Spicy Shelf - and a Giveaway!

Hi, chickens! I've got a review and a giveaway for you today! A few weeks ago I was contacted by the folks who represent Spicy Shelf and asked if I'd like to do a review. I wasn't going to, but didn't respond right away, either. I'm glad I didn't write back with a no because it became clear soon thereafter that this would be a good thing to have.

I've recently been trying to learn to cook more things than maybe the two or three I know at the side of my extremely capable mother. As I don't have the skills she does sometimes I feel frenzied when she says things like "Now add this before this happens" and I feel all "Gah!" because a poke on the spice shelf as it used to stand was no easy task. Things were crammed in, they'd fall over, you'd invariably find three jars of cloves and two of cumin though they are both things that you'd swear have never been used, and where is the stinkin' minced onion? After some naughty words and quite vocal exclamations as to how this was the least efficient cabinet ever(!!!!) I told my mother "We are trying this thing out!" So I responded and said "Oh, my, yes please!"

Here's a bit of a before of one side of the cabinet (because sometimes I'm dumb and forgot to take one of the other side, but trust me it was in worse shape):

This doesn't look terrible, but when you try to work with it it's not user friendly. The lazy susan is supposed to hold commonly used things, but that's not always the case (because my dad will cook things and nothing ends up where it's supposed to because it's easier to find an empty spot than to finagle things into place on a crammed piece of plastic that spins). That wooden box holds a multitude of spices for things my dad "would like to try," which is why there are multiple jars of the aforementioned cloves and cumin (it's easier to buy new than to dig through this cabinet over the stove).

As my mother emptied her cabinets, I put together the Spicy Shelf. At first I thought it was going to be an Ikea adventure and that we'd need to find a child to help us with assembly, but it was really very easy and the directions quite clear on how to turn all these bits into something usable.

The shelves can be adjusted to be wide or narrow, and there are legs of two different heights that you can attach. This is quite a short cabinet, so we made them as wide as possible and squeezed them in side by side. After putting the rarities towards the back (and tossing some things that were from the Stone Age) the cabinet looked so much roomier and more open. We have a round that goes under the shelf, and then one on the shelf itself.

The things on the top right are the new jars of spices. The others are on and under the shelf. My mother took the lazy susan out this evening as she felt she didn't need it anymore since everything else was so  organized and out of the way. It's hard to tell from this photo but there is so much more room on those shelves now.

This is the other side:

The things not used often are out of the way but still accessible, and everything else is easier to grab as you're not trying to sort through a bunch of stuff that you don't even know why you have in the first place. I asked my mother all week "Do you like it? Is it better? Are you glad we did it? Do you like it?" And she does. There's no fear of things toppling, of having to drag chairs over to climb up and poke around, and no wasted time while you pick up every jar but the one you're looking for.

As I said, these cabinets are quite short, but if you have taller cabinets wherein you try to organize things (be it vitamins, medication, and so on) you can see how these shelves can really help to maximize your space:

source

I'll be honest--at first I thought "Why not just stack things along the back edge without the shelf?" But stacking a bunch of teeny spice jars, one on top of the other, is not fun and not very accessible, and also quite likely to tip when you knock into them.

I should have taken a better before shot, but trust me this is a major improvement. It may not look like the pretty ads, but it really is such a noticeable improvement when you're actually using it.

But wait, there's more!!

Spicy Shelf has generously offered one of my readers one set of two shelves. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me what you'd use them for. Please note that this is open only to readers in the continental US. I'll leave comments open until 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, August 11, 2014. I'll pick a winner the next dayish.

If you'd like to order some of these for yourself (if I had a dedicated sewing room I know I would use these for my little jars of buttons and bag hardware that reside in a shoe box right now, as well as my thread) I've got a discount you can use. When you check out enter the promo code SPICE5 (that's a five, not an 's' at the end) to receive $5.00 off your order.

See you soon!

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the product at no charge in exchange for an honest review. The opinions are completely my own based on my own experience. For my complete disclosure policy, click here.