I washed the pasta-sauce jar, dried it lovingly and put it away in the cupboard - alongside the 500 other jars that I have lovingly washed and put away, awaiting... what, exactly?
I have a colony of glass jars settled in my corner cupboard. Waiting. Apparently breeding.
While I occasionally use one to shake up a salad dressing and I have been known to make a batch of chutney or relish, the chance of me ever needing 501 jars all at once are extremely slim. And, even so, I still covet these blue Mason jars and consider adding them to my motley collection of IXL, Vegemite, mayonnaise and jam jars.
It's one of my worst examples of 'you never know' hoarding. Beetroot aside.
And now I need to know, just how many jars do you have? Lurking in the cupboard under the sink or stashed away in another secret location. Just how many.
Our house is the place other people's jars come to die. In fact, Mr Karen collects old jars and bottles, as in rare ones. He would go out digging with his Pa and brother at old tip sites specifically to find old jars and bottles. We have some of those in the picture. I love them. And yes, I have never met a jar I didn't want to fill. With something.
ReplyDeleteLike empty jars? None. Our kitchen is the size of a tuna can, it's the one place I cannot hoard. Cans of Chick Peas? 15. No shit. Since I vomited up hommus for most of today, doubt I'll be getting to use these up anytime soon.
ReplyDeletexx
Hubby has over 700 vacola jars. All collected from garage sales and junk shops. He has all the sizes. Really old ones too. We have vacola christmas puddings. There are mostly wrapped up in boxed in the shed, except when we make industrial quantities of preserved lemon or tomato relish, or cumquat marmalade.
ReplyDeleteHe even has art by Patrick Hall which features vacola jars.
He is a man who never met a fruit or vegetable that he didn't want to preserve.
Needless to say, I can always find something to make salad dressing in or somewhere to put my pencils.
I don't have jars or anything, however my MIL (prior to her dementia) has every plastic container, glass jar and margarine container she ever bought. Her garage has hundreds of containers in it. She also kept string and cotton. Tiny little pieces. You just never know when you might need them!!! If I was to hoard anything it would be empty boxes. I keep the box to every appliance etc - just in case.
ReplyDeleteNone since I've started making jam! I'm trying to find more so you need to send your glass fertility treatment to my cupboard :)
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I save are egg cartons, they are refilled for my by FIL, the more I return the more he fills. He loves birds, ducks, chooks, anything with feathers, so he has STACKS, but never eats eggs. Our neighbours are usually stocked after our visits to see the FIL.
ReplyDeleteI do covet those georgeous aqua jars you've pictured but usually keep a few others and then end up recycling them when they get in the way in the kitchen. Recycling is great 'cos I don't feel guilty chucking them out.
ReplyDeleteI have precisely 1. When a friend who is forever making amazing chutneys, jams, etc, first asked if I had any empty jars I could give her, I discovered I had about 6 boxes worth - and decided to kick the jar-storing habit then.
ReplyDeleteI now live on the other side of the country to my friend so don't collect for her anymore - pleased to say they go straight in the bin (except for that 1, which might come in handy).
I had boxes but now only have about one box of about ten jars after a major clean out.
ReplyDeleteI rarely use them so have now forced myself not to keep anymore. Can't quite bring myself to throw out that last box just in case I suddenly morph into a jam making fiend.
Happy to say on this one, ALL of our jars take pride of place in the recycling bin. My parent's house on the other hand... cannot see the cupboards, for the jars! Maybe it's because they were always like this, that I have gone the opposite way!?
ReplyDeleteMust say though, they are handy for storing bikkies, they keep them real fresh!
Loving the blue jars in your pic, very pretty.
Happy to say only about 6 - had a clear out recently. Old ones filled with lentils (never eat lentils), pudding rice (always buy rice pudding) and waiting for Seville Marmalade to be made. I am on a decluttering mission. It's that time of year isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI have lots of jars, but no damn lids!!! I put the jars in the dishwasher, and usually leave the lids to hand wash, and then the lids get thrown away and the jars stored under the sink.
ReplyDeleteSome of the jars are used as paintbrush washing vessels, paintbrush holders, and places to store the worms found to feed the salamander... I do need one nice one for salad dressings :)
I'm so guilty. But I do use the jars. Sauce, marmalade. Lemon butter. Justify justify.
ReplyDeleteThe fancy ones - I lie and tell lovely husband I picked them up at the op shop for a dollar or two.
