Smart Ways To Use Old Jars To Declutter And Organize Your Kitchen

Kitchens may be one of the spaces in your home that is the hardest to keep organized and clutter free. With so much going on, in terms of food storage, cooking tools, and general use, things can easily devolve into packed, overflowing cupboards, messy drawers, and counters you can't even find the surface of. Glass jars are a great way to help stem the chaos and keep things looking neat, intentional, and well organized. There are a number of amazing clever uses for old and upcycled jars in your kitchen, from holding small objects that get lost in the melee to storing your refrigerator items to keep them easily visible. With these ideas, kitchen clutter will be a thing of the past. 

Because most homeowners use so many jars in the course of a year, this means upcycled and reused ones can be a perfect inexpensive solution to all sorts of storage needs, no matter their size, shape, or original contents. Just thoroughly clean and remove labels and you have both an eco-friendly and entirely free way to make your kitchen more livable. There are even more ways to customize and make jars more beautiful and functional for whatever you need them for, including paint, paper, labels, wire mesh, and other crafting materials. 

Jars of any size can be a great way to help organize and clear the clutter on your kitchen counters. They can also help free up space elsewhere, like in drawers, that might be put to better use for other things. Use a large mason jar to hold kitchen utensils like spoons, ladles, and spatulas where they will be at the ready near the stove, or fill jars with items you keep around your coffee pot, such as sugar packets, Keurig cups, stir sticks, and mini creamers. Corralling items in jars can help you save kitchen countertop space. 

Jars are also great for holding plastic, paper, or reusable straws where they are easy to grab and go. Since these jars are always visible as part of your kitchen décor, this is a great chance to customize them. For a stylish farmhouse look, paint the interior of the jar with chalk paint before filling with utensils. Or wrap the jar with twine for a natural way to bring texture to your space. Add a pump or spigot lid to jars to hold things like hand sanitizer and dish soap.

Jars can even be great for keeping enclosed spaces neat, tidy, and organized. To prevent unnecessary clutter in cabinets, use a mason jar to hold baking cups and liners to keep them all in one place and free of dust and debris. Or use a jar to organize things like soy sauce and ketchup packets from takeout orders to use them later. Jars are also great for holding small items in drawers that may get lost among larger items, like corn cob holders, small funnels, measuring spoons, and napkin rings that are sometimes harder to find quickly. Mason jars can also perfectly hold garbage or sandwich bags coiled neatly in a roll. 

For an ingenious way to get even more room in your cabinets with stylish hanging storage, mount the lids of Mason jars to the bottom of your cabinet shelves, allowing you to screw in the jar to keep it aloft and store other things underneath. Use small magnets or a mounted magnetic sheet to hold tiny reused jelly jars on the inside of a cabinet door to hold spices and herbs where you can easily find them.

Using old jars as pantry storage is one of the easiest ways to keep your food and supplies looking neat and organized, whether it's an expansive walk-in space or just a single cabinet. Discard the original packaging to keep dry goods like pasta, rice, sugar flour, coffee and other things neat and uniformly packaged. Not only does this look neater than half empty packaging, but can keep many items fresher far longer. Buy dry goods in bulk and store them in jars as a way to reduce single use plastic and packaging.

A row of jars filled with diverse colors and textures also looks very rustic and European in style, and is a great way to make your food storage more aesthetic. A row of carefully labeled jars on an open shelf can be a pretty way to store food even if you lack a proper pantry.  

Mason jars in the fridge are a fun and stylish way to keep your fridge more organized and less cluttered. Jars have a slender profile, which means they take more advantage of vertical space even if you don't stack them. The lids are far easier to store and keep track of since most mason jars have standard size openings. Jars can be prettier than many plastic containers, allowing you to see what you have in a single glance. They also resist staining, which means they are far easier to clean.

Use jars for keeping your fruit dry and fresh for much longer, as well as holding your leftovers, salads, snacks, and meals for on the go. Jars are also easy to store when not in use since you won't be dealing with an avalanching mountain of Tupperware or Gladware with mismatched lids in a cupboard.

If you have a table or other seating area in your kitchen, it can often become the catch all place for everything from food related items to hardware, tools, and craft supplies. This means using jars to keep things neat is essential. Keep a large jar on your table to hold things like sunglasses, keys, hair ties, toys, and bits or bobs to sort out more thoroughly later for a quick declutter sweep. 

You can also store your silverware or paper napkins in a cute jar or utensil caddy right where you need them. Small jars with lids are perfect for holding items like toothpicks in a sanitary enclosure. If your kitchen table doubles as a homework station or impromptu workspace, keep a jar with pens, pencils, and scissors inside that can be easily moved out of the way come meal time.