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Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Easiest Way to Remove Wax from Candles Jars

Have you seen different cute ways to re-use candle jars on Pinterest?  Have you neglected to re-use your jars because cleaning them is such a pain?  Do you feel bad throwing out used candle jars after you have burned all the wax possible?  After a few frustrating attempts, I've found a super easy method to clean used candle containers with almost no scrubbing.
I tried the freezing method first, in which you place the candle jar into the freezer and wait a couple of hours.  Theoretically, the wax is supposed to pop easily out of the jar when you take it out of the freezer.  This was definitely not the case.  I had to stab at the remaining wax for quite a while to remove all of the chucks of the wax.  I was a bit worried I was going to miss and stab my fingers during this process.  After I removed the large chucks, there was still a film of wax at the bottom of the container that took me ages to scrub off with hot water.  Half an hour after I started the stabbing and the scrubbing I was left with an almost clean candle jar.  I was less than pleased.

Then, I tried the opposite method: boiling water.  The results were astoundingly different.  It worked magnificently.  I could simply pick the wax right out of the candle jar in one solid chuck after using boiling water.  An added bonus of this method is that the water heats the wax, which filled the room with the candle's aroma one last time.  Below are specific directions for the whole process to save you some time and scrubbing.

Directions

1) Remove labels and price stickers.  If the stickers don't peel off easily, I have two methods of attack.
The first is the practically free method.  Just wet a paper towel, and lay it in the sticker.  A few minutes later, the moist paper towel will make the sticker softer and it should scrub off easily.

The second method is to utilize the most impressive gunk remover ever, called Goo-Gone.  My husband uses this product at work and passed on the knowledge to me.  I'm amazed by this product.  Goo-Gone will make the sticker gunk that was previously impossible to remove wipe off easily.  Also, usually strong products like this have a peculiar smell, but Goo-Gone actually smells like lemons.  I recognize that it sounds like I've been endorsed by this product by this point.  I haven't been endorsed; I simply love this product.  If you are searching for it in the store, it looks like this.
2) Boil water in a saucepan on the stove, and pour water into candle container until water level is about a centimeter below the lip of the candle.  Enjoy the show as the boiling water melts the wax at the bottom of the container, which then floats to the top of the container.  It basically looks like a lava lamp!  How cool is that?
**Note: Don't touch the candle at this point.  The wax and water are very hot, and you need the wax to settle at the top of the container undisturbed.**

3) Allow wax at the top of the container to cool and harden for a couple hours.  You will be left with a thin layer of hardened wax that you can easily pick up.  It's that easy! No scraping necessary.
4) Remove wicks with knife and wash container with soap and water.
There you have it! A beautiful container that is just like new to use any way you please!  I usually make another candles in these containers, but I have peppered the containers throughout the house for various other uses.

3 comments:

  1. The small clear glass candle containers also make excellent drinking glasses.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This worked really well! Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete