I've never been much of a flower-arranging expert (though I wish I were). But last week I got inspired to whip up one of those minimalist arrangements where you put a bunch of single stems in a bunch of little jars. So simple, so sweet -- and easy enough for flower-challenged types like me.

Problem was, I didn't have a bunch of cute little jars. As a tiny-apartment dweller, I don't allow myself to hoard cute little jars. No matter how cute they are, if I don't have an immediate reason to reuse them, into the recycling bin they go.



So I felt a little bummed that I couldn't execute my cute-little-jars flower arrangement. That is, until I took a peek in my nightmare of a fridge and realized I had way more jars of ancient, almost-empty capers, horseradish, pesto and who-knows-what-else than any self-respecting lady should have.




So you know what's next. All the ancient foodstuffs went into the trash, the jars went into a hot soapy bath to be relieved of their labels, and a few simple stems of ranunculus and little yellow pom flowers went into the jars.

Instant flower arrangement, clean fridge.

And that, my friends, is what I call a win-win!