Ideas to Help You with Repurposing Your Glass and Plastic Jars

Yes, many plastics and glass are recyclable. But what may be an even better alternative is to purposefully reduce the amount of packaging we consume by shopping smarter. We can support companies committed to less packaging and buy in bulk to reduce packaging waste as well.

In addition to reducing and recycling, there are two other "r"s in Eco-friendly. Okay, not phonetically of course, but both reusing and even repurposing are more ways to keep our landfills and yes, even our recycling centers, from becoming overloaded.

There are a myriad of plastic and glass containers in most homes and all along the shelves of stores. Jelly jars, mayonnaise jars, and even the containers that tennis balls come in serve a purpose. What's next? If you're one of the growing number of families that are gardening and canning locally grown foods, then you've no doubt learned how to sterilize and reuse jars. If canning isn't in season in your life, the ball game isn't over. Here are practical tips for reusing the plastic jars and containers and glass jars for new purposes.

Repurposing jars for storing small toys:

Plastic or glass? Whether you choose plastic or glass jars for storing toys may well depend on the age of your children as well as the types of flooring you have and the potential for glass breaking. Either way, you probably have plenty of options available as soon as you finish the casseroles and salads for your Thanksgiving dinners.

Sometimes a large set of toys can be overwhelming to kids; there may not be enough time to play and clean up hundreds of pieces. A handful of animals, Lego's, letter blocks, or even a homemade magnet set is just right in a jar. Besides, opening and closing jars is an important skill alongside stacking and sorting. Another benefit of jars, whether plastic or glass, is that kids and parents can easily see what's inside and they don't take up a lot of storage space.

Repurposing jars for craft supplies:

From homemade playdough to finger paints, baby food jars or small jars are perfect for storing art supplies. Jars are especially helpful if you want to save money and buy in bulk, but not hand out liters of paint to young children. Are you constantly drawn to buying plastic storage bins? It's almost a disease, PSBD. Consider storing beads, sequins, glue sticks, crayons, buttons, or scraps of paper and fabric in jars.

Repurposing jars for bulk dry goods:

Many bulk goods, especially those locally milled flours, corn mills, pancake mixes, oats, breakfast cereals, and the like are either sold in bulk to be put into thin plastic bags or sold in craft paper bags. That's great until one rips, or even worse, flour moths move in. Buying whole foods and local foods in bulk is a great idea. Just have your reusable jar collection clean and ready and repackage your dry goods. A permanent marker will be happy to note the name of the goods inside and the jars will fit nicely in your pantry.

Repurposing plastic jars for nuts, bolts and hardware:

Buddie Bray doesn't play tennis. He's a golfer at heart and also a woodworker and creative builder extraordinaire. In other words, he's always building things from pieces, parts and what other people might think were scraps. His repurposing doesn't just stop at table legs. His hardware cabinet is full of tennis ball cans. Nuts, bolts, screws and other hardware are all sorted, easy to see, and there's no danger of broken glass in his shop.

What creative ways do you reuse plastic jars, glass jars and other containers?