How Many Jars Fit on a Spice Rack? The Real Count

Measure your own jars, then divide. That one step answers how many jars fit on a spice rack more honestly than any figure in a listing, ours included. A 1.8 in bottle gives six, seven and nine across the three widths we sell, where our own listing says six, eight and ten.

The gap is not rounding. Houseland publishes 11.4 in (29 cm), 13.8 in (35 cm) and 17.5 in (44.5 cm), and every count below comes from dividing one of those numbers by a width the jar's own maker publishes. Four of those jars sit in most cupboards, and no two of them give the same answer.

How many jars fit on a spice rack of each width?

Divide the published width by the outside diameter of the jars you own, then round down. Here is that division for four jars whose makers publish a diameter, set against the three widths we list.

Read the row for the jars in your cupboard, not the row you wish you had. Each figure is pure division, so treat it as a ceiling: it assumes the jars are touching, and it ignores the width the frame itself takes at either end. Knock one off any number you want to reach into without shuffling its neighbours. That is where our own Large figure of around ten falls over — ten survives only if every jar is 1.75 in and none of them ever needs lifting out.

The arithmetic is the same one that decides a picture ledge. We ran it for frames instead of jars in how many frames fit on a 27.6 in ledge, and it landed in the same place: the object's width, not the shelf's length, sets the number.

Do the ounces on the label tell you how wide a jar is?

No. The number on the front is the net weight of the contents, and it moves with the density of the spice rather than the size of the glass. Burlap & Barrel lists its own 4 oz jar at 2 in wide, 2 in deep and 3.5 in tall, while a McCormick bottle carrying the same 4 oz measures 1.8 in across and 4.5 in tall. Same label, two jars that pack differently.

Density explains it. Leafy oregano and ground cumin fill the same glass at very different weights, which is why one published brand table puts a Penzeys jar of 2 in by 5 in at 2.3 oz of contents, next to that 1.8 in McCormick bottle holding 4 oz.

The practical consequence is short. Ounces have no fixed relationship to the width a jar occupies, so the only figure worth carrying to the checkout is a diameter in inches. If a listing quotes a jar count and no diameter, it has told you nothing you can check.

Which jar in your cupboard sets the count?

The fattest one. A row is only as tight as its widest member, and most cupboards hold three or four bottle shapes at once: a couple of supermarket bottles at 1.8 in, a decanted set at 1.875 in, and one squat outlier nobody planned for.

The outlier is what ruins the count. The same brand table puts an IKEA Rajtan jar at 3 in across and 3 in tall, so three of those swallow 9 in of a row on their own, more than the whole of the narrowest width and most of the middle one.

Sorting beats estimating. Stand every jar you actually use on the worktop, push them together and lay a tape along the front of the run. That single number tells you which width you need, and it is the one measurement in this article you cannot get from anybody's listing.

How do you check a shelf before you buy it?

Five measurements, and a tape does all of them. Take them in this order.

1. Measure the run, not the jar count. Push the jars you use together on the worktop and measure end to end. If ten of them run 18 in, a 17.5 in shelf is already a jar short before it arrives.
2. Measure the widest jar across its shoulder, cap on. Some caps overhang the glass by a fraction, and the cap is the part that touches its neighbour.
3. Measure the tallest bottle, cap on as well. A grinder top adds height the jar body never shows: Burlap & Barrel lists its grinder-top jar at 5 in tall against 3.5 in for the plain one.
4. Check the depth against the jar, not against the shelf. A jar 2 in deep on a shelf 3.9 in (10 cm) deep leaves room to spare, but not a usable second row, because a label you cannot see is a jar you will not use.
5. Count the jars you reopen, not the jars you own. McCormick puts ground spices at 2 to 4 years and leafy herbs at 1 to 3 years, so a jar you last opened three summers ago is holding a slot for one you reach for weekly.

The whole check takes about three minutes. It is the difference between a shelf that holds your jars and a shelf that holds most of them.

Is depth or height the thing that catches people out?

Height, every time. The Houseland shelf is 3.9 in (10 cm) deep on Small and 4.1 in (10.5 cm) on Medium and Large, which is plenty for one row of jars 2 in deep and never enough for a second row you would actually use.

Height is where the surprise sits. The published figure of 5.5 in (14 cm) on Small and 5.9 in (15 cm) on Medium and Large describes the piece hanging on the wall, not a clear tunnel above the jars, so a bottle 5 in tall with a grinder cap stands proud of it. On open wall that reads fine. Under a cupboard it decides whether the shelf goes there at all, so measure the gap beneath the cupboard before you measure anything else.

Depth behaves the way it does on a bookshelf. We worked through whether 3.5 in shelves are too shallow for paperbacks, and the answer turned on the object's footprint rather than the shelf's headline number. Jars are easier: they are the same width at the bottom as they are at the top.

From the shop

Wall Mounted Spice Rack, Steel Wire Grid Shelf with Wood Base

Three widths, 11.4 in (29 cm), 13.8 in (35 cm) and 17.5 in (44.5 cm), on a powder-coated steel wire grid with a solid natural wood base, 3.9 in (10 cm) deep on Small and 4.1 in (10.5 cm) on Medium and Large. It arrives in one piece, with two screw-in hooks and two adhesive pads in the box.

View the wire spice rack — 3 sizes & current price

Which width should you buy for the wall you have?

Buy for the run you measured, then look at what is behind the plaster. Framing is normally set at 16 or 24 in on center, so on a piece 11.4 in or 13.8 in wide there is no chance of both screws finding a stud, and even 17.5 in spans only one gap at 16 in spacing.

That is why the Houseland rack ships with two screw-in hooks and two adhesive pads in the same box, and why the listing says to use the screws for a full row of glass jars. Anchors do the rest of the work. A hook driven into bare plasterboard without one is the failure people describe a month after hanging, usually with the jars still on the floor.

Two shelves in one width beat a single wide shelf on a narrow wall. The listing is built for a two-tier run, and the second piece doubles the count without costing another inch across. Spacing is the only thing to get right, and the method we use for hexagon shelves transfers directly: clear the tallest bottle on the lower shelf first, then set the upper one to that.

What I'd do

Measure the run first, then buy the width above it. Where the wall allows, that is the 17.5 in (44.5 cm) size, because the count it loses to fat jars is the count you were going to lose anyway, and eight jars with room to lift one out beat ten wedged shoulder to shoulder.

In a gap between cupboards the width is decided for you, so the question turns into which six jars earn the wall. Mine are the ones I reach for without reading the label: chilli, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, pepper, garlic. Everything else lives in a drawer, and the kitchen tools collection covers the rest of what ends up within arm's reach of the pan.

Shop kitchen tools from Houseland

-14%Kitchen Knife Sharpener, 3-Stage and 4-Stage Manual Pull-Throughfrom $29.99$34.99-20%Stainless Steel Bench Scraper and Dough Cutterfrom $29.99$37.49Stainless Steel Finger Hand Protector, Knife Guardfrom $29.99

See all kitchen tools →