect what openness we have in the house. Jamie’s solution (as usual) balanced form with function and she created something that works well and looks pretty darn great too!
one shelf up!
finished spice rack
You may notice that our spices are often glass jars with tape labels. One way we’ve found to save a TON of money is buying spices in bulk and filling the jars ourselves. We occasionally will buy new jars for new spices, but by finding the spices themselves at bulk prices and adding them to the jars ourselves, we pay a fraction of the price charged for spice jars at the grocery store. Just your helpful cost-saving tip for today!
Tiny House Adventures 