Each Tuesday this year, I will share about something in your household that you can reduce, reuse or recycle.
Much to my husband’s chagrin, items I love to reuse and repurpose are glass jars and bottles from food products. In my house, they become an annoyance because of the way they sometimes accumulate in our cabinets.
I happily keep anything from jelly jars to olive jars, tall and skinny caper bottles and big jars for spaghetti sauce. Glass peanut butter jars and spaghetti sauce jars are my favorites. After I’m done using a product I wash the glass container. Sometimes the label comes off right away – other times it stays on for a while. Since I don’t purchase much processed food, this doesn’t happen so very often. Then I store it in my cupboard with my other glass food storage containers.
I love saving and using these random jars and bottles because:
- I’ve stopped using plastic in my kitchen.
- The variety of shapes and sizes can be filled with many different things. Small jars are great for liquids. Wide-mouthed jars are handy for batter. Broth can be divided up and stored in several sizes – so you can have one-cup, two-cup and three-cup amounts ready to store in your freezer.
- It’s an ultra-affordable (free!!!) way to upgrade to glass storage containers.
- If they break, I don’t care because I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my money.
- I can pass along homemade concoctions to family and friends without being concerned if my containers are ever returned.
- I’m reducing both my spending and consumption. Of course I could recycle them, but why bother when they’re so useful?
The number of repurposed glass bottles that I store in my cabinet is dependent on what I’ve been cooking. I love to use them to store:
- Homemade bone broth
- Homemade pickles
- Leftovers of from-scratch soup or chili
- Leftovers of pancake or waffle batter
- Homemade salad dressings
- Homemade BBQ sauce
- Soaked beans that are ready to add to a recipe
- Homemade cranberry sauce
- Homemade mosquito spray
- Rose water
Talk back
Do you save glass jars and bottles? What do you use them for? What kinds are your favorites?
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Today I’m linking up with Time Warp Wife.
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I save all of my glass jars! They are so useful for all of the reasons you stated. I use them for storing dry items in my pantry like dried fruits and beans and for homemade lotions and body butters. My favorite are salsa jars – I love the wide mouth opening.
What about the lids? I just started saving glass jars and I’m not sure if I should be save the original lids or using something else? What do you do?
Thank you!
I use the original lids, Lisa. Although with my Mason jars, I know I need to buy some replacement lids.
I have a whole post about how to reuse glass jars!
http://articles.earthlingshandbook.org/2011/06/05/glass-jars-galore/
I love them for food storage, and I think they actually keep food fresher longer than plastic. I use them to bring my lunch to work; they seal well and are safe to microwave.
This is a great idea! What do you use to get the labels off all the way and not have that sticky residue left?
I just wash them in hot, soapy water. Sometimes it takes a couple of washes, but the labels always come off! (Unless they’re sticker labels … and I haven’t found a way to get them off at all.)
Try alcohol to get the sticky residue off. We buy raw local honey in quart sized mason jars and accumulate them all too rapidly. So I keep everything from nuts to beans in the recycled jars.
We put our jars in a sink of hot water with at least 1 cup of vinegar. Let them soak for about an hour and the label washes off very easily after that! Nothing left behind except smooth glass!