How to Repurpose Candle Jars/Wax 15+ Creative Ways!

Once the wick calls it quits, you’re left to wonder how to repurpose candle jars and that bit of wax that’s left at the bottom. Sometimes, there’s quite a bit of it, and it feels like an unfortunate waste! Well, you’ve come to the right place to learn how to repurpose candle jars and leftover candle wax because here at Repurpose Junkie, that’s kind of our schtick.

Candles make for an amazing ambiance. What feels better than being cozied up with your favorite blanket, with a good book, companion, or movie, and a candle burning away its sweet, sweet fragrance nearby? Candles are one of the most hygge material things we can have in our everyday lives, and what’s equally as hygge is taking the intentional time to learn how to repurpose candle jar once it has completed its original use.

Together, we’ll check out the different repurposing avenues you can take to learn how to repurpose candle jars and what to do with that leftover wax! It’s easy, simple, fun, and best of all, we’re repurposing!

How to Repurpose Candle Jars

There are a few little steps to take before getting into how to repurpose candle jars, and we’ll cover that below!

Candles make for a perfect “safe” gift while also being able to customize it to the gift receiver. Everyone has different scent preferences; you can’t get Cousin John the same candle as Great Aunt Yolanda! So there are customizations as far as scents go and getting the right scent for the right person, but that’s kind of where the candle gift ends. Of course, it’s awesome to receive a candle, but wouldn’t it be nice if there was a little something extra and personal with it?

You can make your candle gift even more special by adding a homemade craft with it, like a candle mat! Take a look at our DIY Candle Mat, and you’ll be set on thoughtful last-minute birthday gifts for years to come. And say, when they’re at the end of their wick, you can shoot them this article on how to repurpose candle jars and let the candle fun burn on!

Steps on How To Clean Old Candle Jars

Typically, I go with the old butterknife wax removal trick (with careful caution), but we’re going to take a tip from Chatelaine’s book and try our crafty hand at the freezer wax removal method. To check out other wax removal ideas, go to our last section in this How to repurpose candle jars article!

Step One: Put the Candle Jar in the Freezer for a Few Hours

The first step is very easy, put your candle (lid off) in the freezer for a few hours or until wax is frozen. For this how to repurpose candle jars DIY, I’ve put my candle in the freezer for about 2 hours, and it was pretty good to go.

Pro Tip: To make your life a little easier, before putting your candle in the freezer, use a butter knife and break the wax up. Otherwise, you’ll end up like me, chipping away at frozen candle wax because someone forgot to score the wax before popping it in.

Step Two: Remove From Freezer and Pop Out Wax

You’ll need your trusty butterknife for this step, and it may be a good idea to lay down a paper towel or newspaper underneath your candle workspace.

Removing your candle jar from the freezer, take your butterknife and begin chipping out the frozen wax. This will be pretty fast and easy if you’ve broken the wax pieces up before putting it in the freezer. But if you forgot, like me, you can still get this accomplished with a little elbow grease.

If you’re reusing the candle wax, be sure to chip out the candle wicks!

Do you have a wax melter, or do you want to get one? Repurpose your candle jar wax by collecting it in a ziplock bag and using it in your wax melter later. Just like I’ve done in the photo below! If you don’t have your own wax melter, here’s a link to an inexpensive wax melter on Amazon.

Step Three: Clean Out Candle Jar with Hot Water & Soap

The last step before finding out how to repurpose candle jars for your own use is to give it a good wash with hot water and soap.

This ensures that the candles is wax-free and safe to use, or ready to be recycled. You can also run the candle jar under hot/warm water to remove the candle’s labels.

If you have stubborn wicks or just want to be extra studious with your cleaning, fill your candle jar with soap and hot water and allow it to soak for a bit. The wicks should let up, and you can get to cleaning your candle jars out with vigor!

Ideas on How to Repurpose Candle Jars

After the candle wax is removed, we can get down to the fun business of experimenting with ideas on how to repurpose candle jars! We’ve got a few ideas circling around our crafty minds, and we’ve also recruited some awesome ideas from other repurposing minds around the world.

Let’s learn how to repurpose candle jars in fun, unique ways!

