HI love a nice cup of tea to help me unwind in the evenings. But, I’ll be honest…my tea bag collection was in quite a disarray up until recently! After a particular incident occurred that involved boxes of tea tumbling out of my cabinet, I decided to invest some time and energy into organizing tea.
This is part of a wider project where I’m working on slowly getting our home more efficiently organized, and things are coming along nicely.
One of the smaller projects involved organizing the tea shelf in my cupboard. I love drinking herbal tea but I do not like how the tea boxes clutter up my cupboard.
There were a few issues with my old method of tea storage. The tea boxes took up a lot of room in my cupboard. I couldn’t offer visiting friends and family a selection of tea without the whole load tumbling down. And it was hard to tell how much tea was left. I’ve reached into a box only to discover it’s empty, more times than I can count. Naturally, I blame that on Nate. 🙂
Searching for the Perfect Tea Organizer
First, I searched online for tea organizers. I tried Amazon
. Then, I looked at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I couldn’t find one tea organizer that would do what I needed, fit my cupboard space, and fit my budget. Honestly, I thought it would be easy but it was surprisingly challenging!
What I needed was a simple frugal solution for organizing my tea.
So I looked at what I had on hand and came up with this easy idea. The cost? Less than $1.00. Now that’s what I call frugal!
DIY Tea Organizer
Granted, this DIY solution isn’t as fancy as some of the wooden engraved boxes you can pick up in those fancy tea shop. But, it works! And, I put this together using items I already had at home—I’m betting you have them too!
Tea Organizing Supplies:
- small plastic bins
- sandwich or quart ziploc bags
How to Organize Tea Step by Step
First, choose your storage bins.
You can use whatever you have on hand, but you’ll want to make sure your boxes actually fit inside the bins (see images below for a good visual).
I have both individually wrapped tea bags and tea bags that aren’t wrapped. Here’s how to organize both!
How to Organize Individually Wrapped Tea Bags
The individually wrapped tea bags were the easiest to organize. I cut the lids off a couple of tea boxes and sorted the tea using the tea boxes themselves.
As I was organizing, I came across multiple open boxes of the same exact tea. I tried to condense them all into one box, but I had a few kinds that were still overflowing.
Extra tea went into a large zippered bag that I keep in my storage pantry. When I need to restock my tea shelf, it’s easy to find exactly what I want.
Storage for Tea Bags that are Unwrapped
It’s one thing to organize individually wrapped and labeled tea bags. But how would I organize tea like Celestial Seasonings that aren’t wrapped?
One full box of Celestial Seasonings tea fits nicely into a zipper sandwich bag. By cutting off the labeled side of the tea box and putting it in the bag, the tea was now labeled and sorted nicely. Problem solved!
This method of organizing only takes a few seconds to do. Plus I only need to cut up the tea box when I buy a new variety, as I can reuse the bag and box label again and again.
I was able to condense all my Celestial Seasonings tea boxes down to one small plastic bin. It’s a huge improvement!
I love how organized my tea shelf is now.
Not only can I find everything in a glance, easily hand one or both containers to guests as they choose which tea, and see exactly when I’m running low and need to buy more, but now I have more space in my cupboard!
What’s your favorite way to organize tea bags?
More Simple Organizing Posts:
- DIY Recipe Binder to Keep Recipes Organized
- The Easy Way to Organize School Papers
- How to Organize Kids Clothes
- The Simple Way to Organize a Makeup Drawer
Just pin it below to find the instructions later!
Theresa says
Ooooh seriously! I love you! And I we have all the same Celestial Seasonings tea! It takes up an entire cabinet. This will make such a difference!
Erika says
I’m glad to help, Theresa! It’s so simple as you can see..and makes such a big difference! Have fun!
Lynne says
Thank you for this idea! I put my baggies in a clear flat plastic container. No more tea boxes piled a mile high in the pantry!
Dawn says
I have a tea shelf that looks much like your before pic. I love tea, but those boxes can be bulky when you get a few. I love your idea and I have some of those exact baskets so I think I will do that to mine! Thanks for the idea!
Erika says
You’re welcome, Dawn – thanks for reading!
Gena says
What a great idea! I hate digging through the pantry to find the kind of tea I want!
Erika says
Me too, Gena!
Debi says
I love the way your organized it all. Very nice and condensed. And is that egg nog tea?
paula schuck says
Oh my gosh that is simple and clever and frugal too. Nice job!
Sabrina says
Would also love to hear {and see} about your closet reorganization…. 🙂
Erika says
Ahhh yes, I will share that soon! Thanks Sabrina!
Ellen Christian says
That’s a really good idea. I have like 15 boxes cluttering up my pantry right now. I know there’s an easier way to do it.
Nichol says
SO simple. I need to do this with my tea and hubby’s!
Amy says
I have a LOT more tea than you do, so I had to move my teas out of cupboards and drawers; they just took up too much space. I love my storage method now. I bought an over-the-door shoe rack, the kind with horizontal bars, not pockets. I hung that over my pantry door and it holds something like 80 different teas (I have 50+). The boxes of teas fit perfectly, and the teas I only have a few packets of are organized into four or five tupperware boxes–red tea, black tea, herbal tea, and miscellaneous. Miscellaneous holds things like oolong, white, and others that I only have one or two bags of. That way my tea stash isn’t taking up cupboard or drawer space, it’s out of the way, organized, and it’s easy to see what teas I have and where they are.
