How to reseal baby food jars

Mama Life Hacks {#15}: Reusing Baby Food Jars

Okay, I feel a little sheepish about this post because I feel like, after reading the title of it, you’re probably expecting a litany of clever ways to repurpose glass baby food jars.

Like for craft supplies or planters or organizational doo-dads.

And yes, all of those would be fabulous ways to stretch your baby jar use from one to many.

But the #mamalifehacks tip that I have for you is soooooooo much simpler–so much more DUH!–than that.

Here’s the thing: I like to make my own baby food as much as possible. It’s healthier. It’s cheaper. It’s convenient, since if I run out, I don’t have to hightail it to the store for more (assuming that I have the makings of baby food on hand).

It’s just so stinking easy to throw some sweet potatoes in the oven, then whip them with a bit of water in my Ninja into yumminess for Theo.

Still, I keep a small supply of store-bought baby food in the pantry for when we’re out and about or when I’m making dinner and need the boys to feed him without the hassle of retrieving, portioning out, and heating up homemade food from the fridge.

Because the only thing I don’t love about the homemade baby food is the mess and then the storage. When I make it in my Ninja, I typically either a) pull out the blades and then shove the whole container in the fridge, pulling it out and glopping some in a bowl as needed or b) scrape it out of the Ninja into a Tupperware container and then store that in the fridge.

Either works, but it’s not my favorite thing to locate a bowl and then fill it with food. Not saying it’s a big deal. Because it’s not. In fact, on the hardship scale–with 1 being: I stubbed my toe and 10 being: I live in a 3rd World country and don’t know where my next meal is coming from–it doesn’t even register.

And yet.

If I can find a way around it, I will.

Now, I know there are fancy blender attachments and Baby Bullets and whatnot, which allow you to store the food in small quantities, individually, but I don’t have any of those. And neither do I have any desire to buy one.

So, the other day, when the boys (aka: little hoarders) asked me if they could spirit two used baby food jars away for “projects” (I think we all know this is code for: something else to grow mold on), I happened to be standing in front of a freshly mixed batch of homemade baby food.

And as I held up the used (but washed) baby food jar, trying to think of an excuse for why Simon couldn’t take it to his room and then lose it under his bed for all eternity, it’s like Theo’s sweet potatoes spoke to me, and said: “NO! Take me instead!” #namethatmovie (this one’s harder than the Princess Bride reference from last week).

And so, the idea of reusing baby food bottles for the purpose of–hold on tight now–storing baby food was born.

I know, right? So brilliantly simple and obvious that I’m sure EVERYONE in the entire world has thought of this besides me.

Which means that I’m typing to myself.

Which is kind of a waste of time, since I was there when I had the original (tiny) epiphany and all.

But still.

As DUH (see? I told you) as it may seem, I am loving having tidy little bottles of pre-portioned homemade baby food in my fridge. No more Tupperware. No more big Ninja karafes taking up space. And NO MORE fishing food out of one container to transfer it to another container every time I need to feed Theo.

Oh! And I can now easily take homemade food with me (as long as it’s not going to sit in my bag for any significant period of time, of course). And then? I can toss the container! (Because who wants to accidentally forget about a baby food Tupperware container in your purse only to find a lovely fuzz colony in there a week later?)

I won’t blame you if you think I’m slow for only now figuring this out.

But I also won’t mock you if the light of revelation is just now dawning in your eyes as well.

Theo’s clearly a fan of my newest duh moment. Now, if only somebody would invent something to put around his neck to keep food from getting all over his clothes.

Joke, people! I know napkins already exist. 😉

Are you guys homemade baby food makers too? What do you store yours in? Maybe I’ve been missing out on something (else) obvious and simple all these years?

Don’t forget to share your #mamalifehacks so I can feature you!

50+ Fantastic Ways to Re-Use Baby Food Jars

Home » Crafts for kids » 50+ Creative Ways to Re-Use Baby Food Jars

Last updated on March 29, 2022

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50+ baby food jar crafts and creative ways to re-use baby food jars so you don’t have to put throw them in the trash.

If you’ve had a baby in recent years, there’s a good chance you’ve acquired quite a collection of baby food jars. Baby food jars ares so cute and chubby, and such a great size. If you’re like me, you find it hard to thrown them away. If that’s the case, your baby food jar collection could be growing at an alarming rate, and you’re probably looking for things to make with all of those jars.

Well, you’re in luck! One of my Facebook followers recently asked for ways that she could re-purpose her baby food jars, and the HH community responded with dozens of great crafts made with baby food jars along with practical ways to use baby food jars in and around the home.

