Hubby got me a set of 3 VERY large "apothecary jars" for Christmas. The challenge I am having, but seem to have mostly solved, is what to fill them with. He got them at Costco. You can find them on Ebay as well, using apothecary jar in your search. Hope that helps.

Do you have an Ikea by you? They have some very nice large jars, and very affordable too.

The only word of warning I have about really wide glass jars is that sometimes the lids are so wide that they are hard to grip. I used to have trouble getting the threads in line to get the cover screwed on straight. But I think they were antique jars and the newer ones might be a lot easier to handle If you have a chance to try them in the store, you might want to try and see how comfortable they are for your hands. I use a lot of canning-style jars to store rice, nuts, and legumes but they wouldn't be very appropriate for flour and sugar.

Try T.J. Maxx also.

Thanks everybody. After I posted I looked at Ina's sight and she said you can get them at Target or Crate and Barrell. I will check Target and TJ Maxx is one of my favorite places!! We don't have Ikea anywhere around here.

We got ours with the "bail wire??" type closures at our local Bulk Barn here in Ontario (Canada). They also had the screw type lid or the pull off type with the plastic collar??.. lol.. brain freeze here.. must be spring fever.

We got the snap up wire type because the jars were bigger, and were going to sit on the counter all the time. Flour, sugar, rolled oats (and another needed now for dog biscuits lol), all in green glass.

The green glass sounds nice. The food service department at the College where I work has huge glass jars that I believe olives and other food items come in. I don't have any set out on the countertops but I do love their large salad dressing container in plastic with the handle for storing all the different types of birdseed that I use in my outdoor feeders. If you are associated with a food service in any way you could check with them.

I was inspired by the Barefoot Contessa's jars too and looked around a bunch to try to find them. Target has some that are nice, same look, but no gasket to keep them sealed tightly. Living in FL, that will never do. If you happen to live in a cold weather place, that might work and they'd definitely be easier to access but I didn't want to risk bugs in the flour.

Much to my excitement, we made a trek to Ikea just for fun (2 hours away) and lo and behold, they had them in 3 sizes WITH gaskets. And they were reasonably priced. Yay! I love them. My husband thought I was silly for wanting them so badly when we renovated but our flour and sugar used to be buried in the pantry so it was a major ordeal when you needed them. Now, they're right there. He has admitted that it makes life SO much more pleasant (and he's the baker of the family!).

Enjoy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea glass jars w/gaskets

I can't buy those from the website. Oh well! I guess I'll have to go shopping!

Thrift shops???

I got my cannister jars 25+ yrs ago from the cafeteria at my workplace. Back then, pickles, mayo, mustard etc came in 128 oz glass jars with screw-on lids.

You can still find condiments in that size, but now all the packaging is plastic.

I use these big glass crocks when making counter top pickles too. Great for flour---even large enough to keep the sifter in the jar. Also sugar, rice and tea bags. So handy on the counter--we can always see how much we have. We buy them at Target--about $12.00 each.

I used to use 2 antique Tom's peanut jars (about $60.00 each today if you can find them) but they were destroyed in our kitchen fire.

Thanks again everybody. I love hearing what experiences everybody has!!

I got mine at Target, they are the smaller size( I believe Ina has the larger size).

I was always told that it's best to store flour and coffee in cool, dark locations. Exposure to light reduces shelf life. Just a thought.

new here just checking out posts this morning...... my dd got me 3 of these canisters from target for christmas.... they are 1.5 gal with gasket in the lid. we are redoing the kitchen and i wanted to replace the ones i had for years.... with granite countertops we put that slip resistant webbing under them so no accidental breaking..... i love them ..Jennifer

Here is a link that might be useful: these canisters

One thing you want to check for...make sure you can fit a good sized measuring cup in the opening. I bought some glass canister jars when I was first married 15 years ago and although I love them, I can't fit a 1 cup measuring cup in there, I have to use 1/2 cup...which is a pain if you're making something like gingerbread or bread dough that calls for 4 cups of flour...8 scoops. Sometimes I count them out loud so I don't lose track. I should have replaced them years ago but I still love them. Mine have the rubber gasket around them and the little wire thing that flips up to release and flips back down to seal (like the one on randi66's top shelf all the way to the left but about 3 times larger). I also have one similar to randi66's countertop ones but the glass is ribbed. It has a rubber seal on the glass top. I think it came with pistachios in it as a gift once but I use it as a cookie jar and it looks very nice on my counter.

