Labs are always throwing away random stuff. I was wandering around the halls a while back and found a couple of boxes of perfectly good scintillation vials. They’re the nice glass ones with the bakelite screwtop lids, in 2 sizes. Normally, these are used in conjunction with a scintillation counter to measure radioactivity. It turns out you can also find very similar vials at the Container Store, but they aren’t nearly as cool as my real scintillation vials!

With the help of a Christmas present gift certificate from my aunt Andy, I found a nice rack at Cost Plus World Market. I also got a Xyron sticker machine (the little $10 one, you don’t need the big expensive one for this) from Margie (my mother) for Christmas. I had some pretty labels I got somewhere, too. I scanned these into my computer and resized them and typed in the names of the spices I have. I printed them out on normal paper, then covered the paper with clear contact paper. Then, I put the sticker backing on with the sticker machine and stuck them on the (sterilized) vials. I have one row of leafy herbs and one row of more powdery spices. The rack I got has little screwholes on it to hang it by. They’re little bottles, so they generally don’t hold an entire bottle of stuff, but I keep all the extra up on a high shelf, so these are much easier to rummage through and refill when necessary. I’m very pleased with it.

If I were to redo it, I would put the labels on the tall bottles higher up, so they show over the little bottles. Oh well. Also, be sure to keep the file with the labels in case you buy a new spice.