If you are someone who is trying to be more environmentally friendly and looking for more ways to re-purpose household items, you are in the right spot! I am in the transitioning stages of joining the zero waste movement and buying fewer items that are not reusable or recyclable. An item like a candle jar is typically only meant to be a single-use item that we buy time and time again.
We often throw away glass containers as we have been conditioned to do so by our societal expectations. I don’t know about you, but I personally feel guilty when throwing away non-compostable items or items that take a long time to degrade. While I try to limit my contribution to waste, I also don’t want to become a hoarder or have a cluttered home. For these reasons, I often try to find ways to reuse or re-purpose items that no longer serve their primary function. Now, let’s talk about how you can re-purpose your candle jar!
Don’t Throw It Out!
When your sweet smelling bath and body works candle has reached the end of its wick, its time to find it a new purpose. Usually, when my candles have reached the end of their wicks, there is still quite a bit of wax left over at the bottom, which still smells wonderful. So the first step in my recycling project is to clean the jar and collect the remaining wax.
How to Clean The Jar
I begin the process by either heating some water in a pot and placing the candle jar in the water to warm up the wax, or I run the candle under some hot water until the wax has loosened. Once the wax has warmed I remove it as place it in a container for later use. I prefer to use the leftover wax in a nice wax warmer until the nice smelling smell is no more.
Now you are left with a glass jar, usually with a pesky label or sticker on the outside. When the jar has been heated, the adhesive of the sticker warms up as well, and you can often just peel it off during this stage. For me, every time I peel off the original label, there is always some sticky residue left behind. I’m not sure how I figured this out, but if you rub some coconut oil or olive oil on the sticky leftover residue and let it sit for a minute or two you can wipe it clean with a rag. No muss no fuss.
Reuse Ideas
After the jar has been cleaned and dried, you are free to re-purpose it as your heart desires. I like to re-purpose my candle jars for containers. One of the first things I did was create a container to hold my makeup brushes, as seen in the featured image. I simply filled the jar with some nice green split peas (but, really you can use any grain) and stuck my makeup brushes in the jar. I also like to use old candle jars for terrariums, and charging stations for my crystals! Sometimes I find sentimental uses for them to hold mementos from trips, like mine and Jessy’s trip to South Padre Island in 2019, filling it with sand and shells we collected on the beach. If you have different ways of re-purposing your jars comment and share down below!
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