We use ours to bring coffee to work in the morning. The lid stays on far better than any of our travel mugs. Coworkers have made snippy comments about our beloved Coffee Jar but we feel so green!

great ideas, thx!

I bring leftovers to work in them, and store pretty much everything in them at home (bad expirence w/pantry moths) all must be sealed.

I do buy lids and rings to replace the lids that come with though.

Some of the jars are actual canning jars and can be used for home canning. I use my leftover jars for storage, like DahliaCactus, I've had pantry visitors.

The jars hold one wicked large sized bloody mary as well...

Anyone have a suggestion for cleaning the lid to remove the sauce stains/odors? I would think that otherwise, you'd end up with sauce flavored flour, sugar, etc. Or maybe not. I use glass jars like these for banking change and holding screws, nuts, bolts, etc.

i've used these a lot around my kitchen and i just love them. they bring that oldtime homeiness back to my life! and the jar is glass which is not porous so food particles dont get stuck and the lids are metal- there is very little chance having the rest of the contents taste like pasta sauce if they are cleaned with hot water.

Put the dry ingredients (layered) for your favorite baked goods recipe in and give as gifts with baking ingredients.

Dont' forget tiny toys ala jar of whimsies.
http://recovergirl.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/forgotten-little-toys/

I use them for homemade chili sauce, which I have to have onhand at all times. Since a lot of the chili sauces I make are tomato-based, I don't have to worry about flavor contamination.

cate918; I laughed when I read your post; dh and I use them for coffee as well, and dh likes to use a big one for fresh lemonade in the summer-ice, water, honey, lemons/lemon juice, lid & shake well. However, once my June-Cleaver-on-steroids mother in law graced us with a visit and the look on her face to see her son drinking out of a jar was priceless; the next week, she dropped by when only I was home with a set of 18 brand new glasses that she had "just happened to pick up."

discocactus - I've never had any trouble with leaching flavors, either.

Rndrc - I too have problems with the in-laws thinking that our creative re-use somehow means we're missing something. There was kind of a fight about our sofa. It's so ungreen... sigh...

I have been on a juicing kick and use mine to bring in a batch of fresh juice to sip throughout the day. They are perfect.

I can't believe I've never thought of this! I always just toss old jars into the recycling, but now I can think of so many uses and I'm cursing all the ones that are gone and that I have none now because I just moved!

Oh if i could count how many times my MIL has tried to replace a beloved DIY-ed item in my household up to and including the furniture.

I LIKE it this way....

I have been saving all of my glass jars, frosting them and using them as lanterns in my garden. I have been saving large tin cans and making punched lanterns too. Our yard is large, full of trees and walled in so it's pretty dark in the evenings. But since I filled it with my lanterns it's quite nice. I also have used some for small toy storage, little doll shoes and legos that sort of thing.

Be careful of botulism when making flavored olive oils.

Glue a large hardware nut to the inside of the lid, and another on the side of the lid. Put taper candles in the jar, and some matches.

When the power goes out, open the jar, stand a candle in the nut in the lid, light with matches. The nut on the outside of the lid acts as a handle so you can carry candle around.

This was an old Martha Stewart idea.

You could also make a sewing kit.

I use mine to make pickles! Perfect size.

I like to use the 2-part canning lids, too, for firefly jugs in the summer. I cut a circle out of plastic cross-stitch mesh and it makes a fine mini aquarium/terrarium for tadpoles, earthworms and little plants started by seeds.

I use 20 Mule Team Borax washing powder in one of these jars with the lid and mesh screen for a impressive hand and body scrub.

i love jars and save pretty much every one - from jelly jars to honey jars to soy sauce jars... we have a whole shelf devoted to the collection. trader joe's jars have the best shapes! i wrap wire around the top and hang with various lengths of fishing line from my porches and fill with tea lights. also, i always use them for my iced coffee in the morning.

You can never have too many jars.

My wife and I salt cabbage and use empty jars to keep our cabbage over many weeks and months;

My wife makes her own "kefir" (Russian buttermilk) and we always have at least 5 or 6 jars on the go either making or storing the kefir in the fridge.

I love the other suggestion that I read here. I now know what to do with the other empty jars that we have piled up in the closet :)

Michel

I re-use glass jars in my backyard as tea-light holders. I don't even bother frosting the jars, I just have a bunch of different sizes grouped and set out on the tables.
Ironically, not my in-laws but a friend of mine picked up votive holders for me because she saw I was using old jars. But I think I just didn't have enough empty jars of candlelight out for it to look intentional.