Erika says
Great idea, Amy. That’s organizing at it’s finest – doing what works for you! I’d love to see a photo sometime if you get a chance. Thanks for sharing!
thecoolmom says
Love the idea for CS Teas. I have all my tea that comes in closed packets in a large glass cookie jar, but that doesn’t work for the CS tea. I’ll definitely be trying your idea. Thanks!
Erika says
Glad to help! Thanks for reading!
Brenda says
Great tips here! I, too, like to drink a variety of herbal teas and just don’t have the space to keep them all in their boxes. I like how you have the bags with different types of tea in each “stacked” sort of like a file folder to be able to flip through.
Sara B says
Found your blog after typing in a Google search: “how to organize celestial seasoning tea.” My tea collection looks very similar to your before pics. But the mess will soon be organized! Thanks for the simple solution!
Erika says
Glad to help, Sara! Thanks for stopping by. Have a fantastic week!
Tara says
Thank you! I have so many i think i need a seperate cabinet for my tea. All the tins of loose leaf take up so much space, but I’ll do this for my bag and boxed teas, thank you!
Erika says
You’re welcome, Tara. Thanks for stopping by! Good luck!
Kelly says
Perfect solution for the CS teas!
Laura says
Ahaha, thank you, I’ve been keeping my tea boxes piled in a basket on top of my fridge and they fall down all the time, so I finally decided to search for organizing ideas but all I found until now was for individually wrapped tea bags; I was thinking I wanted to keep them in the boxes but cutting the top off the box for labeling makes so much sense I probably could’ve thought of it if I had more practice with creative thinking lately. I should work on that. Anyway I see this is a couple years old but thanks for writing this post! 🙂
K Braseth says
BLESS YOU – so many articles about how to organise tea flippantly say, Put the (individually wrapped) tea bags in this lovely case – or put your loose tea in all these tins –
I always wondered what I should google to figure out how to store those unwrapped tea bags, without the flavours mingling. Finally, a REAL solution from an actual tea drinker – bonus that it’s a frugal solution,
Erika says
I’m glad I could help. Thanks for commenting! 🙂
from the desk of me says
Great idea! I love that it’s budget-friendly.
Leslie says
This is a FANTASTIC solution. Just what I was looking for, and so easy and inexpensive. I don’t know what is going on with your site or my computer, but I was so frustrated I almost just left it. Every time I started reading what you had done, my screen would flip to the bottom or midway through the article to show me some advertisement. I’m having difficulty just writing this post. Love, love, love your idea but don’t understand the ads. Is it your site? I’ve never had this particular problem before. Just thought you should be aware. Thanks for the great idea and I’m glad I stuck it out. 🙂
Erika says
Hi Leslie, I am SO sorry the ads are being such a pain. That’s not okay. Because of this and other issues, I’m leaving my current ad provider next week. I’m so sorry and THANK YOU for bearing with it!
Tammy says
I also cut out the ingredients part of the CS and put that in the back of the bag. I need to know what and how much of stuff is in the blends. This works great! Just moved a bunch of tea from the cupboard into a cute wooden bin my father and daughter made and stacked on top of the coffee bin I made with my father. Both are on our coffee bar. Love! Thanks for the inspiration!
Erika says
Great idea, Tammy!
Andrew Linder says
This is a great idea. Thanks. It’s amazing to me that the makers of the many pretty tea boxes on the market have not addressed the unique issues of celestial seasonings, especially since gross sale are $100 million.
Andy
Joreth says
I had a mouse problem for a while thanks to an upstairs neighbor who brought them in the building. So I had to start putting EVERYTHING in plastic containers until all the traps did their job. I found that index card holders are the perfect tea bag size and I could fit 2 boxes of tea in each index card container. I also cut out the small end of the tea box to use as a label that I could see through the side of the holder.
The index card holders kept the mice out, they cut my tea real estate in half, and I found some for cheap that were clear bottoms but colored tops that matched my decor. I have pictures in my Facebook album for home decorating stuff, but I don’t see a way to upload any here to share.
I also found slightly larger plastic boxes in the same school supply aisle that holds my hot cider packets and one size larger that holds my hot chocolate packets. My pantry looks so organized now with all my little plastic boxes instead of mountains of cardboard boxes!
Oh, and plastic crayon boxes, playing card boxes, and the plastic box that comes around the travel size Q-tip container all make excellent “emergency tea” travel containers. Several times, my husband (who is addicted to tea but is an absent-minded professor type) found himself traveling and without tea when he got stranded in an airport or delayed somewhere.
With these little boxes, you can throw 2 or 3 tea packets in a jacket pocket or backpack and always have tea with you when you need it, without it getting squished or the bag tearing and spilling dried leaves all over the bottom of your bag. Travel soap containers fit my hot chocolate packets, as do these little containers I found at the dollar store that were e for a dollar. So I keep one in my work backpack all the time for the occasional cold morning that Florida only sometimes has and I want something hot to drink, since nobody ever remembers to stick chocolate for those of us who don’t drink tea or coffee.
Erika says
Great tip, thanks for sharing, Joreth!
Stephanie says
Loved these ideas!!
Stellar Craftography says
Wow – I just found your post and realized we came up with the exact same idea (and even around the same time too)!
http://stellarcraftography.com/how-to-organize-a-tea-collection
So exciting! Great idea 😉
Erika says
Great minds think alike! 🙂
Marina says
The cute expensive options weren’t going to work for me. Thanks for sharing this! I think it will go a long way for my cupboard. Can’t wait to test it out!
Erika says
I’m so glad. Thanks for the comment, Marina!
MJ says
Wow, this is so helpful! Thank you for your wise tips!