Passionate Homemaking

Living simply in order to give generously

Organizing Kitchen Storage - Canning Jars

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BEFORE

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I have been reor­ga­niz­ing my kitchen stor­age system lately to main­tain a more clean, simple, and orga­nized layout of all my baking prod­ucts, grains, legumes, etc. I have so many dif­fer­ent vari­eties of con­tain­ers that are just taking up a ton of space.

I have also been research­ing lately on the harm­ful PVC toxin that is added to most most plas­tic and vinyl products/containers, etc. It seems that plas­tic can be very harm­ful and migrates from the stor­age con­tainer into your food. An addi­tive called BPA that is used to harden plas­tic in baby bot­tles, stor­age con­tain­ers, water bot­tles, etc. may cause a wide range of health prob­lems includ­ing cancer, brain damage, infer­til­ity, and other issues. It is espe­cially dan­ger­ous for infants, they are dis­cov­er­ing. Read more by fol­low­ing the links below.

With this in mind, I have decided to begin to grad­u­ally fade out my plas­tic stor­age and switch over to glass con­tain­ers. I am using simple glass can­ning jars of dif­fer­ent sizes, but mainly wide mouth quart can­ning jars. The reason I am using wide mouth jars is that I can easily pull in and out a mea­sur­ing cup or spoon. These are easy to come by at your local Good­will, and Craigslist. I bought sev­eral at Good­will for 20 cents each. Not bad at all. It is won­der­ful! They are all uni­form and my cup­boards look greatly improved! See pic­tures below. I am still in progress…on the look­out for some larger glass jars (1/2 gallon and 1 gallon sizes for larger quan­ti­ties for my lower cup­board). Any ideas of where to find these at?

AFTER

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Here are a few inter­est­ing arti­cles on pos­si­ble harms of plas­tic. Please use your own dis­cern­ment when view­ing these sites, as I cannot rec­om­mend or agree with every­thing presented:

Sci­en­tists Fear Chem­i­cal in Plastic

Chem­i­cals Used to Harden Plastic

PVC: The Most Toxic Plastic

PVC: The Poison Plas­tic - a cute little video help­ing to iden­tify what prod­ucts in your home have PVC

Visit Kitchen Tip Tues­days for other Kitchen tips and ideas! 


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19 Responses to “Organizing Kitchen Storage - Canning Jars”

  1. Steph Garvey Says:

    I bought a bunch of glass can­is­ters from IKEA that I really enjoy using. They work per­fectly for me, because they are tall and slen­der and alle­vi­ate my cup­board for more space to store other items. They are also very easy to open and close because they use a latch lock.

    [Reply]

    Lindsay replied on January 8th, 2008:

    That is very true. I enjoy their con­tain­ers as well. I store some of these on my shelfs for oats, rice, etc. Things I use on a daily basis…I just keep them out on my coun­ters. They are attrac­tive to look at as well!

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  2. Amy Says:

    I love the look of the glass con­tain­ers. They are lovely! I bought some big glass stor­age jars at Target on clear­ance after Christ­mas. They have a snow­man on one side, but I fig­ured since they would usu­ally be full and be inside the cab­i­net, it wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t pass up such a good deal!

    [Reply]

  3. Ana Says:

    I love the look of glass con­tain­ers. I pur­chased a couple at Wal-​Mart. They had the ingre­di­ents to make cook­ies.
    Like you I heard a lot about the dan­gers of plas­tic. I had a hard time find­ing glass bot­tles for my little one.

    [Reply]

    Tia replied on January 13th, 2008:

    I found glass bot­tles on ebay. Hun­dreds of them.

    [Reply]

  4. Mrs. Taft Says:

    I am also con­cerned about plas­tic con­tain­ers (and toys!). So I am moving toward glass as well. Thanks for the idea!

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  5. rachel Says:

    You can often get gallon sizes glass jars from busi­nesses like a deli. They get pick­les, pep­pers and var­i­ous other things in them and just throw them away. I know one person who asked a Subway to save a couple for her and they did.