• Planter: This is one of my favorite ways how to repurpose candle jars, especially if it’s a beautifully colored jar, make it into a planter! Bonus points for all the fellow plant parents out there who can safely drill a drain hole at the bottom of your planter so your plant can properly drain its water/be bottom watered!
  • Psst, we’ve also made planters out of to-go coffee cups; check it out!
• Flower Vase: We love this way of how to repurpose candle jars by converting them into beautiful little flower vases. So clever, classy, and repurposing.
• Upscale Decision Container: Wondering what in the crafty world a Decision Container is and how it can be used for how to repurpose candle jars? Take a look at our awesome invention to cure your indecisiveness/boredom!
• Food Storage/Meal Prep: Store your nuts, ingredients, or meal prep right inside of your cleaned-out, freshly renewed candle jar. That’s repurpose junking to the extreme!
• Scrap Holder: Whether it’s paper scraps for scratch paper or yarn scraps from your Punch Needle/Knitting projects, a candle jar can work marvelously for holding scraps.
• Toothbrush/Toothpaste Holder: There are a lot of holders on this list, but what can we say? Old candle jars make pretty good holders! Using a decorative candle jar as a toothbrush/toothpaste holder can be an excellent way to elevate your space.
• Looseleaf Tea Storage: Where are all the tea lovers? Repurpose your old candle jars as looseleaf tea or teabag storage and be the talk of your tea circles!
• Candle Supplies Storage: Ironically, you could learn how to repurpose candle jars for the purpose of holding your future candle supplies. Such as matches, lighters, and wick trimmers; you get the picture.
• Pen/Pencil Holder: A lovely desk decoration as well as it is purposeful for holding your writing utensils. What a score!
• Gift Packaging: What an amazing idea to learn how to repurpose candle jars into gift packaging; we love it!
• Party Silverware Holder: In the same vein as a pen/pencil holder, you can also use a decorative candle jar as a utensil holder for your awesome get-together. It’s especially fun if you had a festive candle jar, and now you can reuse it for that holiday.
• Homemade Balm/Scrab/Candle: Learn how to repurpose candle jars into your very own candle or lip balm/scrub that you can either gift or keep for yourself!
• Dish Sponge Holder: This is a spectacular idea of how to repurpose candle jars, and it’s great for the smaller candle jars that can easily fit near your sink. Plus, they’re easy to clean!
• Travel Tin: Now, this is a fantastic hack for all the travel adventurers out there. Repurpose an old candle jar by making it your mini toiletries holder!
• Hair Accessories Storage: Have a billion hair ties or bobby pins? Keep ’em organized and easy to access by using a how to repurpose candle jars as a hair accessories storage!
• Create Your Own Terrarium: This has to be one of the most unique ways how to repurpose candle jars: building your own terrarium from one! This could also work for miniatures/miniature scenes.
• Cookies/Brownies/Hot Chocolate In a Jar Gift: Have you seen those gift packages in the store where it’s a pretty jar with layers of premeasured ingredients for a dessert recipe that’s attached? You can make your very own and gift it using an old, cleaned-out candle jar.
• Spare Change Storage: Got some loose pennies and nickles you want to get out of your wallet? Designate an old candle jar as your spare change storage!
• Bookmark Holder: As book lovers, we love to collect two things: books and bookmarks. Give your bookmarks a fun place to chill out by using an old candle jar. You can even decorate it with fun bookish stickers!

We just love a good DIY here at Repurpose Junkie, and we’ve got loads of out-of-the-box DIYs and repurposing projects you’ll LOVE! Be sure to check them out after you learn how to repurpose candle jars!

What Can I Do With Leftover Wax in Candle Jars?

We know how to repurpose candle jars, but what can I do with leftover wax in candle jars? That’s a valid question; we love the way you think. Let’s Repurposing Junkie this!

My favorite thing to do with leftover candle wax is to repurpose it as a melt for my wax warmer! This is a fairly common way to repurpose the wax from your old candles, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a super duper crafty hack. Plus, if you have a few different leftover waxes saved up, you could experiment and add scents together. Almost like a Dr. Candlestien! I’ve had some pretty great success with candle melt experimenting in the past, and it’s pretty neat to see if it works out.

Should You Recycle Glass Candle Jars?

Short Answer: Yes!

Important Answer: You need to make sure all of the wax and wicks are properly removed before recycling, and check to make sure it is recyclable.

A product can totally be recyclable and end up in that bin, but if it has waste on it, that sucker is getting thrown into the landfill, and all of that intention is tossed into the mighty infamous fumes of the dump. We don’t want that when we’re trying to repurpose candle jars and or recycle them properly!

It’s absolutely necessary to make sure that all of the leftover candle wax and its wicks are cleaned out of your candle jar before recycling it. If this step is skipped, the candle jar won’t go through the recycling process. So, let’s make your efforts count and learn how should you recycle glass candle jars!

We took a few notes from the smart cookies over at Chatelaine on how you can easily remove wax from candle jars. Here are a few of our favorite suggestions:

• Freezer: Take a butter knife and make a few scoring marks before placing your candle(s) in the freezer. Allow for a few hours of freezing time, and then, once the wax is frozen, it’s much easier to pop that extra candle wax out.
• Stovetop: Get a pot of water (not a full pot) and let it come to just the edge of a simmer. Place a bowl on top of the pot, and then place your candle inside the bowl. Eventually, the wax inside the candle jar will melt! It’s important to make sure that the jar isn’t too hot to touch before you remove it from the bowl, and it’s also important that you don’t pour melted wax down the drain.
• Butterknife: This tip comes from yours truly. If you have a thin layer of wax at the bottom of your candle, you can usually get it out with a little help from a butterknife. Simply use the butterknife to cut the wax disc at the bottom into four sections, and then break up those sections into smaller pieces, and eventually the wax pieces will start to pop off. After that, hot water and soap to get the access out! (Be cautious and careful when doing this method)

Of course, after your candle wax is removed, you can start utilizing the great ideas you learned on how to repurpose candle jars and let your creativity flow!

From us, Repurposing Junkies, to you, we hope that you’ve enjoyed learning how to repurpose candle jars and leftover candle wax and that you’ll be able to utilize this awesome info for your many, many candles in the future! Be sure to check out the other repurposing projects we have rocking and rolling and how you can incorporate these fun projects into your life, just like how to repurpose candle jars. Until next time, mighty crafters!