Organizing Smoothie Bowl Toppings with Limited Space and Small Budget

Toppings make your smoothie bowl look cute and fun to eat. I tend to use bigger items near the edge of the bowl while smaller items go toward the center of the bowl. I’ve noticed soon after I started making smoothie bowls that the toppings were my worst organized area. If you keep them all together, you won’t need to search the kitchen for them. My kitchen is galley style. Some of the cabinets don’t work properly so most of my pantry items are in the dining area in 3-drawer plastic bins. Things get moved around a lot. Making as many smoothie bowls as I am this month, I need it to be organized efficiently. I have a small space to work with and even smaller budget.
Some of the toppings are the same frozen fruit that is used in that smoothie bowl of the day. No need for organization there as it is kept in the bag of that particular fruit. This is my first time buying so many freeze-dried fruits, so I don’t know if this is offered seasonally at Trader Joe’s and other grocers or year-round.
My smoothie bowl station is pretty simple. A three-tiered cart with canning jars. The rolling cart was purchased from Costco some time ago. My juicing jars to contain my toppings, Ball Spiral and Hexagon, plus some short jars. The short jars are hard to see at a glance in my cart. Powders and oatmeal are in bigger hexagon shaped Ball jars. I can also keep the scoop for that product in the jar. Similar item on Amazon is Kamota hexagon jars. Dried fruit, nuts, coconut, and everything else are in spiral jars. I use Ball Spiral regular mouth jars purchased from Target. Amazon has a different brand Kamota spiral jars that looks similar. I use a wet erase marker on the lid noting what each item is plus the expiration date. I had been writing the info on the glass side as well but that quickly becomes removed just from handling the jar. I could label each jar with my labeler but as I also use the jars for juicing, it will be easier to wash off the writing from the lid vs peeling the sticker off the side of the jar. It is easier to read the top of the jar while standing by the cart and choosing which topping to use versus a label on the side. You’d have to pick up each jar to see what it says. It’s easy to refill each jar as the need arises or swap out to something else instead.
My final cost for this project? $0.00. Yes, zero dollars. I used what I have, and it fits the space I’m using it in. I do still have more space on the cart as I’m storing a few kitchen candles on the bottom shelf.

Top shelf containing most of the coconut, nuts, and dried fruit

Middle shelf containing most of the powders and chia seeds

I hope this post about organizing smoothie bowl toppings, especially focusing on doing so within the constraints of limited space and a small budget help you get your station together. Comment below some of your favorite organizing tips!