I love candles and any excuse to light a few. I love to light candles on rainy evenings and snowy weekends. Just a forecast for snow gets me excited to light candles. love candles over three day weekends in the winter. But, all these candles means I had to find a way how to upcycle candle jars.
But first! Where do you love to buy candles? My favorite places to shop for candles are Bath & Body Works and the Capri candles at Anthropologie are a favorite.
And, I can’t walk into a HomeGoods without taking a peek down the candle section. All of these candles have one thing in common: great packaging! The jars are glass and metal which makes them perfect for an upcycle.
For me, candles are the closest thing to a wood-burning fireplace in a state that has largely banned wood-burning fireplaces in residential homes. I wonder if candle sales are higher in Colorado than states that allow wood-burning fireplaces?
Candles give many of us a feeling of warmth, home, comfort and peace.
So with almost empty glass jars piling up after the holidays, I figured out how to upcycle candle jars.
And, I discovered the key to cleaning out the wax was to freeze the jars, followed by hot water. That’s it! For an entire month, my freezer had a 1/2 dozen candle jars.
And, when I had a few minutes I boiled water and watched the frozen wax pop out or break down into smaller pieces. The wax residue just needed soapy water and a little elbow grease.
The results were awesome and all of sudden these beautiful candle jars can be re-purposed for new uses. Stay tuned!
I have saved a few candle jars. Those are all my favorite candle places too.
I’ve always upcycled my candle jars! They hold my cotton swabs, cotton balls, bandaids, everything!!!! Thanks for a pretty post!!! As always, you take great pictures! Blessings!
Thank you Barbara for the sweet comment! laura
Hi Laura, so pleased to come across your blog for the first time today and find another Denver-area home blogger :)! Hope you are staying warm this week – it’s so pretty and sunny out today but the temps are still too low for my liking!
I hadn’t heard of this freezing and THEN adding hot water method – this sure seems a lot less messy than the method I’ve been using! I’ll have to try it your way next time. I’ve been heating up my candles on the stove (a few at a time set inside a pot) to get the wax in liquid form and them pouring them into moulds so I can use them in a wax warmer, which gets me some extra mileage from my favorite scented candles – but it sure is MESSY!
I agree with you that the candles at Home Goods, TJ Maxx, etc. have the prettiest packaging! There’s also the Patriot Candles I’ve been buying for years at Denver-area Walgreens (not sure if they have them in other areas or states) in pretty amber (Whiskey & Tobacco) and bottle green (Absinthe & Black Fig) glass apothecary-style jars – those two are my FAVORITE scents for fall and winter! If you go looking for them just make sure I haven’t been to your local store first because I’ll have bought them all up :)!
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