Tipnique of the week, November 22, 2013

Behold, just in time for a cinnamon and ginger coated Holiday, my spice rack:

It's just sheets of metal attached to the wall really. The spice tins all have a magnet on the back (they're easy to find at World Market and they may still be at Ikea too) and are, I am proud/embarrassed to say, arranged in a semi-alphabetical order.
But that's not the tip.
The real tip comes courtesy of my mother, who called me just in time to save me from accidentally tipping a pile of pepper into the soup pot. Again.
Our pepper tin looks like this:

Once or twice (or more) I've intended to shake a little pepper onto a something.....

 And opened the wrong side of the tin. Lots of comic sneezing ensues, then of course there's the need to figure out how to rescue whatever has become way, way overpeppered.
Thanks mom for the following tip:

Mark the top of the tin with dots on the sift side,

and a bar or single large dot on the pour side.
Mom uses a sharpie, I used fingernail polish, just to see if it lasts longer than sharpie does.
bonus- a little stick on magnet, and this little tin nestles right in with the others.
Thanks mom- way to save the soup!
Any of you who have a tip or technique that works for you, email me, or drop me a message on facebook- it'd be super fun to take your tip for a drive!