When you start doing a lot of canning, one of the biggest challenges becomes how to store both your processed jars and the empties waiting for your next project. I’ve spent a goodly amount of time over the years, pondering how to best shoehorn my canning habit into the storage space available in my 1,000 square foot apartment.
I keep jars under my couch, deep in my coat closet, and under my bed (and, if we’re being entirely honest, there is also currently a tower of boxes in the corner of my bedroom. Needs must). One tool that I use to help keep these storage spots useable and organized are the trays made by JarBOX. These clear, plastic boxes come sized for both pints and quarts and are a genius solution for stashing jars safely and securely.
They’re designed to work in pairs, so that you can lock your jars into individual pods. Then, those locked trays can be stacked and locked together, to create a tower of jars that behaves as a single unit, further reducing the chance of breakage. I call on a pair of JarBOX trays any time I need to transport sealed jars to family gatherings and food swaps, because I know they’ll get my jars to their destination intact.
I use a goodly number of my JarBOX sets to store the empties I keep under our bed. I arrange them upside down (to keep the worst of the dust out) and then slide the trays in and out as canning season ramps up. It’s a far better solution than fragile cardboard boxes I’d used previously.
This month, the good folks from JarBOX are sponsoring weekly giveaways on a series of blogs. I’m kicking things off by giving away two sets of JarBOX trays (a pint and a quart). What’s more, everyone who enters the individual giveaways will also be entered to win a Grand Prize of four more JarBOX sets. To keep up to date with all the JarBOX giveaways, make sure to follow them on Facebook!
This giveaway is closed. The winner is #151 – Lei Kaniumoe. Congratulations Lei!
Disclosure: JarBOX sent me a pair of JarBOX trays for photography and review purposes. They’re also provided a second set for the giveaway. No additional compensation was provided. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
I have my empty jars in cardboard boxes, this would be so much better.
Would love to store my vintage Ball jars in these. The original cardboard boxes are falling apart.
Every fall, my parents drive east for a visit and to “import” mom’s jam (spiced peach, strawberry, raspberry, plum and grape) and canned tomatoes. The back of the volvo is filled with canned goods, carefully packed so they won’t break. Dad has built a special wood “lift” so that canned goods rest safely on the floor of the wagon, and their luggage rests on top of the lift. I keep stashing empty jars all year, and in the fall, the great glass jar swap happens. Anything that could help tidy storage AND secure transport sounds like a very good idea! We are now growing our own apricots, sour cherries, white peaches, beach plums, blackberries, gooseberries, red & black currants, and thimbleberries. I would love to send mom home with select jars of my own small-batch jams this year – if the birds don’t get to the fruit first!
Sounds great for storing jars in odd places, like you do.
Besides just organization at home, these would make it easier to transport jars to food swaps!
So many jars! I need a place to store all those empties!
I have a small place, and it’s hard to keep all the jars and the ones that are filled where I can get to them. I would use these to keep my jars slid under the bed!
These would be a much better way to store empties!
I would use JarBox to keep my empty jars tidy and away from the crazy cats who always knock them over!
Oh my! I caught the canning bug a few years ago actually when I bought one of your books! To my surprise it was signed by you as well. The store I bought it from said you had just been there a few weeks ago. Fast forward to now and I have a whole rack of canned goods…mostly your recipes from your book..and we are moving. Do you know how hard it is to move over 20 flats of quarts? I’d use it for moving.
I would use these to store my unused, clean jars in the basement. No more dirt, no more dead spiders! Hurray!!!!!!
I am a novice canner and would love to have a collection of jorboxes to organize my storage.
I would store my applesauce! I make enough each fall to last the year, everything else is small batch.
Hi Marissa, I would definitely organize my jars as they are all over the place. Thanks!
ohhh these would be so helpful in moving my maple syrup bounty to the east coast in the fall!
These would be so helpful for storing my jars and transporting my finished goods!
These look so much safer than my old cardboard boxes I use to store my jars now.
