We’re heading into the time of year when the flickering of dancing candlelight beckons you to stay indoors and huddle up with your favourite film rather than head out into those cold, dark nights.
Candle jars and votives make great gifts, whether you make your own or source their favourite scent ready-made, but what happens to all those jars once they’ve been reduced to just a wick and a glass?
The obvious way to recycle jars like these is to create your own homemade candles (and if you are looking for glass jars for candle-making, check out our step-by-step guide), but there are also so many ways you can give them a new lease on life. Whether in your home or a gift for someone else’s, here are some ingenious uses for those old candle votives and jars.
Top Tip – Almost all of these ideas involve cleaning the wax residue from the jar first. This can easily be done by either filling the jar with boiling water and letting the melted wax float to the top or placing it in the freezer overnight and scraping the flakes off. If the glass still looks a little smeared, give it a wash in hot, soapy water. You can even add in a few drops of white vinegar to give it an extra shine.
Delicious Desserts
If you’re confident that you have managed to get all of the wax off the jar, one of the tastiest ways to reuse it is to fill it with a dessert of your choice. They lend themselves very well to cold treats like a lemon posset or a chocolate mousse but, as long as they are heat resistant enough, could just as easily be used to serve warm puddings.
If you’ve collected quite a few jars this could be a great idea for your next dinner party. Wow your guests with homemade mini tiramisus or berry trifles in cute little pots. They’ll never know that just a short time ago they housed glittering candles on your mantlepiece.
Trinkets/Jewellery Pot
Many candle jars find a second life as a holder for stationery or beauty products, but give yours the much more important job of looking after all those little trinkets that don’t have a place. This could be by the bed, on the kitchen worktop or by the front door so that you know exactly where to find the items next time you need them. This works especially well for jewellery.
They also double up as storage jars for all those little collections that children like to build. It could be shells from the beach, rocks from the garden or acorns from the dog walk – old candle votives will proudly display them all.
Miniature Plant Pots
Create a green-fingered centrepiece for your table by replacing the wax in your candle jars with soil and a small plant. Succulents or herbs work great for this or you could take a cutting off one of your favourite flowers from the garden and recreate a mini version indoors. A few of these dotted around the home can really add some colour and warmth.
For added effect, try decorating the glass by painting it or including some elements of decoupage.
Other ‘Smellies’
Having spent most of their lives helping to create wonderful smells around the home, an ideal way to reuse a candle glass is to hold other scented products. Bath salts are a great example. Display them neatly next to the tub and sprinkle a few in the water next time you plan to relax amongst the bubbles. Or, if you’re more of a bath bomb than a bath salts person, use the jar to keep your larger bath bombs safe and dry so you can split them into smaller pieces and use them across multiple soak sessions.
Similarly, you could use them to hold potpourri in strategically chosen places for an effortless way of making each room smell fantastic.
Garden Caddy
Set your used candle votives free into the outside world and use them to help keep all of your gardening paraphernalia in one place. Reels of twine, plant labels and markers, open seed packets, hand pruners, pencils and more can all fit in a larger glass and you’ll never find yourself hunting around the shed wondering where you put them again.
Sweet Gifts
Another foodie option is to make cute gifts out of your old jars and gift them to the people you love; an excellent way to spread some cheer during the festive period. There are two ways you can go with this idea. One is to make your own jam or fruit preserve and portion it out, while the other is to fill them with sweets or chocolates that you’ve bought and then decorate the jar with ribbons or bows.
This works best if you have lids that fit your jars but you could always stretch some cloth over the opening and secure it with an elastic band if you don’t.
Of course, there’s no reason why the glass needs to have already lived a life as a candle for any of these suggestions to work. You could just choose to purchase some jars in bulk to create any of the above. If you do, our fantastic home fragrance selection is waiting for you.
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