Fun with Jars and Labels

Is it just me or does seeing this just make you want to cook more, too? I can’t help but smile a little when I open my spice cabinet now. It’s the little things like this that make cooking that much more enjoyable for me. Silly but true. So here you will find me, having fun with jars and labels!

Let me start out by saying that I don’t think that I’m one of those hyper-organized neat-freak type people that makes other people feel bad about themselves when they come into my house. If you were to stop by for an unexpected visit, most likely you will find a nice layer of dust on at least 60% of surfaces, playmobil worlds set up in at least a couple living areas while a nice rockin’ American girl party is raging in in another and other little fun and not-so-fun disasters.

I have clutter. Lots of it. I love my stuff but do not like the messiness of it, so admittedly, I do love to organize things, whether they be notebook binders, toys (though the upkeep is largely out of my control), baskets for papers and stuff, lists in Excel spreadsheets, you name it. And, if my organizing of such things happen to occasionally arouse a little envy or slight feelings of inadequacy, I promise you, I have plenty of dust bunnies lurking in dark corners, not-so-neat piles of paper litter the kitchen island, miscellaneous stuff cluttering up my dining room table and plenty more. Somethings are just too hard to fight, ya know?

My most recent organizy thing has been to store stuff in mason jars. It first started with salt, kind of inspired by The Pioneer Woman, as I just love how she grabs pinches from an open bowl of salt and other basic spices while she’s cooking. Of course that’s not really practical in my every day life, as I don’t have nearly the counter space as she does, but I made it work for me using mason jars. I’ve expanded to some more spices, based on all of the following criteria:

1. how often I used it
2. how much of it is typically called for in a recipe, ie my tablespoon measuring spoons don’t fit into the standard spice jars and it drives me bonkers!
3. how often do I like to use pinches of it, because pinching it out of a mason jar is much more fun than pinching it out of a standard spice jar
4. how much cabinet space I have to store it
5. how painful is the original packaging (kinda goes back to #3)

Here are the list of spices and such I’ve put into my mason jars:

Ball Jar Crystal Jelly Jars with Lids and Bands, 8-Ounce, Quilted

1. Salt (love to pinch it)
2. Italian Seasoning (love to pinch and sprinkle abundant amounts of it)
3. Cinnamon (often use tablespoonfuls of it)
4. Chili Powder (use tablespoonfuls of it)
5. Cinnamon Sugar (use tablespoons of it, plus I mix it myself)
6. Corn Starch (the organic stuff comes in painful packaging)
7. Baking Powder (thinking about moving it to a mason jar)
8. Baking Soda (thinking about moving it to a mason jar)

Ball Wide Mouth 16 oz container:

1. Girls’ Chewable Vitamins (painful child-proof packaging and will turn sticky if not airtight)
2. Brown Sugar (the most painful packaging of all cause it’s so darned messy!)
3. Tea bags (I use ’em enough that I don’t always want to go to the pantry for them)

Oggi Acrylic Airtight Canister with Clamp, 51-Ounce:

1. flour
2. oatmeal
3. sugar

All of these mason jars were bought years ago for other various purposes. The canisters I’ve owned since my early married years, some 17+ years ago, but all have been spruced up by these cool chalk board labels you see running rampant on Pinterest. Funny how something so simple can give old things a new life.

I bought my set of chalkboard labels on Amazon a while ago but here’s a similar set of 136 writable chalkboard labels and white pen. This set had lots of awesome reviews and lots of varying sizes and are freezer and dishwasher safe.

If you want them all the same size and shape, you might want something like this set of uniform labels instead, but double check on dishwasher/freezer usage. I kind of like it that mine are all slightly different, though. The pen that came with this set was too thick for my taste plus it was erasable, so I went and found myself a more permanent pen: White Chalk Marker. I’ve tested it and it won’t wipe off with soap and water but it will come off with dry erase cleaner and a paper towel. Sweet!

And how about these cookie jars? Aren’t they the BEST? Almost makes my treats and snacks look like a fancy fun bakery/coffee shop!

It’s the little things like this that help me feel a little bit in control when sometimes the rest seems like it’s spiraling out, you know what I mean? And you know what they say: If mama’s happy…

Thanks so much for stopping by! Feel free to make my day by leaving me a comment, following my blog via email, Facebook or Instagram. The more the merrier, of course!

Christine, aka happyvballgirl : )

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