How many spices do you have in your Southern California home? It doesn’t matter if you are a master chef, avid cook, and/or food enthusiast, spices are likely something that you have in your home. How many cooking spices does the average household have? We are going to dig in to see just how common spices are in a home and review how to properly store them.
How Many Cooking Spices Does the Average Household Have?
Have you ever gone to make a new recipe, only to find that it calls for some spice that you don’t have or have never even heard of? Usually that leads us to head to the store to purchase that key ingredient and then it is forgotten and never used again. Over time, this can lead to a rather large spice collection, likely filled with items you don’t even know you have or know what they are used for. You are not alone.
In data calculated by Statista, based on the U.S. Census data and Simmons National Consumer Survey (NHCS), it was found that 300.62 million Americans used seasonings and spices in 2020 and this figure is projected to increase to 309.03 million in 2024. A U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed that Americans have dramatically embraced spices over the past 50 years. Per capita spice consumption in 1966 was 1.2 pounds annually, while that figure more than tripled by 2015 to 3.7 pounds (NPR.org).
Whether you are a seasoned chef or leisure home cook, you likely know that keeping stocked up on spices is key to taking your cooking and flavors to the next level.
How Long do Spices Last?
While having a collection of spices can up your food game, it can also take up space, and they can go bad over time. Generally speaking, most spices and herbs only have a shelf life of around 1 to 3 years. Overtime, spices can lose flavor, making them ineffective to use in your cooking.
Dried herbs usually fall into the 1 to 3 year timeframe: basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, parsley, dill, mint, etc. Ground or powdered spices have around a 2 to 3 year shelf life: ginger, garlic, cinnamon, chili powder, turmeric, allspice, paprika, red pepper flakes, etc. Whole spices can generally, if stored properly, stay good for 4 years: peppercorns, mustard seeds, cloves, cinnamon sticks, lemongrass, etc. There is only a couple of items that most people have within their spice collection that can last indefinitely: vanilla extract and salt.
It doesn’t matter how many cooking spices the average household has, if they are outdated, they are basically ineffective.
Spice Storage Solutions
Spices, like other items in your Southern California home that you can’t easily locate so you forget about them or buy more, can benefit by being stored effectively. One of the best ways to store spices, in terms of organization, is in a spice drawer or cabinet. The key to storing these flavor enhancing ingredients is to keep them in a place where you can easily see everything that you have and get to them when you need them. If you are in the middle of cooking and have to search for a spice, you may give up, buy more, or have a mess to clean up from your search.
You can add spice rollouts to your kitchen or pantry to store your spices in a way that you can easily locate them, is out of the way and not taking up counter space, and so you can see what you have each and every time; hopefully helping to prevent aged spices and double purchases.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to storage solutions for your Southern California home. When it comes to selecting a spice storage option that is convenient and best suited for you and your family, it is important to remember that your cabinet shelves were not designed with you in mind. Rollout shelving could be the solution you were looking for to transform your home. Rollouts offer a solution for those hard to reach, messy and unused areas, forgotten items, or other things way in the back of the shelf, like spices.
If an item is easy to reach, find, and use, you’re more likely to use it. Think about how many times you have left something out on the counter just because you know you will need it again and it’s a hassle to get it out. When your storage is convenient, you will get more, from not only the storage solution, but from your other items as well.
At Rollouts Quick, Inc. we manufacture and install rollout solutions that are suited for every room in your home. It doesn’t matter how many cooking spices you have in your household, our rollouts are customized to create more organized and useable space for your specific needs. Your entire cabinet can be easily accessible.
Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn more.