Glass jars are awesome.

I use glass jars in my kitchen anyway that I possibly can.  I love glass jars.

Dry goods

This the bottom drawer in the kitchen.  I use it to store most of my dry goods except flour, sugar and rice.  These are 1 litre mason jars.  They fit great and hold quite a bit of dry goods.  I used to have all of these items just in their original packaging and loose in my food cupboard.  It was awful.  I'd get frustrated trying to find stuff.  I'd buy duplicates.  Really a pain.  Now if the entire package doesn't fit into the jar - it goes onto the top shelf of the large corner cupboard for storage.  So I don't forget that it is up there, perhaps hiding behind the flour, I put an elastic band on the jar.  This reminds me that there is more in the cupboard and don't buy any quite yet.

spice drawer

The spice drawer is a little bit more eclectic. I love the symmetry of the dry goods drawer but that simply won't work for the spices.  It's a mix of original packaged items (like the soup mix), mason jars (like the cinnamon sticks), reused glass jars.  My favourite jars to reuse for spices are yeast jars (we make a lot of bread so these are starting to add up) and artichoke jars (I use them in my tartar sauce - so yummy!). This allows me to buy new spices in a bulk package and store them in a jar.  My favourite labeling material is green painters tape.  It sticks really well but not so well that it won't come off if I decide to re-purpose the jar.

the fridge isn't this neat

I also freeze in glass jars.  I have significant concerns about putting burning hot soup or chicken stock into plastic containers to freeze.  I am worried about plastics leeching into my food.  I could let the food cool and then put them in plastic to reduce the likelihood of materials leeching into my food but then I have to wait for the food to cool.  That just takes way to long - I want to be finished.  I'm sure that you're wondering how my jars don't all break in the freezer.  It's easy - simply freeze them without the lids on.  I put the lids in the freeze at the same time so the next day it is easy to put the lids onto the frozen jars.  I use mason jars for soup.  The 250ml size is perfect for 1 serving of soup.  My daughter will choose soup for a snack when it is available like this.  I like any re-used store jar for freezing stock.  They too are labelled with painters tape but on the lid so you can't see it.

This is how I use glass jars in my kitchen besides preserving.  Do you use glass jars in your kitchen?  If so, how?