Walmart has them too!

I'm not worried about the shelf life....we will use it pretty fast. :)

I have thought about making sure the opening was very large. I currently have tupperware containers that are nice and fit the current cabinet well, they are very skinny and I cannot get the measuring cups in them. Even the half cup is hard to do.

Old Time Pottery is very inexpensive. I found my large glass jars there.

I have the same ones Jennifer has above from Target - we use ours for cookies, snacks, etc - the gasket is great and keeps a very tight seal...also, they now have different colored tops if you want to add some flair! Here's a pic of these (although they look much smaller in the pic than they really are!)

For my baking ingredients, I use click-clack containers w/ plastic scoops inside for "lightly" filling measuring cups - these are also air-tight and stack neatly. Here they are in our open pantry:

mnhockeymom - I am green with envy over your neat and organized pantry.... Makes me want to immediately clean and reorganize my own! Where do you find Click Clack storage containers?

hockeymom, very nice! Thanks for posting the pictures. I saw that Target had those too and plan to go compare all of them.

gilmoregal - I actually ordered most of them on Amazon (they had great prices, especially for the multi-sets). Otherwise, The Container Store has them, too. The brown basket-type things you see in the pantry are also from the Container Store - they're called Pandan boxes and I used the tops (which have shorter sides) for cans and things I wanted to read the labels on and the bottoms (taller sides) for holding things that I didn't want/need to see (baking soda, vanilla, cupcake liners, sprinkles, etc) - I know they're not cheap at almost $40/each but they're in a dark chocolate brown and they tie in w/ the rest of the kitchen and keep the pantry very tidy looking - when I need to find something, I just slide one of those out and grab what I want...much better than having to move each thing out of the way! There's a link below to the boxes.

mygar - hopefully you should still find them at Target - I just saw them at ours over the weekend...3 different sizes and tops from black, oil-rubbed bronze, red, blue, etc!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pandan Boxes - Container Store

I got my first three from Martha By Mail, I LOVE them, they are huge. Obviously they are no longer available there. I bought some more of hers off eBay, and then finally found some others I liked from World Market.
I love apothecary jars and use them for so many things in my kitchen.

I would love to see more pictures if anybody cares to share.

I have decided that I really want the glass jars that Ina has...even though I really like all of them. I go to Target today at lunch and they only have the BIG ones ( 2 gallons I think). They said they will bet more in and there are many Targets around here so I'll be hitting them all!

Just happened to see these while looking for something else and thought I'd share the link . . . this site has lots of interesting kitchen things!

Here is a link that might be useful: jars at restaurant supply store

Regarding the pandan boxes, World Market sells pandan boxes, too. And the ones I have are sized to fit printer paper and were only $10 each! They have a variety of sizes and colors. Mine are the same chocolate brown color as mnhockeymom's.

If you're still reading, I have more questions.

As bungalowdawn stated above, the anchor hocking jars from Target do not have a gasket for making it airtight. I don't really want to go with that.

I also really like the Montana Jars that mnhockeymon posted but the smallest that Target carries is 1.5 gallon. According to the Anchor Hocking website they carry them in smaller versions but I can't find them on the web. Well actually, I found a craft place that sells the bronzed lids but I want the stainless steel look. Maybe they are new and a lot of people don't have them yet.

So, I was thinking...could I get the anchor hocking jars and try to put a rubber gasket on it of some sort...like rubber band, rubber gasket, or maybe buy something like a silicone caulk and put it around the rim. Am I crazy?

Here is the link to the Anchor Hocking catalog

Here is a link that might be useful: jars