We have slowly been upgrading our kitchen with glass storage jars and canisters. This is complicated by the fact that two of the women in family, including the one who does most of the cooking, are unable to handle any heavy containers. Little jars don't hold enough for most of the day to day staples and most gallon jars would be too heavy for them to handle when full. Add to that we have older cabinets that are often too short for modern containers. We've been on the search for medium sized, attractive, sealable glass containers and not finding a lot of options within our limited budget.
The attractive part is probably the biggest deal breaker. Even without the glass canisters, we face and front our cabinets regularly so that everything stays looking neat and tidy. One of the biggest things keeping our open cabinets from looking cluttered is having things arranged so they're not random collections of all different sizes and shapes. It matters enough that I have slowly been putting the money into purchasing things in matched sets that will fill at least one full shelf at a time.
We just figured out (after years of everyone throwing out my jars whenever I let my guard down) that the 4 lb jar (little over a quart) shaped like a classic bee hive is exactly the right height for our top row, big enough to take a full bag of things like rice, beans, and pasta. They're also small enough that they won't become too heavy for my sister, even when full. Turned sideways they fit four across and look beautiful. That's actually the whole thing spurring this post. Beautiful jars, large enough to serve as canisters that I didn't buy for that purpose. And
honey doesn't leave any unpleasant food odors in the jar.
Outside of honey, does anyone else know of other items that regularly come in attractive glass jars that are between a gallon and a quart? They don't need to be fancy shapes like the bee hive, in fact these wouldn't qualify for our pantry if they weren't flat enough on two sides turn sideways and store efficiently. I think plain, straight sided cylinders and cubes are great.