If you've ever dug through a spice drawer for the cumin, only to find two half-empty jars of it behind the paprika, you know the problem. A spice drawer works when you can read every label from above, grab the jar you want without moving three others, and close the drawer without anything catching. The order you work in matters more than anything you buy, so start with the spices you already have, not an organizer. Your jars' number, shape, and height decide everything else. For organizing the rest of your kitchen, see How to Organize Kitchen Drawers.

The whole process is six steps:

1. Empty the drawer and take a real inventory.
2. Sort duplicates and read what the packaging tells you.
3. Group jars by how you cook, then choose a layout you can see into.
4. Measure the drawer's width, depth, and closing height, and test your tallest jars.
5. Load the drawer by reach, and put the older jar of any pair in front.
6. Do a short reset often enough to keep the layout working.

Now, onto emptying the drawer.

Tip: Your tallest jar or grinder decides whether the drawer closes. Stand it in the empty drawer and close it slowly before you buy anything.

Start by emptying the drawer and taking inventory

Take everything out and put it on the counter. It's the only reliable way to see what you have, and spices lined up on a counter often look different from how they seemed in the drawer: three kinds of paprika, two half-used jars of cumin, a bag of cinnamon that never had a home. If you plan from memory, you'll end up with a layout that doesn't fit what you actually own.

As you unload, note four things about each item:

• Shape: square supermarket jars, round screw-top jars, tall grinders, and flat tins all sit differently.
• Height: your tallest item sets the clearance for the whole drawer.
• How many you have: the number of jars you'll keep, not the size of the drawer, tells you how much space you need.
• How often you use it: this decides which jars go up front later.

Set refill pouches and bulk bags aside as you go. Those belong in the pantry, and any space they take in the drawer is space your everyday jars don't get. Note which refills go with jars you already have, since that matters in the next step. Also pull out anything that's in the drawer out of habit but isn't a spice, like baking powder, sprinkles, or loose tea. It may still belong in the kitchen, just not in your spice drawer.

Once the drawer is empty, wipe it out. Ground spices work their way into the corners, and they're much easier to clean before an organizer goes in. It's also a good time to check the drawer itself. A loose or sticking slide, or a drawer front that sits crooked, is easier to fix while the drawer is empty.

Sort duplicates and read what the packaging tells you

Duplicates are the quickest way to free up space, but don't combine them. Keep both jars and plan to finish the older one before opening the newer one. Each jar has its own packed date and storage instructions, and pouring one into the other leaves you with a jar that matches neither. If two jars are actually different products with similar names, like smoked and sweet paprika or Ceylon and cassia cinnamon, keep both and label them clearly so you don't buy a third by mistake.

Next, read the packaging. Many spice makers print a best-by, packed-on, or lot date, and some give storage advice for their products. Follow that advice for that jar, since the people who packed it wrote it. Not every container has a date, especially bulk spices bought loose. For those, you can write down when you opened them, which is covered in step 5.

Then deal with the old ones. Most dried spices lose flavor over time, so a faded jar won't hurt you, but it won't do much for your cooking either. If a jar is past its printed date, or has no date and you can't remember buying it, test it: crush a pinch between your fingers and smell it. If the scent is faint or the color has faded, replace it. Throw out anything that's clumped from moisture or shows any sign of mold or bugs, whatever the date says.

That's also a good reason to keep spices in their original containers when you can. The original jar has the name, the packer, and any printed date. If you'd rather move everything into matching jars, copy the name and printed date onto each new jar as you fill it, not later. A row of identical, unlabeled jars is a bigger problem than the mismatched collection you started with.

A few more things to keep in mind as you sort:

• Whole and ground versions of the same spice often come with different storage advice. Follow whatever's on the container in front of you.
• Rarely used blends don't need to leave the kitchen. They just don't belong in the front row.
• Heat matters. A closed drawer keeps spices out of the light, which is one of its real advantages over a counter rack. But a drawer right next to the oven or under the cooktop gets warmer than the rest of the kitchen. If you have a choice, use a cooler drawer.

Group by how you cook, then lay the drawer out so you can see it

There's no single right way to group spices, only the way that matches how you cook. Three approaches cover most kitchens, so pick one on purpose instead of defaulting to alphabetical because it sounds tidy.

