How To Clean Candle Jars

You know when you get a really pretty candle jar with a super awesome smelling candle inside that is just done. It can't be used anymore, the wick is burnt out and there is nothing left but the drags of candle wax. Oh, what a sad day that used to be for me. Have you ever wished you didn't have to throw out that pretty candle jar afterward? Or, maybe you were like me and you just hoped you'd figure out a way to get out the drags of wax left at the bottom of the jar and put it on a shelf to be forgotten for months and months until you eventually found it again and just gave up and threw it away. Thankfully, this may have only happened to me once or twice as my mom showed me how to clean out candle jars many years ago. Thank God for moms, right? But, recently, while doing my random look-see on Pinterest, I came across an article on how to clean out candle jars in a way I had not tried. I wondered if it was quicker or easier than my mom's way (which, by the way, was either to put boiling hot water in and let it set for a while and then use a butter knife to remove the now-pliable candle or put an ice cube in and wait for the candle wax to break a little more easily.)

The method I found on Pinterest was actually a combination of my mom's methods. You can check it out here.

Photo from Pinterest

To be honest, I didn't clean my jar out first. I didn't read that step. Skip step one? How could that happen? My pregnancy brain must've taken over...

My jars actually had far more candle left in them than I think most people's would, but I knew I wouldn't use them, so I wanted to just get rid of the wax.

Anyway, I boiled some water and filled my candle jars up.

After sitting for a few minutes, some of the wax began to rise, but really only in the pink candle.

Doesn't that look cool?? Then I added a few ice cubes. The link above didn't explain how long to let anything set before putting in the ice cubes, so I just waited about 5-10 minutes. I was afraid if I put the ice in too soon, the whole jar would crack due to the heat and cool at the same time. The 5-10 minute wait seemed to do the trick.

After the ice was put in, more of the candle wax floated to the top. In fact, so much of it did that it created a semi-seal of candle wax on the top of the jar and I had to re-break the wax in order to drain the water so I could remove the wax. It was kinda neat.

After it was drained, I used a butter knife and the wax that had been floating came out very easily. And it worked very well!

The white candle is the perfect example, though, for those who would want to do this with a jar that had very little wax left in it. As you can see, the wax floated to the top rather easily and it took no effort to remove it from the jar.

Looky there! Three nice, clean, new-looking candle jars! Ready for some kind of artsy-ness to be applied to them. So, what's the benefit of using this method rather than my mom's method? I believe it's a bit quicker. Mixing the two methods my mom gave me seemed to do the trick and get the jars cleaned out much faster than one method over the other. I like this tip. I'm gonna use it again.

EDITOR'S NOTE: So...I just learned a trick I liked way better than this Pinterest test method. A friend of mine mentioned sticking your candle jars in the freezer and the wax will just pop right out. So, I gave it a try. It was amazing!! I put my candle jar in the freezer right before going to bed for the night and when I took it out in the morning, there was no fuss/no muss. It was incredible! I'd say go this route if you aren't in a big hurry to get the wax out. It may work more quickly than it did for me - I'm really not sure how long it needed to be in the freezer. But, still...incredible!!

Voila!