herba and spices

[Babyramone]

Just notices that most of my dried herds and spices out of date so have decided to renew.
some I'd never touched and therefore a waste.
What I'm looking for are recommendations for essential ones.
Any ideas.

So much depends on what you cook - Indian, Italian, Thai

But in general the spices that we use regularly are

Black peppercorns
Paprika
Chilli Flakes
Cinammon
Cardamom pods
Turmeric
Nutmeg

Herbs we use regularly:

Dried rosemary
Dried thyme
Freeze dried fines herbes
Herbes de Provence blend

Some herbs are better bought fresh: you can bulk buy, chop and freeze in ice-cubes if you want to maximise usage.

Curly parsley
Flat-leaf parsley
Coriander
Basil

All of the above can also be grown on a windowsill

HTH

Thanks.
I don't cook one style as such but basics.
I do chilli, spag bog, various pasta dishes, a mild curry and assortment of cassroles etc.
I have to say really fancy growing in window as kitchen is quite sunny, had tried in garden but back is to shady and clay soil so failed miserably.

I orginally had thimgs like ginger and cinnemon but didn't know how to use them.

We've got clay soil too so did some patio pots but they are a bit high maintenance for us am dreadful plant-killer!
Rosemary seems to cope OK but more delicate herbs don't
Cinnamon is handy for rice with curries (and in curries)
Powdered ginger is good for baking but for anything else (oriental cooking & curries) we buy a lump of fresh and grate it as needed
A nice touch is to have a couple of vanilla pods on the go. What we do is use them whole when making stewed apple or rice pudding, then fish them out, rinse and dry on kitchen paper, and store them in the sugar jar until needed again. They give your sugar a delicate vanilla taste and last a good few uses this way