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.

Salvaged jars

You already know that I love glass jars. Many of my repurposed jars are just ordinary peanut butter, pickle, or salsa jars. Here are a few of the less-than-ordinary ones, and what I'm using them for.

These tiny jars are perfect when packing lunches or snacks. We use them for small amounts of dip for vegetables, or for a handful of raisins or peanuts. The jars are small enough to fit into my small-ish handbag.  These jars are hard to come by. One of them held a small amount of sea salt, and the other two came with boxed breakfasts at a convention (one holding a single portion of honey and the other, a single portion of jam).

The next set of jars were scrounged from several sources. One jar came from a free pile in the neighborhood, another two were from Goodwill for 20cents, each, and I have a fourth jar, needing emptying, from preserves bought for an event that I hosted. These are Bonne Maman preserve jars. I love the jars, but the preserves are kind of pricey.  All the more reason to reuse the jars for something else. My plan is to make some candle jar gifts for this coming autumn and winter holidays.

I had been pricing  nice candle jars online, and found something I liked that were about $1.50 per jar, plus shipping. So when I saw a bunch of the Bonne Maman jars at Goodwill, I was more than willing to find a couple, for 20 cents each. I think I like the Bonne Maman ones better than what I saw online. The repurposed preserve jars have a wider opening, which I think is nicer for a candle.

image retrieved from : http://www.quirkylifestyle.com/2013/07/diy-scented-candle.html

I was not the only one who had this thought to repurpose Bonne Maman jars into candle jars. Beautiful, don't you think?