I think we must be living in a parallel kitchen universe. I have quite a number of jars lurking here at the moment ... decided to collect some when we went through a marmalade making phase (actually only one afternoon). I've also been known to have one too many cans of chick peas and borlotti beans. Not to mention the growing number of vinegar bottles! *Snap*
ReplyDeleteA fair few - but I never know when they'll come in handy. All of them. At once.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any. Not a one of those things. But do not look in my recycle bin and count the number of empty wine bottles.
ReplyDeleteZero. I have one on my desk which i'm keeping "stuff" in, and until this weekened I had anotehr waiting for more stuff but husband chucked it. Theres nowhere to put anything in this house. One of the very many benefits of abject poverty.
ReplyDeleteI have none. I just have empty journals waiting to be filled. I can't stop buying them. xx
ReplyDeleteOh, you've found my weakness. I keep them so that I can fill them with either olives or jam. Neither of which I seem to do regularly. I have far too many jars. Really.
ReplyDeleteI have a 'useless jars that may one day become useful' shelf. I rotate them on the shelf, but I'm not allowed to keep any new ones if there is no space on the shelf.
ReplyDeleteGeez... I thought that was a really sensible thing to do until I wrote it down... x
Hahaha, can totally relate but because we moved recently I had to toss most of mine. I am now collecting some more (up to 8) in the hope to make a batch of lemon butter! I share your love of jars, I was just perusing the net for some more! xxx Fi
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I will wrestle each other to the ground over jars. He wants to keep them ("just in case").....and I always want to throw them out.
ReplyDeleteAs he also tries to keep 6cm pieces of string and broken microwave ovens (also "just in case")....I figure I've got the upper hand in the mental health department.
Trish
xx
I am so RELIEVED now that I have read your blog ... I thought I was the only one to hoard glass jars and have never mentioned my fetish to anyone. What does the humble glass have that lures us to lovingly wash and keep them - what does this say about us a person .... mmmm perhaps best left unanswered!
ReplyDeleteI have 3 old jam jars for when i am brave enough to attempt homemade jam again. Other than that i toss, i figure if i have an idea i'd need to use them for i will be able to think up a meal or 2 and then use those jars.
ReplyDeleteI feel blazingly inadequate as I tell you I have ZERO empty jars. *hangs head in shame*
ReplyDeleteWhen I married Mr Fussy (a farmer) and moved into his farm house. It came with jars. They are sadly still there next to the squillion stubbie holders. Might be time to declutter....
ReplyDeleteI store my jars in the laundry cupboard. And there are a lot of them. For making jam...except I haven't yet. Maybe next mulberry season?
ReplyDeleteBoxes of them somewhere under a pile of other stuff in the garage. But I don't keep new ones - straight to the recycle bin for them. I kept them to use for jam and chutney - but I have a different life to my mum's. I work and have three kids to cart around. She had time to stir a jam pot.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were the world's greatest recyclers. And preserved fruit, jams etc were on the go all the time. So when mum passed away last year my sister and I found shelf upon shelf of jam jars - they've gone to the CWA. And she had not only her Fowlers bottles but another household's worth she'd inherited from An old friend. We gave some to cousins but we can't really part with them.
I fob my jars off to hubby. He fills them with small parts when working on our old cars. As always he is left with one or two pieces in the jar and no clue where they go! Five years pass and we now have 20 jars with a piece or two and still no clue :)
ReplyDeleteI have four jars. I DID have about four dozen, but put them in the recycle bin when I realised I was never going to use them for anything. Years ago, I had a whole cabinet full of jars that got used and washed over and over.
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I kept the boxes that things came in too. Toaster, blender, kettle etc. I flattened them and stashed them behind cupboards and under the bed, just in case I moved house. Last year, I tossed them. I'm not going anywhere.
Hi, I am so excited I have just been given 4 boxes of vacola jars in their original cardboard boxes. Even came with a 60's advertisement. Have lovingly stored them in my laundry with the other 100 or so. Have cranked up the stove top vacola once....mmm homegrown beetroot. Bout to give olives and choko pickles ago. Wish me luck!
ReplyDeleteWhy don't Five Brothers do those square jars for their pasta sauce anymore? Under the kitchen sink always looked tidy, despite being stacked with lovingly washed (and labels removed - you forgot to metnion that one needs to spend at least 15 minutes scrubbing desperately at the labels and getting tinly little balled up oeices of sticky paper everywhere while washing up) pasta sauce jars.
ReplyDelete