Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Green Wednesday: Saving Baby Food Jars

While I make most of Flower's baby food from fresh produce, I do keep some jars of fruit on hand for emergencies, dining out, and convenience. For some reason, I find baby food jars especially intriguing. I never throw them away. I know there have to be a gazillion good uses for them. But the majority of the time, I find that I only save them and pile them in boxes. I still have some baby food jars that I used with Spark years ago! My city recycles glass, but I just can't bring myself to throw these jars out. It's hard enough to throw out the other glass jars (pickles, pasta, applesauce, jams, the list is long). In fact, I rarely throw them out either! Glass jars are taking over my house!! (Feel free to send me great ideas for reusing glass jars, especially baby food jars!)

Finally, I have found a way to offload some of my jars. Spark's teacher needs some baby food jars for a project she is having her class of 14 four year olds do. I offered to save Flower's jars for her.

I have tried a few different methods for removing the sticky labels from the jars, and of all of them, the following method works the best for me:
  1. Rinse the baby food jars and lids.
  2. Place them in a large bowl in the sink or right in your sink.
  3. Squirt 1-2 tablespoons of liquid castile soap (such as Dr. Bronner's) over the jars.
  4. Turn on the hot water and add water until all the jars are completely covered.
  5. Leave the jars in the water for at least 3 hours. Letting them sit overnight is best.
  6. After at least 3 hours, take the baby food jars out of the water. The labels should rub right off.
  7. If any adhesive still sticks to the jars, dab a drop or two of Eucalyptus essential oil on a cloth or cotton swab and rub on the adhesive.
  8. Rinse and let the jars air dry, or run them through your dishwasher.
Go to Works for Me Wednesday on Rocks in My Dryer for all kinds of tips and tricks.

6 comments:

Muslimah Bazaar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SAHW said...

I have an obsession with baby food jars too, and my babies aren't even here yet! It stems from my days as a teacher...
I was planning on using my current stash to make candles - I think they'd make a cute stocking stuffer type of gift. :)

Anonymous said...

I don't have kids yet, but I picked up a huge box of used baby food jars from a woman on Craigslist recently. I'm getting married next year in an outdoor ceremony, and we're planning on making each jar a hanging candle holder. We'll hang each jar by ribbon (or wire) from a tree, arbor, etc.

Anonymous said...

I'm using mine to store flower/vegetable seeds. I can never find all the packs when I need them and plastic bags didn't work well for me either, I'm hoping this is the trick.

mub said...

I want to make a Christmas Tree light display with baby food jars, but I don't know anyone with babies to save the jars for me *L* This is what I'm talking about: http://crafts.kaboose.com/baby-food-jar-christmas-tree.html

suzannah | the smitten word said...

i've been saving them, too. i'm having a christmas party and am thinking about making hot chocolate mix and putting it in the jars for favors. one jar will fit 4 tbsp--two servings. if i do this, i think i'll mod podge a circle of pretty paper on the lid.

 
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