I’ve gathered up their best suggestions and added a few of my own favourite uses for baby food jars, and I’ve come up with this long list of ideas for you.

From the craft room to the classroom to the bathroom and beyond, here are over 50 ways for you to use leftover baby food jars so you don’t have to toss them out.

50+ Baby Food Jar Crafts

Click on the links below to see project details.

Ways to use baby food jars in the classroom or craft room:

Crayon Caddy: Paint several baby food jars and store co-ordinating, coloured crayons in them.
Fill baby food jars with water, and set on the art table to rinse paint brushes in.
Give each student in the class a baby food jar filled with cream, and make homemade butter together.
Make a mini “ocean in a jar” in a baby food jar. Pretty on classroom window sill or fun to play with.
Soak dried out markers in baby food jars to make liquid watercolour paint.
Make and store homemade finger paint in baby food jars.
Baby food jars make great paint and glue pots at the easel. Lids keep them from drying out between uses.
Punch holes in the lids (with a nail) and use jars to store and dispense glitter.
Make I-Spy Jars in baby food jars.
Make collection jars for the preschool classroom.
Fill with small amounts of water for syringe transfer work trays in preschool or kindergarten
Paint tall baby food jars with food coloring, water and glue for a frosted look. Store pens, pencils and paintbrushes in them.

Things to make for kids with baby food jars:

Play dough jars: fill several baby food jars with different colours of homemade play dough for a kids’ gift basket.
Set some baby food jars out in the rain and make this scented rain paint.
In the play kitchen: fill baby food jars with flour, rice, lentils etc. Glue the lids on, and kids can pretend-cook with them.
Bug Jars – wrap a pipe cleaner handle around the top, and go exploring in the yard.
Make these cute and quirky emoji jars for a kid’s dresser or desk.
Glue painted toy animals on baby food jar lids, use as party favours.
Fill with homemade slime or silly putty to put in loot bags.
Make a tooth fairy jar.
Teach kids how to manage their allowance with 3 tall baby food jars labeled SPEND, SAVE, BANK.
Make an advent or countdown calendar.
Fill baby food jars with layers of “coloured sand” (ground sidewalk chalk mixed with salt).
Use baby food jars to make mini lava-lamps.

Ways to re-use baby food jars in the kitchen:

Make magnetic spice jars to store on the refrigerator door
Organize your spice drawer with baby food jars.
Make Smore’s treats in baby food jars. Hand them out around the campfire or at a party.
Make a window-sill herb garden with baby food jars.
Fill baby food jars with condiments for camping or a bbq.
Sterilize jars and lids, and reuse baby food jars for homemade baby food. The serving sizes are perfect.

Gifts and party favours to make with baby food jars:

Baby food jars make great wedding favours. Decorate and place at each table setting.
These baby food jar lanterns were hung in a tree at an outdoor wedding.
Make Lego Head Jars as party favours for a Lego party.
Make mini calming jars for kids or co-workers
Make a wish jars or dream jars for your family and friends.
Give a gift of homemade bath salts or sugar scrub in a baby food jar.
Make these cupcakes in a jar to give to teachers, neighbours and friends.
Make a craft kit for a child by filling jars with pom poms, sequins, foam stickers, and beads.
Hot Cocoa in a baby food jar: layer hot chocolate, shaved chocolate and mini marshmallows in a jar. Cover the lid with a swatch of fabric tied with a ribbon.

Other ways to use baby food jars around the home and garden:

Store pony tail holders, Q-tips, and hair clips in baby food jars on the bathroom counter.
Make a spill proof nail-polish remover kit with a baby food jar.
Plant succulents in baby food jars to display on a porch or patio.
Hang these colourful baby food luminaries from a tree in your yard.
Baby food jars are great for storing seeds for the garden.
Make Photo Globes by placing your child’s photo inside a baby food jar.
Organize your spare change: each jar holds a different type of coin.
Use baby food jars to hold paper clips, thumb tacks etc. on a desk or in a drawer in an office.
Travel jewelry keeper for earrings and rings.
A Mini sewing kit in a baby food jar is great for travel or the office.
Fill baby food jars with Puffs, fishy crackers, Cheerios, nuts etc. Keep in the diaper bag for the kids.
Nail the lids of baby food jars to the underside of a shelf to store screws, nails and craft supplies.
Store several baby wipes in a baby food jar and keep in your purse or diaper bag.

Baby food jar Christmas crafts:

Turn a baby food jar into a snowman Christmas tree ornament.
Make festive holiday votive candle holders.
Make sparkly tea light luminaries in baby food jars.
Baby food jars make great miniature snow globes.
Make Reindeer food for Christmas Eve.

