The Many Uses for Mason Jars

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Those are the three R’s, I think. Or, wait, is it Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic? Who the hell still says Arithmetic? Math is difficult enough without giving it a fancy name, thank you.

Reducing, Reusing, and Recyling are all fairly straightforward concepts. Don’t use as many paper towels. Separate your paper from your glass from your aluminum. Find new creative uses for things you can’t recycle. This last missive seems to be the most difficult to follow, either from a lack of time or creativity, or both.

So here’s an easy and simple idea to help you carry out the Reusing part of the three R’s. Whenever I use a jar of pasta sauce, I wash and save the jar to use as one of our drinking glasses. At first, they were a novelty in our pantry, few and far between. But then I noticed that visiting family members always reached for the mason jars first when pouring a glass of water, and I began serving guests from these jars. They’ve proven to be popular, so now the mason jars are used exclusively in our house.

My favorite jars to save are from Amy’s Kitchen pasta sauces. They’re more square than round, so they feel solid in your hand. I also have one that says “Atlas Mason” on it, and it’s my favorite one, though I can’t remember where I got it. I could always buy more of these classic-style Atlas Mason jars, though that entirely defeats the purpose of Reuse. So, my motley crew of mason jars serves me just fine.

Most pasta sauce jars are plain cylinders, which I also keep, though I use those for grain and legume storage in my pantry. I’m constantly storing and lidding things, so there’s a drawer in my kitchen almost completely dedicated to mason jar lids. The lids can be tricky, since I’ve noticed they keep that “tomato” smell for a long time. I deal with this by soaking them in white vinegar for a couple of hours, which helps to eradicate the smell.

While a tomato-flavored polenta wouldn’t be the end of the world, I sometimes use the larger mason jars for making sun tea, and I have to use the lids to keep bugs out while the tea brews outside. Though I haven’t tried it, I’m pretty sure tomato-flavored iced green tea would be disgusting. Cleaning the lids with vinegar has prevented this mishap.

Keep thinking of ideas for reusing the non-recyclable items in your house. There’s many things you can do, and many times they improve the state of your household rather than detracting form it. Who needs a fancy set of drinking glasses when my mason jars add so much interest to my kitchen? Reusing things doesn’t have to be as boring as washing and drying your used plastic bags. Though you should do that, too.