In a Jam

Remember a few weeks back when I wrote about staying warm while keeping the energy use under control, and a bunch of you shared your own strategies for taking on winter as green and cheap as possible? Well, I got my first proper winter electric bill and was pleasantly astonished to see it was much lower than expected. Result!

On to today and my favourite reusable thing ever.

Would that I were this fancy. Image source:
marsy on freeimages.com.

I'm slightly obsessive about saving jars. Jam jars are my favourite, closely followed by the pasta sauce that comes in the canning jars. (My grandma tried to steal my pasta jars from me when she saw how great they are. I think she got her hands on a couple of them before I caught on.) Glass doesn't leach chemicals or nasty tastes into my food, and since it's clear, I can see what's in the jar without having to play the guessing game plastic always leads me on. Plus, when I'm feeling adventurous, jars can go from fridge to microwave to table as easily as anything else, provided I have an oven mitt handy.

And that's just the leftovers. Jars also house my dried beans, rice, flour, etc. in my cupboard. I use them for basically everything. My only issue is lids--for the jam jars, at least, the lids don't last as long as the jars do. On the upside, glass recycles forever, so no need to feel bad if your collection gets out of control and you can't find new homes for them all, so you toss them (gently!) into your recycling. They'll be made into new glass products.

What's your favourite reusable thing?