Guide

How to store and organize your jars

A canning session often ends the same way: dozens of jars, and nowhere obvious to put them. A good storage system protects your preserves and saves you from buying — or making — what you already have.

Choose the right spot

The ideal spot is dark, dry and cool, with a stable temperature between 10 and 20 °C: a cellar, a pantry, a cupboard in a hallway. A garage works if the temperature stays reasonable in summer and does not freeze in winter. Avoid the kitchen right next to the oven, and rooms with direct sunlight.

Organize your shelves by category

Group your jars by family — jams, vegetables, sauces, soups, cooked dishes — and dedicate a shelf or a section to each. Keep the heaviest jars on the lower shelves, place new batches at the back and make sure every label faces forward: you should be able to take stock at a glance.

Label every jar

Content, month and year of canning, and if you batch-cook, a batch number: that is all a good label needs. Write it on the lid or on the side, whichever you see first on your shelves. Without a date, a forgotten jar is unusable — with one, it is just next on the menu.

Keep an up-to-date inventory

A paper list works — until the day you forget to update it. A dedicated app updates itself as you add or open jars. With Jarrito, each batch carries its classification, size, date and storage location: you know from your phone how many jars of tomato sauce are left in the cellar, without going downstairs.

First in, first out

Always take the oldest jar of a given product first, and shelve new batches behind the previous ones. This simple rotation rule — first in, first out — keeps your whole stock within its best-quality window.

Read also

→ How to sterilize your jars → How long do homemade preserves keep? → Bulging lid, unsealed jar: when to throw a jar away → Homemade tomato sauce in jars → Lacto-fermented vegetables in jars → Seasonal canning calendar → Which jars to choose for home canning

Put your cellar in order with Jarrito

Jarrito is the free app to inventory your jars, track your batches and never lose a preserve again — on the web, iPhone and Android.

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