• By how often you use them: put the dozen or so jars you reach for every week in the easiest spots, and everything else behind or beside them. It's the fastest to cook with, though it looks less uniform.
• By cuisine: keep cumin, coriander, and turmeric together, and oregano, basil, and fennel together. This suits cooks who reach for the same three or four jars at once.
• Alphabetically: this helps once your collection is big enough that finding a name is faster than scanning. In a smaller collection, it scatters your most-used spices all over the drawer.

Salt and pepper usually sit outside whatever system you pick. You use them much more often, and they're often better kept by the stove. Grinders need their own decision, too. They're taller than most jars and will set the clearance for the whole drawer if they share it.

Once you've chosen a grouping, aim for a layout where every jar sits in a single layer, if your drawer allows it. Stacking jars behind or on top of each other is what turns a quick grab into a search. You look into a drawer from above, so the label has to face up. Upright jars show you their lids, so the name belongs on the lid. Jars on an angled row show one side, so label that side and turn it the same way as the jars next to it. For wording, placement, and dating, see How to Label Spice Jars for a Drawer.

Measure the drawer before you buy anything

Measure three things inside the drawer: the width at its narrowest point, the depth of the flat bottom from front to back, and the clearance from the bottom of the drawer to whatever's above it, like a cabinet frame or countertop lip. People usually skip that last one, and it's the one that decides whether the drawer still closes once it's full. How to Measure for Drawer Organizers walks you through each measurement.

Measure your jars, too. Write down the height and widest point of your tallest jar, your widest jar, and any grinder you'll keep in the drawer. Those numbers tell you whether upright jars or an angled row will work before you look at a single product page.

Then test it. Stand your tallest jar and tallest grinder in the empty drawer, close it slowly, and watch for anything that touches. Check the hardware, too. Slides, a soft-close mechanism, or a curved back panel can take up more room than your tape measure suggested.

Width is the measurement most likely to be an unusual size, which is why KitchenEdge's spice drawer organizers are expandable. All four, in natural bamboo, black, white, and acacia, expand from 10.5 to 18.5 inches wide and are 17.4 inches deep. Check those numbers against yours before you buy, and remember that expanding only changes the width. Depth and closing height still have to fit on their own. For help choosing between formats, see How to Choose a Spice Drawer Organizer. If your drawer is too shallow for any drawer organizer, the 3-tier shelves in the Spice Storage collection are made for cabinets and countertops instead.

Load the drawer by reach, and put the older jar of any pair in front

Where a jar goes depends on how often you use it and how old it is, so handle both in one pass. The jar you use most should be where your hand lands without looking, and the older of any two matching jars should be the one you reach first. Load the drawer in this order:

1. Jars you use every week go in the front row.
2. Jars you use regularly, but less often, fill the middle.
3. Seasonal and specialty spices go at the back, or somewhere else entirely.
4. Wherever you have two of the same spice, the older jar goes in front of the newer one.

To use your oldest spices first, go by the best-by or expiration date printed on the package, and add the month and year you opened each jar where you can see it from above: on the lid for upright jars, or on the visible side for angled rows. The printed date and storage instructions are the packer's guidance and always come first. Your open date is just a note about how long that jar has been open in your kitchen.

When you buy a replacement for something you still have, don't put it in front. Put the new jar behind the old one, finish the old one, then move the new one forward. If you do this every time, you won't end up with a drawer full of three-quarters-empty duplicates.

Keep the drawer working with a short reset

A spice drawer falls out of order gradually. Jars go back in the nearest gap instead of their own spot, refills come in a different shape from the jar they replace, and a few months later the layout is gone. Two habits prevent most of that, and neither costs anything.

The first is putting each jar back in its own spot instead of the nearest open one. It takes two seconds, and it's what keeps a layout working. The second is a reset on a schedule you'll actually keep. Spend five minutes a month straightening rows, putting stray jars back, and moving the older of any duplicate pair to the front. Then do a longer review twice a year, when your cooking changes with the seasons: take everything out, check dates and labels, wipe the drawer, and reload it in the same order.

Some changes are worth dealing with right away instead of waiting: a new grinder that doesn't clear the drawer, a bulk purchase in a container twice the size of the old one, or a few weeks of cooking that moves four jars from the back to the front.

Notice which jars keep ending up in the wrong place. If the same jar lands somewhere other than its spot every week, its spot is wrong. Move it forward and send something you use less often to the back. Leave a little empty space, too. A drawer packed to the last inch is slow to use and even slower to put back.