~by Texas Homesteader ~
As is our tradition, RancherMan & I are making many of our Christmas gifts ourselves. This year we’ve been busy making several different kinds of gifts. I’ve also been experimenting with making extracts – it’s all been so much fun!
I thought homemade mint extract might make great gifts. But I needed to purchase small jars to hold the extract.
But it just seems… I don’t know – not quite right to go to the craft store & buy small bottles. Thankfully I’ve found an alternative that works beautifully – check out today’s Homestead Hack.
When contemplating these small jars, my thoughts turned to another time recently when we were looking for spray bottles. We decided that for the same price (or LESS) we could purchase heavy duty spray bottles that were already filled with product.
Win/Win! So of course I thought I’d give it a try to fill this need as well.
Purchasing Items Sold In Small Jars
RancherMan & I went to the Dollar Store and looked in the food section for something that was sold in small glass jars. We found these tiny jars of salad garlic and decided they would work quite nicely.
Even though these garlic cloves were very subtly flavored I was concerned about tale-tell aromas sticking around when the bottles were empty.
So I first scrubbed the empty jars with hot soapy water and baking soda, then I ran them through a dishwasher cycle.
When they came out of the dishwasher I allowed them to thoroughly air dry for a couple of days.
The glass jars ended up crystal clear and both the jars as well as the lids were odor free. So I know they’ll work perfectly for our gifts!
I’ll fill them with our extract, print out a cute label and wrap it festively and they will make super-cute gifts from our hearts.
~TxH~
Other Christmas Posts You Might Like:
- ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’?
- How Will I Be Able To ‘Provide’ Christmas This Year?
- Holiday Cooking Shortcuts, Tips & Recipes
- A Small Christmas Tree Can Be BEAUTIFUL!
- Keeping The JOY In The Christmas Season
- Want To Keep Christ In Christmas?
- Thinking Of Adding A Pup To Your Home This Christmas?
- The Truth Behind Perfect Facebook Posts
- Don’t Judge The Need Of Others
Gift Ideas
- Homemade Gifts We’ve Given
- Gift Ideas For Mom
- Gift Ideas For Dad
- Must-Haves For Any Home Cook
- Christmas Gift-Idea Roundup
- Repurposed Denim Hand Warmers
- 8 Eco-Friendly Gifts Your Friends Will LOVE!
- Low-Waste Christmas Gifts We’ve Received
- Cute Santa Sleigh Made With Candy
- Keeping Track Of Gift-Card Balances
- Experience Gift Ideas
Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas:
- Gift Ideas For The Eco-Friendly Mom
- Homemade Gift Ideas
- Homemade Chai Tea Mix
- Gardener’s Hand Scrub
- 3-Ingredient Beeswax Lip Balm
- Repurposed Denim Pocket-Sized Hand Warmers
- Rustic Repurposed-Denim Baskets
- Cedar Solar-Light Garden Feature
- Rustic Bois d’Arc Solar Light
- Photo Wall Hanging Using Reclaimed Barn Wood
- Making A Small Gift Box With A Greeting Card
- Make a Customized Label With Plain Ole Shipping Tape
- 8 Environmentally Friendly Gifts For Your Friends
- Low-Waste Gifts We’ve Rec’d & Loved
- Environmentally-Friendly Gifts Can Be Fun
See All Our Eco-Friendly Posts
Low-Waste Gift Wrapping & Presentation
- Reusable Gift Wrap Ideas
- Low-Waste Gift Baskets
- Make A Cute Gift Box Using A Christmas Card!
- No Wrapping Needed: Experience Gifts!
All Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page . It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing! And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Instagram & Twitter
If you’d like to receive an email when a new blog post goes live,
subscribe to our Blog!
I’m glad to hear that you could get rid of the garlic smell. That’s awesome news. I have a few empty ones that we saved but I never put them through the dishwasher. Maybe that’s why they still have a faint whiff of garlic. Great idea, thank you
This is a great idea. I have repurposed things like this, but not bought food especially for the project.
Good ideas here all the way thru the comments.
Too Cool! Thanks for sharing on My 2 favorite Things on Thursday!! Hope to see you again this week (with out any glitches) Pinned!
I’ve gotten to the point where I purposely look for things packaged in jars or glass bottles. Some flavored waters and natural juices come in 12oz bottles that make great spray bottles when you add a spray nozzle to them. I love the ones that are green or blue.
I’m always saving jars and bottles to reuse to store things for myself and to take small amounts of condiments, etc., on camping trips. Jars work better than plastic bags because they don’t leak if the ice chest gets a layer of water in the bottom. – Margy
Friends gave us extracts in Cracker Barrel syrup bottles a few years ago. I use small glass vitamin bottles here.
Them are cute jars.
I save all my empty spice containers as well as my empty extract and food coloring jars. They really do come in handy sometimes.
cute little jars.
I save my empty spice jars / containers for future use. Them little jars are great for so many things. They really come in handy when a small jar is needed. Saving the extract and the small 1 oz. food coloring bottles would be ideal for your homemade extracts.
I grow my own garlic so I was thinking maraschino cherries, I think Aldi and BigLots sell them in little bottles. My biggest challenge in reusing glass bottles is the lids retaining odors. I’ve tried soaking them in bleach-water and sometimes this works but not always. And if I want to reseal the jar, bleach sometimes damages the sealing material that’s on the inside of the lid. I’d probably try to find something that, if the odor couldn’t be removed from the lid, maybe it would compliment the flavor of whatever it was that I was refilling the jar with.
You rock!