As someone with three boring-but-functional wall-mounted spice racks—and with clients who often struggle with spice storage—I'm always intrigued by spice storage options which are a bit out of the ordinary. Some of those involve clever ways of using the cabinets as we cover in Part 1, but others make use of walls, counter space and drawers.

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Umbra's Cylindra spice rack, designed by Helen T. Miller and Matt Carr, can be used on the counter or mounted on the wall. The end user turns the black dial to get either small openings for sprinkling or a larger one for pouring more at once.

The Cylindra comes with labels, including side labels, so the cook can easily tell what's where. However, a couple purchasers said the labels didn't stick well. 

This rack would work well for end users who buy spices in bulk rather than those who buy in bottles and tins and might be annoyed by needing to transfer the spices to another container. Since each rack only holds six spices, cooks might want to reserve this for their most commonly used spices, while others are stored elsewhere.

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The Spice Tower Carousel from Prodyne is an eye-catching storage design. The bottles have an interlocking design that keeps them in place, which is great. However, purchasers note the bottles are not air tight and that any measuring spoon larger than 1/2 teaspoon will not fit into the opening. And, once again, there are complaints about the quality of the labels.

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The SpiceStore Carousel from Joseph Joseph is made from glass rather than the plastic used in the Prodyne tower. The bottles have a nice large opening, but don't stack as securely as those in the Prodyne product. 

Both carousels exposure the stored herbs and spices to light, so these will work best for cooks who use their spices quickly or who plan to keep the carousels in a cabinet or pantry. They will appeal to end users who are visually oriented and like to see the spices themselves, not just labels on bottles or tins.

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But for other end users, a simple carousel-style spice rack such as this one from J.K. Adams might work better. These have the advantage of not requiring any unstacking to get to the spices the cook needs.

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What about storing spices in a drawer? If the drawer is tall enough, the bottles might be placed in the drawer, standing up, perhaps in some sort of basket. In this case, the end user will appreciate those few spice companies, such as Morton & Bassett, which label the top of the bottles as well as the side.

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But for shallow drawers, the bottles will need to be stored on their sides. The common way to do this is with a spice tray insert, such as the one from Rev-A-Shelf. These can be trimmed to size with a table saw.

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ShelfGenie of Seattle made this custom insert, which is a less flexible design; it fits many jars, but won't fit things like my paprika spice tin. But it certainly does keep the bottles well organized.

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Another alternative to the tiered insert is YouCopia's SpiceLiner, where the foam keeps the bottles from moving around when the drawer is opened and closed. It's a simple design, but it works well. Trimming to size only requires scissors, not a saw; end users who aren't that handy with tools (including people like me, who don't own a saw) will appreciate this. Again, this is a product for bottles only, not tins.

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The ORGA-LINE Spice Tray Set from Blum lets the end user take a tray out of the drawer and carry it off. As Blum says, "When it's time to cook, the entire tray can easily be removed from the drawer to sit on the countertop, keeping spices where you need them most." This could be useful if the end user often uses a lot of spices when cooking or baking, and those spices need to be stored in a drawer that's not close to where they will be used. But it seems like an unnecessary feature in other situations—and one that will take up counter space, which may be at a premium while the end user is cooking.

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The Spicy Shelf organizes spices around the perimeter of a cupboard. It installs using existing shelf pins or the included freestanding legs. The width is adjustable. 

One purchaser noted there's no lip to keep the jars from falling off the front or sides, which may be an issue for some end users. Others noted some sagging when using a heavier glass jar on the shelves and some bowing in the center when using a wide setting; a design that was somewhat sturdier would have been appreciated. My one other concern: If the end user places the Spicy Shelf around the edges of a cabinet and then fills up the center part with a lot of items, it could be hard to see and reach the spices.