When you burn a jar candle down to nothing, don’t toss it! Because you can upcycle a used jar candle into two useful items in just a few minutes.
I burn candles all the time. In fact, I love the warm glow and the delicate fragrant scent. As most of you know, I’m a thrifty DIY’er. But candles are a luxury that I don’t mind spending my hard-earned cash on.
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I hate throwing away those nice, sturdy jars that they come in. So I looked online and found all kinds of tutorials on removing the wax with boiling water. But that somehow looked labor-intensive. Boiling water, rinsing, and repeating until the wax melts away seemed a little bit dangerous, even!
Then I remembered that my mother used to freeze her burnt down votive candles to remove them from their holders and decided to try her freezer method. It worked! Once I got wax free from the jar, I realized that the wax was still quite fragrant and could be placed in my wax melter to use it a little bit longer.
Here’s how I got the wax out of the jar.
FREEZE THE CANDLE
Firstly, I placed the jar candle in the freezer overnight. No cheating. It must be solidly frozen.
GENTLY BREAK THE WAX
Use a butter knife to gently break the wax. Score the wax then use the dull butter knife blade to press down. The wax will break. Repeat this a couple of times and the wax will pop right out of the jar.
REMOVE THE WICK FROM THE WAX
Remove the wick from the wax. Then trash the wick. Place the wax into a zip top bag to use in your wax melter the next time you need fresh wax. That’s useful item number one!
REMOVE THE LABEL
Pull the label off the candle jar. There may also be one on the bottom of the jar. I removed both so the jar had a nice clean look.
WASH THE JAR
Use hot water and dish liquid to clean the jar inside and out. This will remove the residue from the label and any leftover bits of wax inside the jar. Dry it off to prevent spots.
FILL THE JAR
I decided to use the jar to hold my makeup sponges and keep them clean. It’s a nice, heavy jar that I won’t easily knock off of the bathroom vanity. This vanity jar is useful item number two.
I was very glad that I decided to skip the boiling hot water. Because it really looked very messy. Once the candle was frozen solid, the rest of this upcycle literally took less than 5 minutes to complete. As a result, my jar candle was upcycled into wax for my wax warmer and a vanity jar for my bathroom.
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and a sweet toy fox terrier. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
This blog celebrates all things home.
