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Monday, July 30, 2018

When I have too many salvaged jars . . .

In the comments from the other day, live and learn asked if I ever get too many jars to store, and then what I do. When space is at a premium, I save the prettiest jars, recycle the stinky, ordinary jars (like pickle or salsa jars), and I start making gifts with the ordinary, but not stinky, jars (like peanut butter jars).

Every so often I find a great deal on Adams natural-style peanut butter. We prefer the natural kind, so my "usual" is Fred Meyer natural. But sometimes there's a great deal on Adams which beats the FM price. Adams still uses glass jars. I reuse these glass jars as long as I have storage room for them. But when I don't have room. . .


This was a gift to someone recently. I had baked maple-pecan cookies, and I wanted to share. The cookies are in an Adams jar, with the lid ribbon-tied with a square of muslin. Nothing fancy or time-consuming. But it made the gift of a few cookies, prettier, and the jar could then just be tossed into recycling when they were done with the cookies. Not shown in the photo, I used a thin piece of black ribbon to tie 2 tea bags to the entire jar. I think the recipient liked the gift. I made someone smile, and my monetary cost was next to nothing.


10 comments:

  1. Hi Lili,
    I too, have to recycle jars that I sometimes want to keep but don't have room for. The cookie jar gift is a great idea! I just put an Adams PB jar in recycling because my cupboard was full, but I think I'll fish it out and turn it into a gift jar. Those jars are so nice, but they take up a lot of space if not being used.
    Mary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mary,
      I'm so glad to have made a suggestion that you can use! Happy gift-making!

      Delete
  2. Great idea for gifts! You are clever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      Not that clever. I just recycle others' ideas. I do like using glass jars for gifting, though.

      Delete
  3. Hi Lili,

    I have too many jars and my husband thinks so too. The problem is that they are very pretty and very useful. The big carafe-like glass jars that had a special juice in them are now re-purposed as water jugs and milk jugs when I want to freeze a gallon by first pouring some off. Marinara sauce sometimes has the measurements on the jar which makes it useful for a careful liquid measurement. All other jars hold pasta, rice, beans, flour and make great drinking glasses.

    I'm not sure I believe that recycling does what they say they do so I hate putting things there. A guy at work toured a recycling center once and they admitted that things rarely get truly recycled. They mostly just get all combined and thrown away at the landfill. There just is too much junk and not enough people to do thorough recycling.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      oh gosh, that's horrible to think that recycling stuff might just end up in a landfill anyway!
      I have one of those marinara jars, with the measurement markers on the side. So, handy for a back-up measuring cup! My daughter was given a single-serving glass bottle of Starbucks this spring, by a parent of a student during teacher appreciation week. she reuses it as a personal milk bottle. She also loves to use canning jars as glasses. I think canning jars would make fun glasses for a large backyard BBQ, and then I wouldn't have to buy plastic cups. Hmmm, you've given me an idea! have a good one, Alice!

      Delete
  4. I love your cookie gift jar idea. It does make a few cookies look extra special and shows you care for the person.
    I will surely use this idea myself...so thank you very much for providing useful ideas. Much appreciated!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there,
      Thank you. I do like to make gifts that reflect how much I care. For me, it's a big part of what goes into gifting.

      Delete
  5. I'm with the rest of the crowd and love the cookie jar idea. My mother used to collect Pringles cans to mail cookies to kids in college. Worked well. My mother was great. Not only did she mail things to us, she kept up the tradition and mailed any college kid she knew boxes of goodies throughout the years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi live and learn,
      what a wonderful person your mom is! That is just so sweet to think of students who not even her kids. I want to be just like your mom when I grow up!
      Pringles cans sound like the perfect mailing tubes for cookies. I'll keep that one in mind! Thanks!

      Delete

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