Canning Jars…I love ‘em, and they are’t just for canning!  They have tons of uses!  Not only are they cheap (find them at garage sales for a super cheap deal!) they are so multipurpose!

I use mine for everything!  They make excellent containers in the kitchen for housing everything from dried herbs, dried beans, oatmeal, sugars, salt, spices & homemade dry mixes to storing seeds from last years bounty, to creating herbal concoctions (they work great to create herbal infusions), I use them to strain our fresh goat milk into, I use them as toothbrush holders in the bath, storing cotton balls and qtips, use smaller sized ones for holding nails or screws,  I even use them for containers for freshly whipped up salad dressings and pancake batter–they are great for making ’sun tea’ and I even have a neat set with handles for drinking glasses!  By hitting garage sales for your jars you can often find really old ones that are so unique!

They are completely reusable, don’t leach toxins like much of the plasticware of our day, and are strong! We make candles in them, store olive oil infusions for everything from earaches to diaper rashes, they make great vases for those bunches of flowers my children lovingly pick for me in the summertime and store dehydrated foods with ease!

I love the fact that I can always reuse them (unlike plastic bags or tupperware that gets easily ruined, get holes in them or get stained and look gross!) I can easily ’see’ what is stored in them and I love the ‘old fashioned’ look of them too!

Canning Jars are a wonderful, inexpensive, all purpose, recycled ‘tool’ I love having in my homestead!  Right now is the perfect time of year to find canning jars at garage sales–just look for ones that aren’t chipped or cracked–and you have an attractive ALL purpose set of containers for a myriad of uses!

Lisa