Empty Jars

Canning jars get cleaned and stored on a shelf in the basement. It's not a big area, so it gets over filled fast. Once that area is full I start putting the jars back where I found them; in the "drawers" we keep our filled jars in. I put them in the back upside down (keeps some of the dust out of them). I try not to have too many empty jars. I prefer re-filling them with something and putting then back in the "drawer" full. Extra cases of jars are kept in the attic of the garage. My son spends his fall climbing up and down out of there getting me more jars. Poor kid, but I tell him if he didn't eat so much I wouldn't have to can so much....so it's his own fault.

I keep many of the jars store bought things come in. Peanut butter jars as some of my favorite (although I now by peanut butter is 5# tubs.....those tubs are great, too). When my pantry area gets too full I go through and clean them out and recycle the ones I won't use. I use them for my dried foods.....I'd rather not waste a canning jar on dried food if I don't have to. Save all my #10 can's too....for the same reason.

The big coffee cans (the plastic ones) I use in the kitchen cupboards as canisters. I have brown rice, oats, popcorn in them right now (I buy these things in bulk....25# and 50# sacks, so I need something to keep smaller amounts in in the kitchen). I have 2-3 more waiting for me to make space in the cupboard for them. I want to move my corn meal out of the gallon jar and put it in a coffee can as well as some other things we buy in bulk like dry milk. We don't use that much corn meal, so have a smaller amount in the cupboard would be better......then I'd have the jar for dried apples (had to stop drying apples last fall because I ran out of jars - I had 5 gallons full and 4-1/2 gallons)!! Which reminds me, need to buy more pickles so I have another jar for this fall.

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Jen
If my typo's bother you, come on over and take a chair. We can discuss it over some "ham and swill calzones"
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WOW! WOW! OH CRAZY WOW!

I am just a bit impressed!

Thanks for the complments. I never thought to take a pic of my pantry,but someone in the family commented on how pretty the colors were. All of my sibilngs live out of state, so I had set up a place for them to look at pictures of what I'm up to. Things just went from there, people wanting to use the pic. for a book, one for a HGTV show....but really, most importantly, if one person can belive in themselves enough to try to make themselves more self susshient,I'm happy.

How I avoid jar and container overload is by not buying the stuff that comes in them in the first place. Our pasta sauce comes in cans, I think that is a big jar accumulator for some folks. The plastic jars for mayo, throw them away. (No plastic recycling available out where we live.) Don't buy margarine, real butter comes wrapped in paper. Our coffee comes in a bag, not one of those plastic tubs. And so on.

The real canning jars, we keep a few in the cabinet empty for convenient use, and the rest down in the basement. I do save the peanut butter jars as the kind we buy still comes in glass. But that's about it.

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It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with the simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Correct, fire-man. I am sorry. I read the post when tired and was thinking of saving all of the jars and such from stuff one bought at the store.

I don't throw away canning jars. I simply wash them and put then in the box they came from, in the pantry, until I need them again.

But I am old enough to remember the Great Mayonnaise Jar debate....back when such jars were made of glass and people saved them to can with...since mayonnaise jars had mouths that PERFECTLY fit a canning lid.

Canning jars are about the only kitchen container I save and re-use.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

I bought lots of canning jars off a lady once and she had them packed in boxes that hold reams of printing paper. I thought that was brilliant-and though they didn't fit perfectly they did hold a good amount, were easy to get into and stacked really well. If I could only think of a place that goes through lots of paper and would pass their boxes off to me ....

Now-where to stack those boxes ... for me it's the attic for the empties with a few in the pantry for everyday storage. When it's time to can I just fetch them as needed.

I too reuse all my canning jars. I have about 300 in total. Now there is only two of us left at home I only can as much of anything as jars are available. By harvest time if we have used up fifty jars then I can fifty more. If we use 100 then I have 100 available to use. So it goes but we no longer exceed the three hundred limit. I try to use up anyone thing before growing and canning that particular item again. I also use the freezer more now too.We don't buy much from the store but occasionally have tuna, tomato sauce or mayonaise. Mayo comes in a plastic or glass jar. I always try to get the glass ones.If I don't need the jar it goes in the recycle bag.Empty jars are kept in boxes or those recycle grocery bags stored in a storage room.

We typically can between 600-1000 jars of stuff annually. I've done a lot more than that, at times, but that's the average. I probably have about 1800-2000 jars, all told.

Every jar has a place on a shelf in my basement store rooms, and it gets washed after being emptied, and then put back on the shelf. Every once in a while, I go downstairs and reorganize the shelves, separating out the empties, and reorganizing the full jars to better show, at a glance, what I've got in terms of volume -- it's difficult to see when they're all mixed in with the empties.

