"The sport of organizing"! I love you Cathy!

I have a friend save me her Classico pasta sauce jars. They have dry goods in them.....oatmeal, couscous, quinoa, orzo, etc. I put some tomato sauce in some, and they are in the freezer.

I love re-purposing. An ice cream bucket is ideal for raising dough.

Looks like a perfect fit. Funny how we have so many choices in salt and sugar these days...remember when we only had regular iodized table salt and white & brown sugar? ;)

Clever and pretty!

After the meal moth episode in my pantry, I'm now using mostly glass jars, especially 1 quart canning jars with tight fitting lids. Your Voss and Argo bottles are really nice. Wish I had some ice cream buckets.

Teresa

Glad to hear your uses for containers.

Most of Voss and all of the Argo bottles are glass, that's what is so great about them. And the Agro bottles have wide mouths making them easy to fill.

I keep rice in the large Voss bottles in the pantry refrigerator because they don't take up much room.

After finding "evidence" of unwanted critter(s) a long while back, EVERYTHING in cupboard is in Mason jars or air-tight containers... rice, small pastas, dried beans/lentils, etc. If ya used pasta sauce from jars, somebody makes one in a square jar... slightly more efficient use of cupboard space.

Gosh I've never seen any bottles like those, they are a perfect size. And here I was thinking I was organized, now I feel like a SLOB! GAH!

Beautiful! Your photo has me wondering where I can buy Voss water without paying to ship the water.

I like the Voss white wine, but those bottles are too big. I've never seen Voss water.....I can only imagine the price!

I love your lazy susans too.

The Classico pasta sauce is in rectangular jars, that can also double as canning jars. The lids and rings fit them.

I use mostly mayonnaise jars for storage, although I also have a lot of tall glass containers from the 1980s that have rubber rings for seals. I used to have everything in glass jars when I lived in Culver City, and that made a huge mess when everything came flying out of my kitchen cabinets during the Northridge quake in 1994. After that, I switched to all plastic, but then I became complacent and went back to glass because I can vacuum seal them jars if they have a mason jar type of lid. I have all the glass jars stored safely in my pantry, and they are packed into so tightly that they cannot go flying anywhere. The pantry has shelves that slide out in addition to the door. In Culver City I ended up with molasses, rice, flour, oil, and water all mixed together with broken glass on my kitchen floor. Even my plastic water bottles got broken when things fell on top of them.

I mention this so that you can remember to store things safely, in case of natural disaster, such as tornado, hurricane, or earthquake. I need to put child-proof locks on the cabinets that have glass and crystal, but I keep half of my crystal stored in safe boxes in the garage.

Lars

Lars, if we have to worry in Central FL about storing glass safely because of hurricanes, we would by necessity have bigger things to worry about--roofs and walls. And that holds true for South Florida and the Gulf states. Our walls don't shake--they either stand tall or they collapse.

I have beans, rice, lentils, etc. in those old blue canning jars. They aren't really used for canning, most edges are chipped or something, but the canning lids keep everything air tight and bug free.

I Never buy dish towels and I seldom buy paper towels because I use those white terry cloth "bar mops". That's probably not a repurposing, since I buy them specifically for cleaning up messes, then just throw them all in the washer with hot water and lots of bleach.

I often use canning jars to store things like yogurt, maple syrup, leftover soup, small amounts of juice/etc., when I don't have room for a big container with only a little of the original substance.

A plastic ice cream bucket with a lid is also a great container for "chicken scraps". I compost some things but all the vegetable trimmings, uneaten sandwich "ends", fruit that gets old, etc., goes into the bucket and is taken to the farm for the chickens. They love it and the lid on the bucket is handy for transporting the stuff.

I don't give them meat, of course, or eggs. They like leftover oatmeal and yogurt, though.

Annie

Does anyone here remember French's Mustard in those little
glass jars? I have used them for so many things, but
now, it seems, all they have is the plastic squeeze bottles. And, thank the Lord, there are still glass
baby food jars, but I'm sure they too will become history
in the wink of an eye. I have actually bought jars of
'Creamed Peas', just for the jars. I put the contents
into a pot of split pea zoop.

I do repurpose jars, although I've gotten lazy about it. I have several empty jars in my cabinet that need to be put to use for the spices I got at Penzy's in plastic bags.

