Save Your Jars

You might use mason jars for food storage, many people do, myself included. However, you can save some cash by reusing the non-mason jars in your life.

Last week, I talked about freezing food in mason jars. This week I wanted to talk about my favorite type of jars, free ones!

Embracing a low waste lifestyle means, for me, eliminating as many single-use items as possible. It also means reducing the amount of waste in total I create, especially in my kitchen. The kitchen is where most homes create the bulk of their waste. One way I’ve been able to reduce waste in the kitchen is by buying as many products as I can in glass containers instead of plastic. Not only am I reducing the amount of plastic headed to the landfill but I’ve added some free food storage containers to my stash too! Low waste mom win!

WHAT JARS SHOULD YOU SAVE?

Save.Them.All.
I’m not kidding. Saving all of my jars means I have a ton of options. From the small jars my caper berries come in, to half gallon pickle jars. I’m a jar hoarder. If my hubby needs a container for something in his woodshop area, I have him covered. If my daughter needs one for an art project, covered. Makes life easier. The main reason I use them is for food storage.

I try to shop in bulk as much as possible. Buying food in such large quantities means I need a way to store them. Usually, most of the dry goods I buy in bulk come in brown paper packaging. The packaging is wonderful for low waste efforts but not good for any type of longer-term storage. This is where having a large stash of jars comes in handy.

Rice, beans, quinoa, flour, chickpeas…all those wonderful pantry goods store nicely in jars. I have a sweet friend who will sometimes save me extra jars she won’t use, hence the Ragu jars. I’m grateful to have them too!

I’ve learned that a jar of most of the spices I buy will nearly fill a half gallon jar.

A pound of thyme

I can buy a whole pound of an organic spice for the cost of a couple small bottles from the grocery store. The jar above is thyme. I’ll probably never need to buy thyme again. So, I’m stocked and saved money. Win win!

USE YOUR JARS TOO!

I like to keep most of my extra jars full of food.

This past week I had an abundance of cucumbers from my little backyard garden. I sliced them up and made some fermented pickles for my hubby. They filled two empty pickle jars. I’ve had them in my jar stash forever.

Side note: If you’re interested in making homemade fermented pickles, you’ll need jar weights. These are the ones I use. They work great. I used this recipe (not mine). They’re supposed to be ready in 3-5 days but hubby said the skin was still too tough so they’ll sit awhile longer. He said the brine was amazing though.

So…save those jars, fill them with food. Your future self (and wallet) will thank you!

Are you a jar saver? I’d love to hear more! Let me know in the comments below.

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