This post is by Sarah Powers, Happiest Home contributor and Managing Editor, and blogger at Powers of Mine.
A year or so ago, I started saving glass jars. Inspired by the seemingly overnight rise in trendiness of the Mason jar, and coupled with a sort of obsessive satisfaction I get out of not wasting things, my little collection of old salsa, pasta sauce, olive and jam jars grew steadily.
The problem was, I had no idea what to actually DO with the jars. I turned to Pinterest and created a board called Inexplicable Jar Obsession, which I filled with amazing ideas – like twine-wrapped jars filled with floating candles and ombre tinted mason jars – only to realize when my pinning high wore off that I was never in a million years actually going to do those things.
(By the way, if you are the type to do these things with jars, more power to ‘ya. To paraphrase Meagan in her post about baking from scratch, I don’t do it, but I think it’s awesome if you do.)
It has taken a while, but I’ve gradually found very practical – and DO-able, for me – uses for repurposed glass jars in my home.
Here are 5 ideas for reusing glass jars that don’t require a glue gun, raffia, chalkboard paint, or a crafty bone in your body:
1. Drinking glass
There’s something sort of retro about drinking iced tea from a jar, isn’t there? The more jars I’ve collected the more I enjoy using them as glassware. I don’t have a matched set, but to me it doesn’t matter – I have a favorite old salsa jar I use almost every afternoon for a cup of iced coffee with milk and I love it.
2. Pantry storage
There are so many benefits to using old jars to store dry goods in the pantry. It cuts down on oddly-shaped bags and boxes, reduces plastic in the pantry, keeps food sealed up tight, and allows you to see how much you have. I store nuts, seeds, granola, rice, chocolate chips, marshmallows, Cream of Wheat, dried fruit, and whatever else I can fit into the jars I have on hand.
The nice thing about having a variety of jar sizes around is I’m always shifting the contents and repurposing jars differently. In the photo above the jar on the right is getting low on sliced almonds, but after a run through the dishwasher it might hold raisins or become a drinking glass. Low commitment, easy to be flexible.
3. Flower vase
I buy fresh flowers every week at the grocery store. I never spend more than $5 (even the kids know how to read the price tag when they help to pick them out) and I get a kind of weird satisfaction out of seeing if I can make them last all week.
I love the look of flowers in a glass jar on the countertop, and as they start to droop toward the end of the week, I salvage the best blooms and transfer them to a smaller jar. Turns out, the only thing sweeter-looking than a jar full of fresh flowers is a teeny tiny jar with just a few petite blossoms!
4. Loose change…
…or buttons…or hair ties…or golf tees…or paper clips…
You get the idea. Take a look at the odds and ends that gather on your countertops and other surfaces, and start assigning them to jars! We hung a simple ledge shelf in our laundry closet and started a jar for pocket change, another for loose buttons, and a third for all the miscellany that laundry produces.
5. Dinner delivery
Okay, this last one might border a little on the crafty side, but it’s as far as I go, I promise. When I make dinner for a friend with a new baby I always make the same chili, and I love delivering it in glass jars. I cut a square of scrap fabric (something else I hoard for no reason – but that’s for another post), secure it with a rubber band and tie a ribbon around it. So much prettier than tupperware (and easy fridge or freezer storage for the recipient)!
When I brought the meal above to my friend Steph after the birth of her baby, I also grabbed some daffodils from the grocery store and put them in a tall, thin jar as a vase.
Want to start a jar collection?
- To remove labels, I soak the jars in hot soapy water and scrub with steel wool. For really stubborn adhesive, I spray Goo Gone and let it sit for a few minutes before scrubbing again. I usually wait until I have several jars saved up and do this all at once.
- Olive and pickle jars sometimes retain their briney odor. Usually a couple of runs through the dishwasher takes care of it, but if it lingers I use those for “open air”/non-food purposes like a flower vase or spare change. There’s nothing like opening up a jar filled with almonds and smelling old pickle juice.
- Since some of the ways I reuse old jars require lids and others don’t, I keep a collection of all lids in one place. That way a drinking glass jar and be converted to a pantry storage jar whenever I need it to.
