If you cook a lot, like we do, what do you do to store your spices and herbs?

Many of the containers are upwards of 5-6 dollars apiece, rarely less (unless it's a staple like salt and pepper- but we grind our peppercorns- it's still less expensive than the rest),


So, we had heard, a long time ago, that it was better to keep your spices stored in the freezer, that it could triple their shelf life.
Now it seems that our refrigerator is 1/2 filled with condiments, and our freezer is half stocked with spices...

This is ridiculous.

Now that it's winter, I'm moving some of this stuff to the garage. which keeps a constant temperature of about 40. Not good enough for the spices, but a start.

What do you all do?

we just buy it fresh or dryed as needed...... now my folks are from Ireland and they have "one' way of cooking, where you boil what ever till no taste exzist :crazy: and No they dont have salt or pepper in there house , so me and my taste buds have come along way in the last 23 years ....:)

I just buy seasoning as I need it. Unless you are buying spices from a spice store where it's whole then you are wasting space in the freezer.

Actually not much you can do to increase shelf life. Spices release oil over time. Usually you just buy whole items from a reputable spice store and store it in tight tin container and keep them out of direct sunlights. Depending on the spice they last from 6 months to 2 yrs.

But if all of your spices are ground up stuff from the mega market it don't matter how you store it as they already started deteriorating before you even bought the stuff.

I go to my Mom's house and raid her herb garden, with her permission, of course.
Do you have a $0.99 store where you live? They have a ton of spices that are less than half the price of the ones you get in the regular stores. Just saw this last weekend. Never been in one before.