Don’t Throw Those Old Candles Away; Recycle Them

Stop! Don’t throw away all those holiday candle stubs. And don’t throw them in a cabinet to gather dust and take up space until you move and then have to throw them out anyway.

Here’s how to prepare your candle bits and pieces for long term storage. It’s easy, minimizes storage space and gives you multiple color choices when you want to make some candles of your own.

1. Gather up your wax bits and pieces. Sort them by color.

2. Place one color in each pan for melting. Eight-inch square aluminum pans are ideal.

3. Melt over medium heat. As the wax melts, remove wicks and wick anchors. The wick anchors and any long pieces of wick can be reused as well. Don’t worry about the black soot settling to the bottom. We’ll deal with that later.

4. Remove pan pf melted wax from heat and set aside to cool.

5. When you can see that the contracting wax has pulled away from the edges of the pan, it is cool enough to remove. Turn the pan upside down and pop the wax out.

When you re-melt the wax, all that nasty soot will again settle to the bottom. As you slowly pour a new candle, these dregs will cling to the side of the pan.

6. Now all those bulky candle stubs can be stored by color in one small box.

Later on, I’ll share some of the candles I’ve made from what most people would consider to be trash.

Tags: recycled craft, craft organization, recycling candles, recycling wax, holiday candles, craft storage idea, craft ideas, zero-cost candles