[laughs] I started buying Classico sauces because they have no added sugar, but I sometimes wonder if I keep buying them simply because I'm hooked on those wonderful jars. I've used them for everything the previous commenters have mentioned.

It's nice to see that my kid sister and I aren't the only ones who love our Coffee* Jars. I even made a cozy from a moth-eaten wool sweater for mine--it keeps the coffee hot and protects my fingers. How's that for recycling?

I've never had a problem with cleaning the lids; I scrub new ones with baking soda, and while some orange-y tomato-sauce discoloration remains for a while I've never had it impart any off tastes or odors to any other foods or beverages.

I can't wait to go home and make spag so I can now reuse the jar!

i actually use mine to store goodies and snacks for our toddler. the clear jar makes it so easy for him to just point to which snack he wants. i find it interesting too that he often times picks the healthier choices. it's reassuring that we must be doing something right...or he just has really good taste!

I just finished a jar of spaghetti and accidently broke it a day later. I was planning to store leftover soup in it! Love the oatmeal tip for when I'm out of college and in the working world.

I made peanut butter dog treats and presented them as a gift in an old spaghetti jar. I painted the jar lid to pretty it up and disguise that it was a jar of spag sauce.

I use a 24 ounce Classico jar to drink water out of at work. I even got a compliment on it once! At home, we use smaller empty jars for regular drinking glasses. I love that they're so much more durable than store bought glasses and they do double duty for storing leftovers. We also use one to keep our laundry quarters in.

Instead of sauce, mine are mostly gathered from binging on three packs of "fancy" cling peaches and I use them for flour, sugars, coffee beans, etc.

When I accumulate a dozen or so, I sand the lids lightly, and spray paint all of them with a primer coat followed by some of that stone paint. The lids rarely get dirty but I hand wash them when necessary since the paint doesn't hold up well in the dishwasher.

Most of my jars have cup and half cup gradations marked on the sides, which are especially useful for measuring flour stored in them or for making sugar water for the oriole and hummingbird feeders in the summer.

NOT TRUE!!!! The BPA claim may be true about the glass jar - but nearly all metal lids are lined with BPA. Re-using the jar for something oily or acidic will almost certainly result in leaching.

Every time I buy Classico pasta sauce, I save the jar. There are some nifty ideas here, especially the traveling breakfast. Neat!

How about using a glass/bottle cutter? The jar would no longer be a jar, but depending upon the height you'd cut it at, it could have many additional uses.

erm...i'm missing some education here...

what's BPA?

a neighbor in college use to spit his chews into these jars...
he also used to offer drinks in them...

Here you, some info on BPAs.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/114/bpa

I clean the lids by soaking in a tsp of bleach overnight and washing
for anyleftover smell in the jars, just put a slice of white bread in the jar, close tight and leave for a night or 2. the bread somehoe deodorizes the jars completely.

I use our jars for homemade taco sauce, pasta sauce, and special bath salts and body scrubs that I make and give to friends. I cover the writing on the lids with rustoleum paints or scrapbook paper depending on where it's going

My family always uses them as giant iced tea glasses! The lids don't leak :)

I have so many! from spaghetti sauce, jam, salsa...

I started collecting them after reading an idea for giving pancake mix or herbed salt as affordable gifts for the holidays. I sort of wound up canceling Christmas last year though so didn't use many.

I did make a basil salt though and would not recommend using a jar with metal lid for that because the salt oxidized it!

using them for iced tea is a great idea. so's the oatmeal one. might have to try that.

my boyfriend and i like to make our own salad dressings and sauces and having different sized jars on hand works great to store the leftovers...especially since you can shake them really well to re-mix before adding to whatever it is you're cooking.

unlike you guys, my friends were actually really into using the empty jars for their morning coffee when they came to visit recently & we had run out of mugs. I love my friends! :)

I have a habit of collecting glass jars after use. It mainly started when my county's waste management would not recycle glass (but now they do!).

I've reused my glass for loads of things: loose change (1 or silvers and 1 for pennies), canning/pickling, decorative see-through display for wine corks, water cup for paint brushes, and making salad dressing (like m-prove comment---it does work great for shaking up the dressing and storing the rest).

I will definitely need to try the oatmeal suggestion next time!

