My Jar Collection

I wanted to share some of the fun ways I store my stuff around the house. So I though I share my jar collection. I get a lot of bulk grains and spices at my local co-op and what I end up with when I take everything out of my canvas bags is a pile of floppy thin plastic bags slithering all over the table, filled with little bits that love to spill out of any hole onto the table, floor and everything else. So in an effort to have to clean less (always a goal here in my house) I started collecting things to put my bulk goods in. I’ve been saving big glass jars for years now, from pickles and honey, or whatever, as long as they have a wide mouth it’s good. Baby food jars are good too of course, especially the double tall toddler ones. My twist tie collection lives in one of those. One of my best scores was when my DH bought a collection of vintage ball canning jars off of Ebay. You can see three of those in the photo, the metal top, and the two glass tops. My favorite is the blue one I store flax seeds in. I love the way the glass containers show off the textures of the seeds and grains, like the pumpkin seeds in the photo above.

I also have found that the big plastic containers I get organic spinach and lettuce mix in make great storage containers. They’re a little flimsy, but as long as you’re gentle, surprisingly sturdy as the one storing rice shows. They’re also great for storing small collections of toys.

The jar with oil stores my massage oil, a combination of powdered frankincense and patchouli oil. It smells so warm and exotic and has wonderful antifungal and antibiotic properties. It’s also great for athletes foot.

My massage oil recipe:

• 4 oz oil (grapeseed oil is nice and not too expensive, but I’ve used olive oil and had good results too)
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. of frankincense chunks, powdered in a coffee grinder, plus a couple of big chunks to look interesting in the bottom of the bottle
• 3-4 drops of patchouli essential oil (if that doesn’t seem like much, let me warn you, patchouli is very intense and a little goes a long way. So try that first and only add a drop at a time if you want it stronger. Also, be warned your nose can get used to strong smells, so you might want to come back to the next day and sniff it again before you add more.
• dried calendula is really nice too, though if you add that you’re going to want to strain it out in a week or two once all the petals have gotten translucent. Calendula is great for the skin, also has antifungal properties, and best of all is totally easy to grow and save seed from. Calendula gets my seal of approval for being beautiful, sustainable, and darned useful.