Rings are sorted by size (standard, widemouth & GEM), and stored separately in boxes with lids -- the kind that you buy reams of paper in with the separate, heavy-duty lid -- on the top shelf of my shelving units (I don't like putting jars up that high). I buy the sealer lids bulk and they're stored separately, as well, until used.

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Ignorance is the true enemy.

I've seen the village, and I don't want it raising my children.

www.newcenturyhomestead.com

I have stacks of cases of filled jars in the house. And I have stacks of cases of empty jars in the storage shed. As I empty them, I move them to the shed, then bring them back in to refill.

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Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

All I can say is WOW! What a pantry!!

cleaned and turned upsidedown in boxes ,bannana cases are good for that and placed in a shed ,we just dont have room in the house for them ,i have always wanted a dish washer for sterilizing a lot of jars at once when we are doing our canning

Like most, we wash and place back on the shelving in the basement.

A handy tip for rings: use a piece of #9 wire to make a loop about 14"-18" in diameter and bend both ends so they'll "hook" together, then just slide on the rings.
We've got one for regular and one for wide mouths hanging on nails in the basement.
They're easy to get to and easily found and tidy.

Wow 7thswan, that's very inspiring. Also, I believe I have that photo pinned on my Pinterest board.

I just started canning this past June. I think we have abotuu 300 jars completed, and about 50 empty. I havethe completed ones in a walk-in closet, andsome in a china cabinet. The cabinet also has some fo the jars.

We are soon going to have to put them in boxes and sldie them under the bed or something.

Oh to have a basement...

*meep*

I have something like 600 jars currently in stock - 400 filled. I have the empties in a drawer and a shelf but then I got too many and I have to use a sack in the container, as well. Haha. But I can about 60 things a week, since I'm still stocking UP and don't want to even out just yet and tomatoes are in season - so y'know how that works. I give roughly 10 a week away to various things/people. I sell a few.

All my friends give me their jars. The smarter ones have learned if they save them - they get them back filled!

I don't know how many jars I go through a year. I'd have to say... 300?

[some of you guys make me feel like a hoarder *eep*]

I get so excited by these photos. This is my goal. I've got four shelves full now... so close....

I have jars stored in my laundry room closet, in both my canners (ready to use when I can) and in my attic.

My mom used to store boxes of empty jars AND boxes of canned items under all the beds.

After cleaning out Mama's sheds last February my siblings and I realized that there are HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of jars on the old home place...mostly quart jars. Mama now sells boxes of them at her annual yard sale. They go fast.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

I had a moment of disbelief last summer when I realized that I had filled every half pint jar I owned. And a little happiness when two people returned jars from jam that I had shared with them. That doesn't always happen. I usually pick up jars at rummage sales when I can.

Part of our basement has a wide ledge and I store boxes of jars up there.

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“If I rest, I rust”

Like bugstabber, I actually ran out of jars last summer. Not just half-pints, but pints and wide-mouth quarts! Which told me two things:

1. I had an awesome garden in 2012.

2. I actually DO need more jars (despite what DH had been telling me for years when he saw 100's of empties stacked up in the cellar).

I wash mine well and store them in bins by size and type (wide mouth or regular) in the cellar. On the occasion that the bins are full, I put the rest of my empties upside down on the shelves where the full ones go (as full ones get used, there is space for the empties.). I need my dh to build me a second set of shelving now.

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Kris
http://thislittleplacehere.blogspot.com/

When you're done with him, Kris, could you send him on up here? I need better shelves made -- mine are mostly modular, and I'd like built-ins. DH is.... well, let's just say that he's better with computers than with a hammer, shall we?

__________________
Ignorance is the true enemy.

I've seen the village, and I don't want it raising my children.

www.newcenturyhomestead.com

I inherited a very nice start of canning jars from an estate sale gone bad. Maybe 120-240 qts and half as many pints. Enough for our family to learn to preserve the hard work that went into the garden. They came in what appears to be the original boxes. We are clinging to those boxes to a point, but they are getting a moldy feel to them. The jars, though, will be with us until our kids have our estate sale.

As for non canning jars, we still save all glass for re-use. I had a bad Granny's Peach Tea habit a few years ago and they all came in 12 (16?) oz jars with metal cap lids. I have dozens. Now DW makes a concoction in the summer she calls "God's Gatorade" and we stock it up in those jars. They are a real life saver in the warm months.

Martin, thanks for the box tip. I'll definitely employ it.

7thswan, simply breathtaking photos... I could curl up in there and hide.

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Honesty and integrity are homesteading virtues.