Reusing Jars

[Kat]

I happen to love pickles, so I always have an abundance of glass jars. I am planning to use some of them to organize my pantry after the kitchen remodel is done. That got me thinking about all the different ways jars (either glass or plastic) could be reused, and I thought it might be fun to brainstorm together. Here is what I have so far:

1) dry food storage
2) canning (if you have lids and seals for them)
3) vase
4) candle holder (These are especially pretty outside at night for an evening party. Fill with sand and a small candle--presto! Just keep an eye on them, obviously)
5) nails, sewing notions, other doodad (smaller, baby-food sized jars)
6) drinking glasses
7) gift in a jar mixes

Any other ideas?

[Gina]

I use larger plastic jars for smaller amounts of various fertilizers for the garden. They seal up nice and I don't worry if I leave them out when it's wet. I do keep them in the shade so the don't degrade in sunlight.

I keep lots of artsy-craftsy items in jars too.

And I refill water bottles all the time (with water) and keep them all around the house.

[Mrs-M]

What a great thread! As a mom one thing I would have liked to have done with my kids (never thought of it then) would have been to select three or four smaller jars and decorate them with frilly knitted or stitched material hats for the lids (something baby coloured/patterned) and store things in them such as cotton balls, diaper pins, and Q-tips. Such a decorative organizational addition to a baby's room.

[rosarugosa]

Our sugar canister broke recently. I was going to buy a new one, but found an old instant coffee jar in the cellar (I think from my DH's late grandmother) that worked just fine instead. (Our canisters stay inside the cupboard, so they don't have to be decorative).
Can we do bottles too? When I gave homemade vanilla extract for gifts this past Valentine's Day, I used attractive bottles from various things that I had saved (e.g. maple syrup), so no expenditure on the containers.

[freein05]

Agreed great thread. I use old jars to make candles. I use soy wax and heat the wax in an old microwave and than pour the wax into an old jar. We have these candles in almost all of our windows and they look great in the winter time around Christmas. The only problem is all of our friends and relatives know I do this and I now a a life time supply of jars and it keeps growing.

[Merski]

DH buys trader joe's peanuts and almonds, which come in bags. We transfer them into two nice glass jars and put them in out TV area. Keeps them fresh!

[Rosemary]

large glass jars (1 qt)
freezing soup
freezing milk (I buy organic milk by the gallon because it's cheaper, but I mostly use it a quart at a time for making yogurt. So I freeze in 1 qt quantities.)

plastic containers or jars
craft stuff - from pins in the sewing kit to beads
garage use for storing hardware
child's collections - rocks, seashells, etc
craft stuff - e.g. DD's playdoh tools, all in one place
bug viewing jars
storing seeds for the garden

small glass jars
perfect for using in a picnic lunch for something like salad dressing

[larknm]

All these are glass

To keep dog treats in kithcne and by front door so I can reward them with treats when they do things I want them to in those rooms, things I know are hard for them.

To keep bird seed and hemp seed for my bird.

To keep walnuts by my side of the bed for when I wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

[Kestrel]

I have a lot of glass canning jars (Kerr and Ball) in various sizes and shapes and I use them for all kinds of things. I make tea in the 1/2 gallon jars, and grind peanut butter and put it in the small flat-ish 1c jars, and jelly/jam too. I love them! I use the 1/2 pint jars for so many things I can't even think of them. They are really useful. Quart size and 1/2 pints for food storage, in the refrigerator and out. I don't use the metal rings and lids, tho -- I've bought plastic lids that fit both small-mouth and large-mouth jars, and I much prefer them for non-canning purposes. I don't can anymore so that's not an issue. I also have gallon glass jars that I used to be able to get at restaurants -- they held mayonnaise -- and others I used to get at mini-mart type places, and they held jerkey and the like. I keep rice and noodles in them. I think all those gallon jars are plastic now.

And obviously, leftovers.

I also save a lot of other glass jars for various uses.

And actually, I have no problem with using plastic containers for appropriate uses.

[Blackdog Lin]

(1) leftovers.
(2) sending food home with the "bachelor guys", who are also terrible about returning containers, so using a mayo or pickle jar that I don't need is a bonus. Also nice for THEM, as they then don't have to worry about returning a container.

[rosarugosa]

Merski,
Yes, jars for nuts and snacks are definitely a good use. If you put them in a candy dish, they just get stale. And the little bags are just not good for reuse, and it's probably best not to chow down the whole bag in one sitting :)

[SiouzQ.]

I've been washing out my Wholefoods Crunchy Peanut Butter jars with the blue lid and using them for bulk foods such as steel cut oats, flax seed, etc.

