We just missed Hurricane Florence but so many family and friends weren’t so lucky. As it was heading our way I felt the need to prepare myself just a little more than usual.
My husband thought I was crazy – but let’s be real a minute. It takes just as much space to store an empty jar as it does one full of water. So why not take a few minutes to fill some jars full of water and water bath them for 20 minutes. Then in the event of an emergency that’s one less thing that you have to worry about. When everyone else is running out to buy water…no worries, you’re covered. And if you need the jar before you need the water, open the jar and use the water to fill the canner. After all that consideration, it seemed like a no brainer to me.
I re-used canning lids so there was no expense, just a little bit of time invested. Once I started talking about this several said they’d done the same thing every time they needed to fill a canner they’d add jars of water…
I filled sterile jars with tap “city” water leaving 1/2 in head space. You can use filtered water if you prefer. I boiled lids I had saved from previous canned goods, tightened those down with sterile rings. I then water bathed them for 20 minutes.
Preserving the Good Life 
I do this all the time. If I run low on empty jars when canning I can just use the water for animals or plants.
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Actually a good idea! I already keep #2 plastic water jugs filled with water. Our electric company likes to turn the power off when they think high winds or whatever kind of weather may threaten to take out electric lines. If it happens, we’re running on solar, but our well pump runs on the electric company power, so we would quit getting water at the faucet. If you study the different plastics that make up jugs, only #2s and #4s are safe enough to hold water for long periods and also w/o evaporation. Other plastics will allow evaporation, but may also out-gas into the water they contain. It’s pretty interesting, and even my jugs are supposed to be refreshed with new water every month or two. All that to say, glass is way better!!!!!
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