Learn how to make your own restaurant decision jar to help decide where to eat when everyone says “I don’t care”.
My husband and I have this bad habit of never knowing what we are going to eat. Anytime we are going to order takeout or go out to dinner, neither of us ever want to decide where to go. After both of us say “I don’t care” five times each, we end up resorting to a coin flip app on our phone. Seriously, it should not take thirty minutes to pick a restaurant!
Since we both honestly don’t care where we eat and we just want to eat something, I made my own spin on a date night jar I saw on Pinterest and created a Restaurant Decision Jar. The concept is simple. There are categories for delivery, in-town, and out-of-town restaurants. We pick a category, pull a stick, and the decision is made.
Supplies You Need
- Large and tall glass jar with lid
- Wide craft sticks that fit inside the jar
- Chalk paint in 3 or 4 colors (I used this kind)
- Painter’s tape
- Paint brushes x3 or 4
- Wooden ball (optional)
- Krazy Glue or hot glue gun (optional)
- Sharpie or felt pen
How To Make A Restaurant Decision Jar
To start, go ahead and remove any stickers or labels that are on your jar. If you’re recycling a pasta sauce jar, you can use this hack to get the label off easily with no residue or scraping. If your jar lid is in two parts (a top and a ring) I highly recommend gluing them together with some Krazy Glue or hot glue to save yourself from having to deal with two pieces every time you open and close the jar. Totally optional but worth it.
On my jar, I wanted to dress up the lid since I knew I’d be storing it on my kitchen counter. I glued a wooden ball from the craft store on top to give me a “knob” to open and close the jar easily.
Again, this step is optional but makes a big difference if you’re storing the jar out in the open. After the glue set, I painted the lid with chalk paint.
The Restaurant Sticks
For the actual sticks inside, I wanted to have a few categories I could easily see and choose from. The whole point of making this jar was to make things easy on ourselves, and pulling a restaurant thirty minutes away when we wanted fast food wouldn’t be helpful at all.
I decided on three categories: delivery, local, and out of town (aka, the bigger city next door). Each of those categories were assigned a color: blue, green, and pink.
My friend from a mastermind group I’m in recently launched this new paint line and she sent me some samples to try out, and I am already in love with them. This Pop Of Color chalk paint is so rich and creamy, and covered in one coat, which is always a plus for me.
To distinguish the categories inside the jar, I wrapped painter’s tape around each stick about 1/3 of the way down. Then I painted above each tape line and stuck them in a foam half-circle to dry.
Once they were all dry, I removed the tape and wrote the name of each restaurant we frequent on a corresponding color stick.
I took an extra step of adding a chalkboard sticker inside the lid with the color codes on it, but this is totally optional. After you use the jar a few times you’ll remember what the colors mean.
How The Restaurant Decision Jar Works
When it’s time for us to pick a place to eat and we don’t have a specific restaurant in mind, we open the jar, swirl it around a few times, then pull a color that corresponds with the category we want.
Whatever the stick says, we go with it. No ifs, ands, or buts. We don’t pull a second one to compare, we don’t look at a few sticks to see options; we just do what the stick says.
I keep it sitting on our kitchen counter for easy access, and it looks super cute so I don’t mind it being out. I’ve had multiple people notice it and ask what it is, and by the time I’m done giving them a role-playing experience, they’re already racing home to make one themselves.
See It In Action
Head over to my Instagram page @lelaburris to watch me create this DIY Restaurant Jar from start to finish on video. And if you’re looking for a good chalk paint, be sure to check out my friend Amy’s new paint line called Pop Of Color. That paint really is awesome, and I’m not just saying that because we’re friends. The Lamb’s Wool color is my #1 fave!
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