~ by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I use canning jars for many things here on the Homestead. Everything from actual food canning to storing leftovers in the refrigerator to storing dehydrated food in the pantry. 

Although I shy away from using glass in my freezer, many people repurpose canning jars to freeze foods as well. (using proper headspace recommendations of course) 

Since you can only use traditional 2 piece canning flats & rings once for actually canning food, often I’ll utilize previously-used canning flats & rings to top those canning jars I’m using for other food storage.

But sometimes doinking around with a 2-part lid is inconvenient.

Come see what I’ve found to replace that 2-part lid for food storage on the cheap.

Well, for FREE actually.

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 
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Y’all know I’ve been on a quest to reduce our outgoing household trash for years now. We’ve been pretty successful.

As a matter of fact we’ve eliminated the need for a weekly trash pickup to haul our household trash to the dump.

There are so many steps we took to reduce our trash output so drastically including the (now 5) R’s – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle. 

Today I’ll talk about a few ways we’ve been able to very easily yet substantially reduce our trash output from our home’s kitchen.

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by Texas Homesteader~ 

Whether mirrors or windows, glass cleaning has always been one of the most difficult surfaces for me to clean properly. 

Oh sure I can clean the grime off of the surface easily. But trying to get the glass actually streak free used to drive me crazy. My cleaning session went something like this:

“There! Looks great. No, wait… is that a streak? OK, THERE!  Wait… “

It was so frustrating. Until I remembered something my dad taught me years ago.

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