I reuse glass jars for making candles. There is a place near us where you can buy scented soy candle wax that you melt in the microwave and pour, so I re-use salsa jars, jam jars, etc to make scented candles. I can give them as gifts or just keep them around the house. The ones I make for me I don’t even put a wick into, I just put it on a candle warmer.
We have been drinking almost exclusively out of canning jars for a while now! With all the canning I’ve been doing over the last couple of years, there seem to always be empty jars floating around, and it was easier to just put them in the cupboard than to try to find other space for them. Plus, I found that our other drinking glasses dwindled away from breaking and plastic cups melt in the dishwasher, but those jars are indestructible! Plus, I like how they look as drinkware. And the jelly jar size is perfect for a little one’s glass of milk or juice!
just realized how many exclamation points I used…good-ness I am enthusiastic about jars, aren’t I?
I only very recently started using our jars as drinking glasses and the like have been totally tickled! They are mostly used for food storage and in fact most often food in the fridge, or food we “can” (although in a jar, not a can …). Some hold craft supplies or my daughter’s hair accessories. We have a huge collection, I like your ideas and need to branch out a bit.
Everything you said… also, when I make homemade chicken broth I like to freeze it in 2 cup portions (just right for adding some kick when I cook rice), so jars are ideal.
For the big ones, like those huge gallon pickle jars, mismatched toys look cute and almost decorative tossed in them!
Also.. I find that rubbing a little oil (and then letting them sit a bit) on the labels gets them off better than soaking or scrubbing. 🙂 The oil seems to melt away the adhesive.
We’ve found that jars…particularly canning jars…have waaay outlasted the for-real glass sets we got as wedding gifts (we must have received four or five sets…all broken now). Add that to the benefits of recycling glass jars…
Thanks Carrie for the tip on getting glue off of the jars! Lynaea @ EveryDayBloom.com
My kids have hamsters. The ham hams seem to love to explore jars that have different shapes and sizes. We also take their food and treats out of the original packaging to store in jars. Very handy. Summer time my kids like to catch fire flies in mason jars to watch for a short time before letting them go again. Of course adding air holes to the lid. When I get a chance to paint jars are useful for holding my brushes and water to clean the brushes. Turn a lidless jar upside down and trace for circles. The lids can also be used for the same purpose. Loved reading about everyones ideas!
Wonderful ideas you have here! I use some of my jars for my change and money I don’t want to spend. I poke a skinny hole big enough for my coins. 🙂
I have been drinking out of reused glass jars all my life (60 years). I reuse olive jars to can and refigerate pickled eggs, since I have my own chickens and have more eggs than I know what to do with.
How funny that I am commenting on this. My mom was a big jar saver. Mayo jars , tomato sauce jars, peanut butter jars, you name it. She stored left over soups, sauces , and the like in them. I kind of drove me nuts at the time. Now it seems we have all taken the shift. I save all my jars and lids now. Olive and salsa jars make great cocktail glasses . My friends love coming over and siping there favorite libations out of my jars. I store my dry pantry items in my assorted collection of different sized jars. Baby food jars are great for serving wine. I have jars I use for packing salads to work and I have jars for holding loose change and pens on my desk. They look great. I think my favorite use is for beverage. It is a great way to recycle and if they break, no big deal. It isn’t like a matching set of glasses that you cannot replace.
You can use Lighter fluid to remove the labels … learned that trick from my hubby who uses it to change his grips on his clubs
i use mayo to get the sticky off. Let it sit for a few minutes then scrub with regular washing rag and hot water
The Armour dried beef jars make the cutest little juice glasses or tumblers you’ve ever seen. (This is the kind of beef that you use to make chipped beef and gravy.) Because the lid is a pop off, there is no lid threading and there’s a cute little ring of stars around the rim that makes them adorable without looking like branding. I don’t know if they did it on purpose, but you have to see them in person.
http://www.armour-star.com/prod_dried.asp
I learned from my daughter that if you save the plastic shaker lids off of parmesan cheese, they fit beautifully on Mason jars. Now, these old jars of mine can serve even more purposes!