[early morning]

I love glass jars and use them for many of same things as the rest of you -notions, bathroom items, snacks, food, esp coffee, pet snacks- they have so many uses! I have a small one on my window sill that holds sea-glass in water. I've also used them as terrariums, to sprout grains, and to put holiday munchies in for gifts. One year we made tiny spice cookies and gave them away in canning jars.

[Kathy WI]

I use small jars for touch up paint...transferred a little paint from the big cans used for each room of our house into little jars so I can touch up marks on the walls or woodwork.

I made a sugar shaker out of a canning jar by replacing the circular lid with a circle cut from the top of a salt box, with the metal spout for pouring.

[Stella]

Zach has a board with jar lids screwed into so he can hang up his jars of nails, screws and other hardware and keep it out of reach of the kids.

I use jars for holding all the various school supplies the kids need on a daily basis. There's two for markers, two for crayons, one for dry erase markers, two for coloured pencils, one for gel pens and one for regular pencils. They sit in a small crate that used to hold clementines. It's very handy.

Some other things I use them for or have used them for:

-Holding my homemade playdough
-Holding my homemade vanilla sugar for coffee
-Storing our silverware on the pass-through between the kitchen and dining room
-Storing my sewing supplies
-Drinking glasses
-Yogurt making
-Temporary bug houses (when I was a kid)
-Storing homemade cleaning stuff
-Holding "treasures"
-Piggy bank
-toothbrush holder

[Merski]

Something I posted earlier...be on the lookout for universal plastic lids (mayo for example) which seem to fit many jars. They last longer than metal.

[Kat]

Wow! So many great ideas! :-)

[Gingerella72]

What's the best way to wash jars for reuse that held something really aromatic? Even after washing them out with hot soapy water, some scent residue remais in jars that held pickles, garlic, and spaghetti sauce. How do you get rid of the smells once and for all?

[Mrs-M]

Hi Gingerella72. How about letting the jars sit in a mixture of household bleach and water for a few days?

[domestic goddess]

Dgds like to use the small jars to make snow globes-always a fun activity around Christmas. I saved pickle jars (and the brine)when dh was alive, then cut up cucumbers and let them sit in the brine in the fridge. Refrigerator pickles! They were tasty, and he never caught on. He was amazed that I always had the pickles he liked on hand.
I use them to store various things, like everyone else, at my house. Not so much here, as some of the adults don't exercise much care with breakables, and we end up cleaning up a good amount of broken glass here as it is. They can be used for pencil cups, and are easy to decorate, if you are inclined to such things. I sometimes use them to take my lunch to work, as I know they will be available. No one else takes a lunch or would use an old jar. It goes without saying, but I will say it, that they are good for storing soup, broth, and all kinds of liquids. I use them for lemonade, juice, iced tea, all of which we drink year-round.
I would like to make a bottle tree, but since I don't drink, it is taking me a while to gather bottles. I would really like blue bottles, so you can imagine that my collection is small right now. I could make one for dd, using brown bottles, which are in good supply, as she likes brown anyway. That could be an interesting craft for someone to do.

[Kat]

@ domestic goddess--I love those colored bottles, too--so pretty! I like them all together holding one flower each. And yes, the cobalt blue ones are gorgeous! ;-)

I usually soak mine in bleach water to get the food smell out. Vinegar and baking soda might be a more organic way if you are against using bleach. Just don't forget about the lids--they hold some of the odor, too!

[Selah]

I painted one old pasta sauce jar with my name on it so I always know it's the one to use for cleaning my paintbrushes in!
I use an old Mason jar for storing the undrunk coffee from the daily pot, keep it in the fridge, and use it for making iced coffee as needed. (Note: frugal recipe for fancy-ish iced coffee on the cheap: use leftover coffee from abovementioned jar in fridge, add ice, splash of vanilla or almond extract, sweetener, and milk or cream, and even whipped cream with cocoa powder or sprinkles if you like. Stir & enjoy!)

[Nella]

I use pint sized canning jars as a pencil cup for pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, etc. Also have a large glass canning jar with sea shore sand and small shells I've picked up (artfully arranged of course...) I've recycled glass food jars as a kitchen coin bank. Lots of that buying in bulk and repackaging into smaller jars routine going on at my house.

Oh, yeah. Taught my nieces to make butter out of cream by shaking it in a pint jar. She loved being able to watch it transform through the glass as she worked and worked at it.

[Mrs-M]

Here's a great example of what I was referring to.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZA5hlT8fBU4NG32eRMvsVZ9TRsLRiB qtDmOD84AQMHRWVNK1J

The lid has baby bracelet beads affixed to it spelling "baby boy". So darling.