These would help me feel better that the jars I keep in my unfinished basement are staying clean!
These would be great for organizing the jars I have hidden away all over the house. I hope no one ever looks under our guest bed, there are cases upon cases squirreled away under there.
I’d finally organize the jars in my basement!
Very nice looking storage containers. With a moving coming up, these would be a great tools for keeping my jars intact.
I would probably use these primarily for transportation. They look so sturdy!
They are super convenient. I have several of both sizes both to store and to transport jars.
I make pasta sauce and salsa for my daughter and JarBOX trays would be the perfect way to delivery it to her. I am sure she will return it for a refill of full jars!!
Right now I’m storing empty and full jars in the original cardboard box. After a while the boxes get kind of ratty, especially in the basement. These would be a huge improvement. Thank you!
We have a pantry to keep my if the canned goods in. Then they good into deep storage when empty. I’ll store my jam with these
I’ve started the canning season and shelves are already tight. These would really help
I was just eyeballing these at Walmart. They would look great in my pantry.
These are great! I’ve been trying to think of a better way/place to store my empty jars, and I don’t even have very many jars (3-4 dozen I’d guess, mostly half pints) They’re all in different places; most are on a shelf in a spare bedroom but I also have some in the back of a kitchen cabinet, and some behind the books in a bookshelf.
What a timely giveaway – I was just looking at my canning shelf and wondering how I was going to move everything cross country. A set of these would be super helpful in the move!
Oh, my. How to use them? I’ve been putting the filled jars back in the cardboard trays the empties are sold in and it is not working for me. Especially when they are mixed sizes. Right now I have some stacked in the kitchen, a mixture of empties and filled. So I guess I’d start with that stack and then move on to the stack in the dining room.
I have been a good girl, though. I have been giving away jam to family and friends.
These will be so great for storage of staples in our travel trailer. I use quart jars to store flour sugar etc, Everything has to be sealed to keep mice out at the camp grounds. If these work they will be popular with RV’ers for sure since storage space is often under the dinette bench seats.
I have shelves for jams and jellies, and other shelves for quart jars. I lose a lot of storage space because the jelly jars are so small, and would love to use JarBOX trays to make that storage more efficient!
I would get my jars out of the garage and stored in the kitchen.
I would love them for vacation or car trips since I often take lots of jars…..so usefulness!
I need a safe way to store my canning jars for pickle making!! Right now I’ve got them in every open shelf I have…
Oh man, I’m the same as you! I have cardboard boxes of jars stashed everywhere in my house!! These look like they’d contain them much more securely! Would love to try them out.
As someone who has shelves of jars, cabinets of jars, hutches of jars, bankers boxes of jars — well, you get it — this would be a great way to start figuring out how to keep them all in line.
Oh man, these would be the perfect replacement for the hodgepodge of cardboard boxes where I store my empty jars. (Most of them currently live in an old Modcloth box that’s been with me through at least two moves.)
OMG these would be so wonderful to storage of empty jars but I would use them to transport canned food when I visit family around the country. We are big home canners and I love to share. Thank you.
My empty jars are in such disarray – these would be a game-changer!
We live on a boat, something to protect the jars would give me a lot more options aboard.
I would store my empty jars that are stacked. It would make for an easier car trip back to mother’s for the next year’s canning adventure (we always can together). thanks!
Just the other day, I was trying to stack some partially-full cases of jars so they wouldn’t fall over. This would solve that problem.
I would use jarbox trays to organize all those empty jars I have stashed everywhere!
I’d use JarBox trays pretty much how you describe it: for storing empties, for organizing goods in the pantry downstairs, and for transporting jars over to my friend’s kitchen (where we’re trying to can something once a month all year).
I definitely need to move out of the assorted boxes I currently use to store jars. Sounds like a great product!
This would be a great way to store jars of pickles, jams, etc. instead of just stashing them where they fit all over my kitchen.
This looks like a great way to store all the unruly jars that have taken over my pantry.
I would use them to get my jars organized . Thanks for doing this.