apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

about the stainless/acrylic ones from crate and barrel......after a few months, the stainless part came unglued, and since it's only a "sleeve" over an acrylic canister, the whole thing dropped out of my hand and spilled sweet sweet sugar just about everywhere :)

NOT BUYING new canisters is my favorite green solution, since there are many lovely glass and metal containers already floating around out there. Reuse, recycle, right?
I'm partial to old glass canning jars, the kind with glass tops.

I'm a huge fan of the Burken jars from Ikea. I love their simplicity and how easy they are to clean (and see what's inside), though I wish they stacked.

I also have a few of the stainless/acrylic ones from C&B. I haven't had the same problem as kdkaboom, thought that might be because the canisters are small so I don't use them as much.

Woah....I was just going to post about how much I love the stainless/acrylic ones from C&B and then I read kd's comment. I hope that doesn't happen to ours!! We don't pick them up and move them very often, so hopefully not. So far so good, and I really love the way they look. You can see what's in them via the little acrylic window, but the stainless goes with everything and sits nice and quiet in the background :) We have three - one for flour, one for sugar, and one holds our tea bags. I often think I'd like to get rid of packaging and use canisters instead, but I'm bad at thinking outside the box and figuring out what to use them for other than the traditional flour, sugar, etc.

hey, even though the thing 'broke', i still use it!

the stainless sleeve would just need a bit of glue, but i'm lazy. i just turned the canister into my salt cellar, which gets less use than as my sugar shack ;)

I'm all for containers and such as well and there are ones from IKEA that do stack and many others do too, such as from Rubbermaid, although many of theirs are more ulitarian in style.

For stylish canisters for pasta and the like, Click Clack containers or similar versions from other makers in acrylic and often with colorful tops that simply secure with lip or suction and many of them are stackable as well, especially the square versions.

Just two idea there. I like the idea of reuseable containers and especially if they stack as they are way more efficient in using available space than a jumble of types and sizes and shapes do.

My favorites are actually the jars that Trader Joe's sliced peaches and papaya spears come in! They're a good size, the label comes off easily and they look pretty classy with the black lid with no writing on it. The peaches are tasty, too(and I always know how many I've eaten total - currently, 14!).

We don't use glass containers much anymore with an active toddler, but were unhappy with other options because most of the non-breakable containers are not considered safe plastics. By a process of elimination (no unmarked or #7 plastics ruled out almost everything) we eventually settled on Tellfresh containers (polypro #5), which are rectangular, stack nicely, have interchangeable lids for several sizes, and come with useful clip-on tags. We now use them for almost everything and buy almost everything in bulk: sugar, flour, pasta, dried fruit, beans, crackers, baking soda, etc.

We also replaced our ceramic bowls with stainless after one memorable incident, farming out the remaining ceramic ones to childless people. Having a kid came with some unexpected expenses.

I really love the old ones I occasionally find at thrift stores... thin clear glass and cork tops. Finding them is a bit of a challenge so I have started buying them on ebay (not-green, I know).

I agree that getting them from thrift stores, freecycle and such is a greener option. But you said you wanted good-looking ones, so here are some that I think look nice: Iittala at Tivoli Home.

The bodum Yokhi jars are the best. Glass jar with either plastic, cork or stainless steel lids.
I've been using them for a year now.

http://www.bodumusa.com/shop/group_lines.asp?MD=3&GID=12&CHK=&SLT=&mscssid=7PCWJM40H20R9L27AV1Q5V50EA500439

I like the bodum jars for tea - quick access (hand condition).

I was in macys this weekend and Martha Stewart has a nice air tight canisters as well.

Very nice but the celeste/baby blue color was not my thing.

I think recycling containers is a better idea, but not airtight. Everything I put into reclaimed containers ends up stale.
Anyone know how to create a silicone seal for an old jar?

hey sandyliz....what about some of the ball canning jar lids with the rings and things. There's some rubber on those lids and you can fit those on a lot of different jars...maybe just keeping a few around for things that require air tight.

the bodum jars with the primary color tops are the shit. they are also really cheap if you go to bodum during one their periodic turbo-sales.

Ball jars -- those plan jars for canning, made of glass with metal screw-on tops -- are better than anything else I've found. They're completely airtight, they come in a zillion sizes, and they're supercheap (like, a buck or so per jar, depending on the size). Fish's Eddy sells them.

Hey Guys - what are the best canisters for storing spices? Would you recommend any of the above? I hate having so many different sizes and shapes for the spices at the grocery store and wanted to make everything uniform, but wanted something which had a glass slit or something so I could see what was in it.

Thanks!