What if you STILL have leftover baby food jars?

If you have more baby food jars than you could possibly ever use, even after reviewing all of the ideas, please consider giving your collection to a teacher, a crafter or a daycare provider. Most will be happy to put your little glass jars to good use.

Looking for more crafts to make with your recyclables? Check out:

Re-purposed Denim Craft Aprons

Re-purposed Denim Bibs

25 Creative Ways to Re-use your Keurig’s K-Cups

22 Ways to Re-Use Cardboard Tubes

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.

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Reader Interactions

How to use empty baby food jars?

Are you a new mother? Then, probably, glass baby food jars appeared in your life, which the hand does not raise to throw away. There are already a lot of them in my house, so I propose to discuss how they can be useful to us.

I conducted a small survey of colleagues and friends on this topic. The results are as follows:

Lena keeps her branded adjika in jars - it is convenient to take it in such a container for a picnic, for example.

Stores dried berries for tea.

He also arranges small tasty gifts for his friends - homemade jam. Arranges in jars, decorates them and gives them.

The last idea caught my attention - I like to make homemade jam. I took note of such a sincere gift option.

Zhenya keeps medicinal ointments in jars. Also a great option, given the odor of such drugs, as well as their small volumes.

Anya uses the jars as a sugar bowl and salt shaker on long journeys. Or for a picnic. She also keeps beads for needlework in them.

I tried to use jars for leftover canned cod liver. And this, I tell you, is extremely convenient. Open canned food should not be stored for longer than a day, and it is imperative to transfer food to a container, preferably glass. And the baby food jars are perfect! Small, hermetically sealed (which is especially important in the case of products with the smell of fish), and then it is not a pity to throw them away.

I also put paper clips in one jar. There was an open package at home, now the paper clips are neatly stored in a jar.

Inspired by the opening horizons for the second life of jars, I began to look for other ways to use them. I searched websites and social networks. I confess, I am delighted with the fantasy of young mothers, and dads too!

How to use baby food jars

Use jar lids in children's educational games:

- stick pieces of colored paper on them and arrange them in containers by color,

- stick drawings with letters on them and add syllables and words,

- make a slot in the lid of the milk formula jar (or in a box of chips, for example) and put the lids into it, like in a piggy bank,

- make a fishing rod out of a pencil, string and magnet and arrange "fishing", collecting caps.

Use cans:

- for dipping the brush while painting with watercolors,

- for seedlings of flowers or greenery,

- as small vases for small wildflowers,

- for storing spices,

- as a home air fragrance: put a piece of cotton wool into a jar and moisten the cotton wool with a drop of perfume or essential oil. If you decorate a jar - it’s not a shame to replace the sachet and put it in a prominent place in the house,

- for needlewomen - to store small items such as buttons, beads, etc. in jars,

- use as a portion dish in candy bars that are so popular now at children's parties,

- colorize and turn the jar into a candlestick by putting a pill candle into it,

I found candle-tablets. It's a sin not to try, I decided. I’m not friends with paints yet, I found a satin ribbon. Half a minute to tie it, and voila! Modest, but also an option.

But finally I was subdued by such decor of the can.

Using a jar as a photo frame is original, isn't it?

And also, I think, it may not even be interesting to search for the use of jars or lids, but the process of decorating itself. Space for imagination, yours and your child!

How to decorate jars

• Spray paint or decorate with acrylic or stained glass paint,

• Paste over the jar with double-sided tape and roll in sequins or beads,

• Use the decoupage technique (stick a beautiful napkin with a pattern on the jar), since there is an abundance of materials for needlework on sale now,

• Stick lace, ribbons, fabric on the jar,

• Paste clippings from magazines or newspapers - looks very interesting.

• Wrap the jar with threads or decorative straws.

And then, together with the child, figure out what to put in a beautiful jar.

There is only one “but” in the active use of cans for various needs. Given the presence of a baby in the house, do not forget to check their inaccessibility for his ubiquitous little hands. Glass is beautiful, reliable and environmentally friendly, but dangerous. So, subject to safety conditions, cheers for jars!

Can you share how you use baby food jars? Do you leave or throw away? Decorate or use as is? Join the discussion in our groups VKontakte , Facebook and Instagram!

toys, organizer, spice set

Perhaps, in every house where there are small children, a lot of jars of mashed potatoes are collected. You can safely send them to storage, throw them away, give them away, but it’s better to make something useful out of baby food cans. We present to your attention a selection of the most interesting ideas.

Household use

It is not good to litter the space in the house when there are empty baby food jars on hand. Use them to store small items.