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  6. Jennifer Says:

    Wow! What a great idea. When we bought our house a year ago, I inher­ited in the dungy old root cellar about 150 old Crown can­ning jars. I didn’t want to get rid of them but couldn’t think of what to use them for (I have enough Mason jars for can­ning and think I prefer them than the old ones for canning)… but you gave me an excel­lent idea so today I dug them out, cleaned them up and moved most of my stuff over. It looks so quaint and orga­nized - I love it!! Plus, the plas­tic thing is not impress­ing me either, so this hope­fully will be long term healthy. Thanks for pass­ing on this idea!

    [Reply]

  7. Eryn Kesler Says:

    Here is a guys on craigslist who always has a ton of can­ning jars of all sizes, often some larger 1/2 gallon and gallon size in port­land. Here’s a link
    http://​port​land.​craigslist.​org/​m​l​t​/​h​s​h​/​7​0​6​7​3​4​6​9​0​.html

    I was going to ask, what do you use for a grain mill?I’m look­ing into it.

    [Reply]

    Lindsay replied on June 5th, 2008:

    Eryn, that’s the same source I pur­chased sev­eral of my large jars from. Great prices. The man is a little odd, so I wouldn’t rec­om­mend going alone.

    As far as grain mills, I have a Nutrim­ill and love it!

    [Reply]

  8. Eryn Kesler Says:

    Have you ever looked into the plas­tic stor­age lids for your jars? They come in an 8 pack wide or narrow mouth for around $2.50. I like them because they wash up so nice in the dish­washer and dont’ rust like the rings and lids, and are less peices to keep track of. We have recently started using the can­ning jars for left­overs and dry food stor­age also…I’m loving those lids!

    [Reply]

    Lindsay replied on June 5th, 2008:

    Where did you find the plas­tic lids? I like that idea. My metal lids have not had any rust issues though. I love using them for food stor­age and left­overs as well!

    [Reply]

    Eryn Kesler replied on June 6th, 2008:

    I think I got some of mine and Fred Meyer and some at Wal­Mart (which has a supris­ingly good sec­tion of can­ning sup­plies) They are made by Ball/Kerr. They are so great!

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    Donielle @ Raising Peanuts replied on July 9th, 2008:

    I second the plas­tic lids! I picked up a box of them from my local gro­cery store by the can­ning sup­plies and love to use them! (as long as the stuff inside isn’t touch­ing the plas­tic I’m ok using it) I’m going to pick up another box or so because it’s so much easier than fight­ing with the 2 pieces of the metal lids! I use them for my dry stuff and for my canned stuff as well once I break the seal.

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  9. Amelia Says:

    I have bought gallon-​sized square glass jars at Target–I think they’re sold as cookie jars. I use mine for rice, flour, baking mix, etc. I also have wide-​mouth quart jars–I use those for brown sugar, con­fec­tion­ers sugar, left­over canned toma­toes, etc. I would love to find some plas­tic lids for my jars–we wind up replac­ing the metal lids and rings peri­od­i­cally due to rust, even though I wash them by hand.

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  10. shannon Says:

    i think you can get old, emp­tied large jars from restau­rants and places like that. they use huge jars of mayo and stuff…

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  11. Melissa Says:

    Just search­ing for glass jars that come with a hang­ing appa­ra­tus to hang craft tools– we have sev­eral dif­fer­ent types of mark­ers, col­ored pen­cils, sand pends, blow pens etc. I would like to hang them and have the kids lift them out of a hang­ing system to use at the table (so flat bottom jars) and be able to put them back. We have them all sit­ting on a shelf but there are too many and they are jum­bled up. I also have changed over from plas­tic and tran­si­tioned to glass — I love the dif­fer­ence in orga­ni­za­tion and get­ting rid of the PLAS­TIC too. IKEA has GREAT prices on their glass jars, there are so many dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes — it is fun to mix and match them all. The colors, tex­tures, shapes, and sizes of the foods in the pantry are pleas­ing to the kids when they can see through the con­tainer–fun for me too!

    [Reply]

  12. Cheryl Harrington Says:

    Find large glass jars at school cafe­te­rias.

    [Reply]

  13. jodean Says:

    I have open shelves in my kitchen, and using can­ning jars to store grains, beans, etc…makes every­thing look so much neater. My favorites are the old blue/green can­ning jars that belonged to my great-​grandmother.

    [Reply]

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