A New Idea And Old School Storage

Our youngest daughter cleans and chops all her vegetables and fruit when she gets home from the store. Then she uses plastic containers that stack to store them in the fridge. 

Wild Bill and I were impressed with her system because, due to being hidden away, we sometimes don't use our veggies before they spoil.

We vowed to adopt Jaimee's method of cleaning and chopping before storing. But, while Jaimee uses plastic containers, we stayed with our old-school canning jars.

I don't use the metal caps that come with the canning jars when you buy them at the store. The metal caps rust easily when you wash them. Instead I use white plastic caps and use the metal ones only when I'm giving away a jar of something like homemade soup, in case the lid doesn't come back. Yeah, I'm that cheap!

You can buy the white canning jar caps at any store. I buy mine at Walmart in the canning jar section. They come a dozen to a box for around $3.00, and I buy caps for both the wide-mouth and small-mouth jars.

If you need canning jars, remember to look for them at thrift shops and garage sales. You can usually find them for about 10 to 20 cents a piece. Be sure to check the jars for any chips or cracks before you buy.

I use an erasable marker (the kind for white boards) to show what the veggies are going to be used for. That way the tops of the celery, and "less desirable" parts of the onions and such, can be stored in a jar for the "soup pot" while the better part of the celery and onion can be stored separately for tuna sandwiches or to make a salad...

The canning jars and white caps can be put in the dishwasher to clean and will withstand the hottest of water temperatures.

If you make a mistake when you label the jar cap, just use a paper towel to wipe the erasable marker off.

To store the vegetable-filled jars in the fridge, I put them in the veggie/fruit drawers.

I've used jars for a long time, I just never thought of prepping all my vegetables when I got home before I stored them. Duh!

Since the mid-90's, I've stored leftovers in the fridge in the jars with caps. I've also used them to store crackers, cereal and other dry stuff in the cupboards.

By using the large jars (instead of covered bowls) to store leftover porkchops or such in the fridge, I'm able to easily see what's available. I try to put all the left-overs in one spot in the fridge, so they don't get over looked.

We also use the pint jars for drinking sweet tea and other drinks. I learned that ages ago from my dear friend Sally, who was from Oklahoma. Sally always kept a canning jar ready for me in case I dropped by after work for what she called her "Okie Tea".  Sally taught me that only a canning jar should be used for Okie Tea!

Hope you found this useful. We're ready for the week.