DIY Spice Drawer Organizer

Hello, my name is Amanda and I cannot seem to keep an organized spice drawer. What is it about spice drawers (or cabinets)? Why are they always a disaster? Why is this so hard?! I don’t know if this applies to everyone, but it feels like this is something I’ve always struggled with. In fact, I published this post a few years ago and am republishing it because I had to recently had to renew my organization efforts for the spice drawer. So, here we are again.

I think this time it’s going to stick. The first time I tackled this project, I left a few lingering tasks that really left things open to unraveling. But this time around, it’s gonna work. I can feel it in my bones.

This DIY spice drawer organizer is so simple to build. It’ll take you around an hour and can be done with just two tools. You’ll only need about $10 in wood. And it’ll (hopefully) transform your spices forever.

I mean, is there really anything more you could ask for?!

This is a great project for small kitchens, kitchens with a not-so-awesome pantry (raising my hand here), a lack of counter space, or any kitchen that just needs some help with extra storage and organization.

That just about covers all of us, right?

Video Tutorial: How to Build a Spice Drawer Organizer

Love watching things come together? Here’s a compilation of my Instagram stories from building this wood spice drawer insert that will walk you step by step through the process. Watch, then read on for the full, detailed tutorial.

DIY Spice Organization

Step One: Measure Your Drawer and Jars

First up, you have three separate measurements you need to take for your planning. This is an important step and if you rush past it, things might not fit the way you want them to!

The drawer

Start by measuring the width of the drawer you plan to use as a spice drawer.

We have a very wide drawer that we’re working with (and we have lots of spices). So, I made each of my spice rack shelves 2′ long. This leaves a little bit of space over to the side for our larger spice containers or things that just don’t make sense for the spice jars I bought.

You’ll also want to measure how far your drawer pulls out to see how many spice racks you can fit. Typically, a standard spice jar is about 4″ tall, so you can assume about 4.5″ for each spice rack shelf. I started with a three-tier system, but I was able to fit four tiers comfortably.

The spice jars

Once you know the dimensions of your drawer and how many spice racks you want to make, take the largest spice jar you plan to place on the shelves and measure how tall it is. Personally, I prefer a more uniform look so I bought a big set of glass jars from Amazon and transferred all of our spices over. You don’t have to decant your spices into new jars, though, of course!

Just measure the tallest spice jar you plan to place on the rack, then add about 1/2″ to it for a little bit of breathing room. My spice jars were 4″ tall, so I went with 4.5″ for this measurement.

The drawer height

Finally, you need to know the depth of the drawer so you know what the best angle is for your spice rack risers.

There’s probably some complicated mathematical formula you can do to determine this angle, but I took the (much easier) route of just holding up a spice jar and measuring it!

Hold one of your jars at an angle so that it’s close to the top of the drawer but not past it. You want to be able to close the drawer once everything is in place! Then, grab a tape measure and see what the space is from the bottom of the drawer to the bottom of the top part of the spice jar, as shown in the photo above.

This measurement is what you’ll use for the risers on the spice rack. For me, it was 1.5″!

Step Two: Cut Plywood

Now, you’re ready to start cutting your plywood.

You’ll need two pieces of plywood for each spice rack shelf you place in the drawer. One will be wider and will be where you rest the spice jar, and the other will be the riser that adds an angle.

For my drawer, my base was 4.5″ and my riser was 1.5″.

Cut four of each of these pieces to create four shelves. I used my circular saw for this, but if you have a table saw that’s even easier!

I’d highly recommend clamping a level to the plywood as you work to help you cut in a straight line. You can see a detailed look at what I mean on this post!

After you cut all of the pieces for your spice racks, you’re almost done. Seriously!

A quick note: Once I placed my spice racks in the drawer, I realized the first row pushed the spice jars up a bit due to the front of the drawer. There are two easy ways to remedy this:

1. You could just make the base of the first spice rack 1/2″ longer to account for this.
2. You can cut some small pieces of scrap plywood to set in front of the spice rack. This pushes it away and lets the jars sit the correct way. This is the method I used!

Step Three: Assemble Spice Racks

Now, you’re ready to assemble your spice drawer organizer!

There are multiple ways you could go about this, but I think the wood glue + brad nails method is probably the fastest, easiest, and most reliable.

All you need to do is add a line of wood glue along the edge of the plywood and line the second piece up where you want it. Then, add a few brad nails to hold everything in place while the glue dries.

I also grabbed a couple of clamps (these are my favorite) to give everything some extra support as I was assembling, and as glue was drying. Sometimes it can be hard to wrangle all of the pieces and keep everything in place while you work. A clamp can act as a second set of hands!

Once I let the glue dry on the spice racks and I knew they were fully secure, I used some wood filler to cover the small nail holes. This isn’t a totally necessary step, but makes things a little more polished. Then, the spice racks were complete and ready to go into place!

Step Four: Organize Your Spice Drawer!

With the spice racks built, I was ready to get my herbs organized. “Installation” only took about 10 seconds, as I just tossed each of the spice racks into the counter. If you want to add a drawer liner to the bottom of your drawer first, it will help things stay put.

With the spice racks in place, I grabbed my new spice bottles and the labels and went to town.

The first time we did this, I let my husband organize them and he chose to group spices by vibes. I don’t even know how else to explain it – it was chaos. The paprika was next to the cinnamon and I could ever find the oregano. It was a mess. Plus, we ended up with a lot of duplicates because we couldn’t find anything! But, at the time, he did most of the cooking so I didn’t argue. Now, I’m back to doing the cooking so I organized them alphabetically like a sane person.

I love that with this setup we can see all of our spices at a glance. We don’t have to dig around to find what we need! This is a much better way to keep things organized, and it saves so much cabinet space.

If you purchase a spice drawer insert, countertop spice rack, or a tiered spice rack for your upper cabinets, you’ll likely end up spending upwards of $50 to get all of your spices organized. But, with this DIY method I was able to do the whole thing for under $20!

I’m genuinely kind of in love with how this turned out. It might sound silly but there’s something about having a tiny little corner of your home be totally organized that’s so dang satisfying!