I love the "sport" of organizing. I attempt it occasionally, but when you live with a family of a.d.d. people, it's a lost cause.

Sally

I want you all to know that I always read WFD and admire and appreciate all the fabulous meals coming from your kitchens. Now you can see that my activities in the kitchen are limited and certainly less yummy than in yours!
Annie, I use the ice cream buckets for outdoor stuff, I can see how they would be great on a farm.
Thatchairlady, I do use canning jars and sauce jars with my Foodsaver. I especially like to Foodsave lettuce in the 64 oz canning jars; I think that tip comes from Grainlady as do many tips.
Lee & JADISP, The Voss water bottles come in a number of sizes and I get them at HomeGoods, Publix, and Fresh Market. They are widely available here. I admit, I don't buy Voss for the water as they are 2 for $5 for the large bottle.

Flower box repurposed to contain butter bell and salt & pepper shakers:

Tackle box for my daily supplements; that way I don't have to open all the bottles several times a day:

Kitchen canister set in the laundry room for detergents and detergent box repurposed as a planter:

Similar to your planter, I cut down the large cereal boxes and use them as magazine holders....you know those ones that have a spine, and the sides are cut at an angle.

Cathy, I am an organizing freak. You should see
my workshop, OMG, you would be in awe.
If my lovely wife were half as organized as you,
I'm a-thinkin I could fall in love with her.

Ibpod, I'm in awe that you have a workshop! All the tools in our house and garage are mine; the guys in the neighborhood ask to borrow my tools. I'm a-thinkin I could fall in love with DH again if he had a workshop.

Just thought I'd add a tip to remove those pesky sticky labels so you can reuse the containers. If you put really hot water in the container and allow to sit a couple minutes or so, the label will peel off pretty easily. If it leaves sticky residue, you can use oil to get that off or WD40 will take the residue off also.

Thanks Arkansas, it's often a struggle to get the sticky residue off. What's nice about the Voss bottles is that the logo is painted on and I can scraping it off with a razor blade.

Jasdip, Large cereal boxes and use them as magazine holders--that's cool.

You can also use acetone (or nail polish remover) to get rid of the sticky residue from labels. Once I went to a Valentine's party in San Dimas hosted by ex-Morman retired florists, and they slapped a name badge on my clear plastic vest before I had a chance to protest. I hadn't even given them my correct name, and so I had no idea I was going to get a name badge! Then I found out that there was no booze at that party, and so I had to leave with a couple of friends to find a liquor store so I could buy a bottle of Vodka to hide in the bushes in the beautifully terraced and landscaped back yard. Firemen and policemen were supposed to be guests of honor, to make it even stranger. There was only one fireman there but plenty of policemen, whom I found to be rather irritating even out of uniform, and so I did not stay very long. When I got home, I had to use nail polish remover to clean my vest.

Lars

Lars. :)

I was just planning to say that a soak in oxyclean will remove labels from most commercial bottles when hot water doesn't cut it. But then I realized I was repurposing too. I make beer, so I need beer bottles. I get the empties from the dumpster by the bar or restaurant along with emmptying the full ones one by one (burp) and throw a batch of them in a tub of oxyclean.

Repurposing items, that is, to give new life, new usefulness to items otherwise destined to clot up the landfill, is not about economy, it's all about relevance to the world environmental problems we have to deal with.

Thumbs up to you, Cathy for showing all that there are elegant solutions for doing that without having to make your home looking like Sanford And Son's warehouse

dcarch

Thanks Cathy, both for the ideas on where to buy Voss (one liquor store here carries it) and for the tip on razoring off the label. I'll check other grocery stores as well.

Lee

lars, your adventures are always so fun to visualize!..
you write so well!.

mustangs, your laundry room is a gem !!!

This is a great thread! I now have visions of what my pantry could look like!

Cathy, I so appreciate your talent for Organization...I've always said that you would make the best home organizer. It's a shame there's not lot's of money to be made doing this for others.

Lars, I also appreciate you ;-)

I'm wowed! Cathy, I only wish I could be half as organized...with your finesse! You make everything look so planned and pretty too!

LOL Lars!

Thank you all for the comments!! I thought I need to refocus on something I did well after losing credibility with the "ketchup on hot dogs" admission.

I missed that. That's how I like hot dogs too -- is it controversial?