Plastic jar lids are available wherever you can buy canning supplies.

The standard mason jars can be used in place of a blender caraffe--the blade assembly will screw on in place of the lid. They're good for smaller blending applications, such as whipping cream, or for use when your magic bullet is on the fritz.

Glass jars as drinking glasses! lol... It reminds me of people using mason jars for liquers (and drinking from them). Yes, leftover jars are wonderfully useful in many ways; however, I have reservations on storing liquid food in them with metal lids due to rust concerns.

Lest we forget, PICKLED BUMS.

http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1621

BPAs aren't going to leech into the jar unless the jar is so full that the contents touch the top of the lid. Could happen, but not very likely.

I find the lids clean up nicely in the dishwasher, but I've had a horrible time removing labels. I've got some really ugly jars that have been scrubbed and picked at and run through the dishwasher multiple times. They're still covered by shreds of paper and some kind of superglue.

Any suggestions other than switching to a brand with no labels?

I like to store all the extra buttons that come on skirts, shirts, dresses, etc... in the jars. They make for a pretty decorative piece on a bookshelf.

We force paperwhite bulbs in our classico jars and wrap pretty ribbon around the mouth of the jar. They make great Christmas gifts for my son's teachers. You just have to time them right so that something is growing when you hand them to the teacher. Everyone LOVES getting them.

@ kelleyk: for sticky leftovers use nail-polish remover, or the nail-polish removing wipes. I never use nail polish but I use the remover all the time. It is the acetone that dissolves the glue.

i am absolutely obsessed with reusing my sauce jars. they make great storage for granola, dried beans and dog treats. i too take a sauce jar to the coffee shop and for outdoor events ive been known to show up with one filled with red wine, or whatever cocktail i feel like drinking for the night. there is nothing like hearing ice clinking around in a mason jar full of lemonade (hard or soft)

oh, i forgot to mention that in the fall when i make a lot of stews and soups in my crock pot, i tend to make too much so i can pour it into mason jars to pop into the freezer. i leave about an inch and a half gap at the top for expansion and when i go to prepare them, i either put it into the fridge to thaw or if i decide i want soup now, i will take the lid off and put the jar in a large pot full of water and cook it that way slowly and use tongs to remove it, and pour it right into my favorite bowl for instant gratification. you could also microwave them this way, but i dont have a microwave.

I have them lined up along my kitchen window with colorful candles.

The quintessential "everyday" drinking glass here in the sunny south has been a canning jar or jelly jar, however I had never considered using one for hot drinks -great idea!! Like the idea of making a cosy from an old sweater, too. I will be trying that.
I use a jar to make gravy or sauces. Place 1/2 of the needed liquid into the jar (room temp works best), add the flour or starch, lid, shake like mad, gently pour into warm pan while stirring. Add the rest of the liquid and continue to cook and stir until desired consistency. Guaranteed, no lumps.

I buy a lot of rice syrup in 16 oz. jars, with beautiful lids and labels that come right off, I have way more jars than I can use even after using them to store bulk goods, bulk spices, spice mixes, leftovers, salad dressings, etc.

They are perfect for reusing as canning jars (lids do need to be purchased) and I wish there was a place or event I could give them away to so that home canners could use them. It seems overkill to place a Craigslist ad saying "six jars available for free". In fact, I wish there was a jar exchange in every community to pair up givers and takers.

Slightly off-topic:
Buying a wide-mouth funnel to fill these jar has made my life SO much easier. No spill, no mess, and bulky contents that would clog up a regular funnel go right through. Even if the jar and funnel are the same diameter I just hold them together in the sink. My wide-mouth funnel is my favorite kitchen tool.

I love jars. I never buy spagetti sauce so most of mine come from juice, salsa...pickles, etc. I use them for everything from dried bulk food storage to buttons and ribbon, seedling starters, candle holders, drinking glasses and just about anything I can think of. My husband is starting to get used to the jar obsession. Now if I only had room to keep all my wine bottles. :)

@kellyk: To remove the labels I soak them in soapy hot water, generally in another container. It may take a day or so, but I keep it in the sink while I'm doing dishes and keep testing.

I have used nail polish remover to get off the glue from the label and it works well. I also love giving them the antique turquoise look by using a mix of modge-podge and food coloring painted on the outside of the jar. (I don't recommend these methods if you are using them food food, though. ) I like to use them as decorative pieces filled with seashells or other treasures my kids collect.

