In our household, my husband owns the “cooking” stack (planning, shopping, dishwashing). Pro: Less managerial mental load. Con: I don’t interact with (or regularly optimize) our food prep systems. Check out our long overdue upgrade with specialized spice and baking storage! 
Time for an Audit
Our food prep systems weren’t bad. 
But great organization is designed around lifestyle, and lifestyles evolve.
| New Behavior | New Requirement |
|---|---|
My husband dramatically leveled up his cooking and baking skills! 
|
He deserves the best tools and space. |
| Our set of regularly-used spices, flours, and grains expanded and diversified. | Better storage!  
|
| We host our friends and their multiple kids at least once a week for dinner. | Cooking and baking in larger quantities (efficiently and cleanly) is important. |
So for Father’s Day this year, I decided on a quick kitchen upgrade!
Exhibit A. Spices
Iteration 1: Original Spice Organization
Commonly-used spices were stored in a vertical rack in the cabinet right next to the stove, and “backstock” (refills) were stored in the pantry.
Emerging Spicy Problems
Complementary spices, not backstock, started to accumulate in the pantry as recipes became more adventurous. 
My husband began leaving additional spice jars around the kitchen, or otherwise he would inefficiently head back to the pantry to grab spices as needed. 
Eventually, the hard-to-see pantry inventory led to half-empty containers and accidental purchases of duplicate spices we already had! 
Spices are sold by weight, not volume. I hadn’t realized that 3oz spice jars would rarely fit the full contents of a newly-purchased spice, but a 4oz spice jar would! 
The new stoveside salt well requires frequent refilling, so purchasing salt in a much larger (and harder to store) box was more efficient and economical.
The Spices Fix!
So I got to work…
I moved all of our spices into 4oz square jars that wouldn’t roll around on a new spice rack that now extends the full width of the cabinet to store frequently-accessed spices. The salt refill box is now on the top cabinet shelf (instead of the pantry closet) next to the masala dabba.
The pantry now houses complementary (not overflow) spices by design, except in rare cases where a newly purchased spice isn’t immediately transferrable in its entirety to a 4oz jar. Lids are labeled! 
Exhibit B. Flours
Iteration 1: Bulk grain buckets
We had been using 5-gallon food-safe buckets for storing all sorts of specialty grains and flours that we pick up in bulk once per year through our grain share CSA.
Emerging Baking Problems
However…
Above: the atrocity of grain storage inside the food-safe bins.
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
 Grains were getting lost in nondescript, opaque brown bags. |
Transparent, flour-ready containers! |
Whole-wheat blends need multiple raw ingredients, which requires storage of multiple (identical-looking) flours and their unprocessed groat/berry counterparts.   
|
Great labeling! 
|
Countertop stand mixer is far from baking ingredients. The mixer is too heavy to move, and the pantry ingredients are too far to transfer (without spills from our increasingly contributing kiddo sous-chefs  ). |
Countertop flour storage! |
The Flour Fix!
So I began reading about professional baking kitchens. I decided on ProKeeper+ containers, which may be the overkill option, but we’re committed to this optimization thing, and it’s Father’s Day, after all! 
The flour containers fit standard-sized bags and include magnetic levelers! I added an expandable cabinet shelf to cleanly stack more flours right on the counter along with mixer attachments.
Even though everything is on the counter, it doesn’t feel cluttered and the whole baking setup is tucked out of sight behind the refrigerator.
In the pantry, we finally ditched the opaque bins, and began storing other specialty flours and sugars in ProKeeper+ containers on the shelf. The unmilled grains are stored in 16-cup Rubbermaid Brilliance containers directly behind their milled counterparts.
In the corner, I added a 15” lazy susan for infrequently used baking ingredients.
The brown sugar container includes a terracotta disc to prevent clumping, and the powdered sugar container comes with a dusting spoon.
Cost (New Products)
It feels silly to detail “costs”, because the amazing bread and baked goodies all three of my boys make me is priceless. 
Making chapatis to accompany their mattar paneer! 
Yum, our Drożdżowe Bułki z Makiem (Polish poppy seed swirls). 
My (minor, hopefully helpful) contribution to the family baking escapades is to at least make our spaces look good and function as well as possible !
| Materials | Cost (+ tax/shipping) |
|---|---|
| 4-pack ProKeeper+ 4-qt large flour containers | $106.23 |
| 2 boxes 4oz spice jars | $57.32 |
| 5-piece ProKeeper+ baking containers | $51.91 |
| 2-pack ProKeeper+ 1.5-qt specialty flour containers | $42.49 |
| expandable countertop shelf | $34.07 |
| 16” wide spice rack | $24.43 |
| 15” lazy susan | $12.75 |
| TOTAL | $329.20 |
Shilpa Kobren is the Associate Director of Rare Disease Analysis at Harvard Medical School where she focuses on analyzing genomic sequencing data with patient clinical information to derive insights into human diseases. Shilpa lives in an 1890s urban apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two energetic toddlers. She retains her sense of peace amid the chaos by creating and iteratively improving systems that optimize daily efficiency in her family's constrained living space.