How To Store Metal Canning Rings

Discover the best ways to organize and long-term store your canning rings and lids, to keep them in good condition and ready for use.

If you’ve embarked on the journey of home food preservation and canning, you know that you quickly acquire a significant amount of canning rings.

Every time you buy a new package of Mason jars, there are also canning rings and canning lids. However, when you go to reuse those glass canning jars the following year, you likely bought a new package of canning lids and rings.

Before you know it, your supply of metal screw lids is bursting out of control and you need a good way to store them!

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Over the years of my own personal journey of home canning in both a water bath canner and pressure canner, I’ve needed to figure out creative storage solution ideas because my supply of stainless steel bands has quickly gotten out of control.

I used to store the screw bands in a small plastic container in one of my kitchen cabinets, but over the years, the number of bands has grown exponentially and I no longer have room to store them in my cabinet.

How To Store Canning Rings

Step 1: Wash the rings with hot, soapy water. Be sure to remove any food or white canning residue.

Step 2: Allow to dry completely

Step 3: Store in a 3-drawer roller organization cabinet, Ziplock plastic bags, in Tupperware container with a lid or right inside your water bath canner pot.

I’m lucky enough to have a large walk-in closet under our staircase where I store a lot of my extra kitchen appliances, canning supplies and not as often used kitchenware.

I purchased a three-drawer rolling storage unit from Walmart and used my Silhouette Cameo to label each drawer.

I have an entire drawer dedicated to metal canning rings and lids!

I store my brand new, unused canning lids in a plastic container inside of the drawer with all of the metal canning rings.

Pro Tips:

Always store your canning rings when they are completely dry. If you put them away for longterm storage while they are wet, they have an increased likely chance of rusting. You can see the image below of several of my jar rings that I put away slightly damp.

How To Store Unused Lids

Every now and then you end up with extra canning jars and their lids and bands that you don’t plan on using for the current season. The best way to store these is in the original box that they came in or in a plastic, airtight bag, kept out of direct sunlight and in a dry location.

Don’t Store Canned Good with Rings

I do not shelf-store any of my canned goods with canning rings on them. I was told a long time ago from a friend, that leaving the canning rings on the cans can actually provide a false-can effect. Meaning, that the canning ring can actually provide a false seal for the canning bands.

FAQ

My canning lids are rusty, can I still use them?

While I haven’t observed any problems with the preservation of the food or the sealing process when I have used rusty metal bands, I have noticed that when I’ve used them, they leave rusty marks around the rim of the glass canning jar. While this doesn’t cause a problem, I just feel that it doesn’t look as presentable as a jar without rust marks left on it.

If you have an abundance of canning rings and do not intend on using them for canning, turn them into some craft ideas! Spray paint them orange and tie them together like a pumpkin, or use them to top off a glass Ball jar filled with Reece’s Pieces Halloween Cookies In A Jar & Printable!