Five Uses for that Glass Jar: Penny Banks and Beyond

We all buy products that come in glass jars, from spaghetti sauce to baby food, glass is a very popular way to store a product for sale. So what do you do with all those jars besides take them to your local recycling center. Glass jars have many uses, this article will break down my top five uses. I am sure there are many, many more. These are just the ones that I use.

The first thing you will want to do is make sure that you clean the jars thoroughly before reusing them. Make sure the item that was initially in them is not toxic, dispose of any jars that contain toxic or flammable fluids the proper way described on the label.

1. Storage: Glass jars are excellent storage for your dry food products like beans, rice, macaroni, flour, sugar and any other item that will take a while to use up. The product will stay fresh when stored in glass jars. The item is also easy to identify through the clear glass also.

2. Glass containers are excellent for those little hardware items in your workshop or garage also. You can organize all your nuts, bolts and washers. Get them off the bench by taking the lid and putting a washer and screw through it and mounting the lid to a higher area, like under a shelve above your workbench. Once you have the lid mounted and your items in the jar, simply screw your jar into the lid.

3. The good old penny bank, jars are a quick fix, you can drop your change into it and let your fortune grow. Once they are full, count it up, you will be amaze how much one little jar will hold.

4. The shake and baker, when you have meat that needs coated with bread crumbs or some other dry product. Put the mixture in the jar, put your meat or other product you want coated in and shake it up.

5. Jars can be used for premixing a recipe, you can mix up your favorite cookie or other sweet recipe, just the dry ingredients and store them for future use. When you are ready to bake or cook it, just add you wet product or eggs and you are ready to go. These mixes are great gift ideas also. You can mix up the dry ingredients of a cookie recipe or cake mix, add the directions for the wet stuff, stick a bow on top and you have a wonderful home made gift that your friends and family will enjoy.