I just boil the jars to get rid of the labels. It was my understanding that those glues were designed to weaken when heated.

Since I'm lazy, I just wait until I have a decent sized pot dirty, then boil the jar/wine bottle in it with a little dish soap for a few minutes while I'm doing dishes. It comes right off, every time.

Great ideas here! I have a jar on the dryer for all the stray coins that end up clanking around in there (used a screwdriver and hammer to make a slot in the metal lid.) Food storage of all kinds -- flour, sugar, rice, beans, spices from the bulk counter, salad dressing. I make and keep my hummingbird nectar using the peach jars that have cup measuring lines on them. Easy to measure and they can be microwaved to cook the sugar and water then mixed with cold water and used immediately or stored in the fridge until needed. I use them for flower vases for outdoor parties and of course, they're perfect for votives as others mentioned.

I reuse mine I poke a hole in the center with a stick pin, a little piece of electrical tape, and a ziplock suction pump , put my beans, sugar oatmeal etc. in it. leave tape loose over the hole and pump away, now your jar is sealed and your stuff will keep until ????? I have heard of someone storing raisins, she had miss placed them found them twenty years later when taking down a water bed, opened them and they were perfectly fine.

I recommend WD-40 or zippo-style lighter fluid for removing labels. Just squirt it on, let it soak for a few minutes, and peel it off.

We have found that spray canola oil also works as well as WD-40 for silencing squeeky hinges. I don't know if it would remove labels though.

WD-40 or lighter fluid also works on removing price tags from shiny book covers.

goo gone - use as much or as little as you want and the glue just melts away in no time

For years I’ve been using the Classico jars in the summer for iced water, sweet tea or lemonade. When I make my smoothies I store the remainder in the jar in the fridge. Just shake it up and sip away.

Re: non-toxic way of getting labels and glue residue off jars...
1) a few inches of warm/hot water and dishsoap of choice in sink (enough to just cover jar when on it's side).
2) allow to soak for 10-20min (ish), then peel off paper label
3) allow to soak another 10 min (maybe add a little more hot water)
4) rub copper pot scrubber along outside of jar (takes about 2 min, cleans all the glue off completely)
5) done!

in an effort to rid all plastic from our kitchen, i save all glass jars. i then etch the word 'love' on them and use as food storage, water bottles, flower vases, cotton ball & q-tip jars etc. i have given them as gifts and now i am getting orders from as far as germany:) can we post pics here?
topangaheRT@gmail.com

...oops... topangaheART@gmail.com

...i remove label then freeze the jars and use a razor blade to scrape glue right off. saves water, non toxic etc ;)

can you tell i'm new here!?! here is a link to view my jars...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=274536&id=758441131&l=d851c7009a

I re-use jars for everything! Never had a problem with the lids either, suggest using baking soda to scrub them. I also use mine for on the go coffee containers and for all kinds of storage. I used them for holding candles at an outdoor party and had a couple of guests who acted as though they needed to run out and buy me fancy candle holders so I wouldn't embarrass myself but I just laughed them off. I love the retro look these old glass jars bring. They often remind me of my grandmother. And THAT is a great memory.

I use mine to prop up solar lights on my deck. I don't have a yard where I rent but have a big deck (without lights). Most solar lights are on posts designed to be pushed into soil. I just simply stand them up in the jar, fill it with decorative rocks, marbles, sand, etc. and light up my entire deck and walkway. You can even plant ivy (or the like) in them for some "landscape" or garden. Make sure that you occasionally empty out any dirty rain water or leaves that may land in them.

nail polish remover works a treat at removing sticky labels and the reisdue!

my nut butters & honey all come from the farmers market in jars that i always save. once they're nearly empty, i use the very bits of whatever honey or peanut butter is left to make salad dressings. the lid makes it easy to shake up--since it's screwed on, no leakage!

Goo Gone also gets that sticky leftover adhesive sticker off, too:

http://googone.com/GG-Browse-Products/Goo-Gone-Products-In-The-Home

I love my jars and I usually will cook up batches of soups, chilis, and/or beans and rice and freeze them. Then, when I want lunch at work, I will take out a jar and put it on my candle warmer on my desk. I loosen he lid a little and make sure a little air can escape. But, by lunch it is nice and warm and I love that I don't have to go and HEAT my food up anywhere because it is READY to enjoy!

Goo Gone or WD40.