- Small items storage. It is convenient to store small items in glass jars: beads, beads, buttons, screws, nails, bolts. Through the transparent wall you can clearly see what lies inside. For convenient use, you can make holes in the covers and attach them to a small board with screws. Jars with small things are screwed to the lids and can be hung as you like.

- Spice containers. Fans of spices and various bulk additives will certainly appreciate the idea of using baby food jars. The lids are very easy to make holes for any spice. Containers with the same decor look stylish: you can stick a label, fabric, paper, beads, sparkles, twine on the lid and glass. And there is another option to decorate the jars with acrylic or make masterpieces out of them using polymer clay.

- Pincushion. Making it is quite simple: you need to cut a piece of foam rubber to fit the size of the lid, cover it with a beautiful fabric and glue it to the top. The jar itself can be decorated with decorative elements: lace, ribbons, beads, rhinestones. Inside it is convenient to store threads, buttons, a thimble, and on top - needles and pins.

To quickly get clean unlabeled jars, you can use a hair dryer and a sponge with vegetable oil. First, the area with the sticker warms up, and it easily lags behind. Then the adhesive residues, if any, are wiped off with oil with one hand movement.

4 ideas for playing with children

No matter how much parents want to surprise their children with a newfangled expensive toy, kids often prefer simple household items - cups, spoons, pots. Do not hesitate, a toy from a baby food can will certainly interest your little one.

- Jars with sound. The game is suitable for children under 2 years old. Banks need to be completely painted over and various objects should be poured inside. For example, put sand in a yellow jar, small pebbles in gray, ringing coins in red, a plastic toy in orange, buckwheat in green, etc. At first, the child will turn his head, determining where the sound comes from, and then guess what's inside. When he gets older, with the help of such a toy it will be possible to learn colors.
- Sensory toys. The development of the child occurs, including through touch. By touching objects different to the touch with the tips of the fingers, the baby learns the world around him. Sensory toys stimulate the areas of the brain responsible for speech and thinking. Making them from jars is easy. Fill them with cotton wool, cereals, sand, flour, salt, coins and let your baby explore. Of course, under supervision.

Sorter. Many toddlers like to insert one object into another. Cut a slit in the lid of a bean jar, put a plate of beans next to it, and your child will occupy himself, and for a long time.
Cute animals. Or you can make a series of fabulous toys out of baby food cans. Ears of colored paper should be attached to the lid, paws and a tail (of a hare, bear, fox, wolf) on the sides and bottom, and draw a face on the glass with paints. Eyes made of beads or coffee beans will look original.

Use for decoration

The undoubted advantage of baby food jars is the same shape and size. From them you can make a set of original decorations for the house.

Candles.

Jars are very easy to turn into decorative candles. Place a thick thread in the lid and fill it with melted wax. Inside, you can put sparkles, shells or drip a pattern of colored paraffin. The jar itself will find application as a candlestick. Paste it with a pattern, and the light from the flame will sparkle with mystery.

Christmas toys.

The round baby food lid is the perfect base for a Christmas toy. Make a hole in it for the thread and color it.

Snow souvenir.

Once the sticker has been removed, fill the jar with various small items: plastic snowflakes, pebbles, shells. To keep them from moving, you should use superglue. And you can leave the filler movable - as you wish. At the second stage, sequins, glitter or chopped rain are poured into the jar, and it is filled to the top with water. It remains to decorate the lid, and possibly the jar itself. A fabulous winter souvenir is ready! And in a similar way, you can make an aquarium for a toy fish.

Decoration stands for the holidays.

Cans make stable original coasters that will decorate any festive table. You need to make holes in the lids, fill them with sparkles and put the chosen decor: numbers on sticks, initials, funny pompoms, flowers.

Interesting dishes in jars

Why not use baby food jars for their intended purpose? Try rolling food into them.

Jam.

Small baby food jars are a great idea for those who eat a little bit of jam. For many in large jars, it hangs for a long time in the refrigerator and sours.

A definite plus - you do not need to roll up such containers with a machine. When tightly screwed on the lid, they are airtight. The only thing is that the jars need to be sterilized and pour hot jam.

Not all baby food jars are suitable for seaming, but only those with tight-fitting lids. More than others in the reviews, jars of the Grandmother's basket trademark are praised. But "Agusha", "FrutoNyanya", "Gerber" can sometimes let air through.

Preparations for the winter for children.

Having plenty of empty baby food cans is a great excuse to start making your own puree. Home-made preparations are no worse than purchased ones. Choosing vegetables and fruits for purees on their own, mothers do not have to worry about their quality.