How to clean candle jars
Cleaning out and reusing your candle vessels is a pretty fun part of buying candles. I mean, let’s be honest, a big part of your purchase is probably just paying for that damn jar it comes in anyway, so might as well make the most of it!
There are plenty of strategies for cleaning out your wax and jars, but there are really two main ways that we, at Old Groundhog Co. do it. So we figured we’d share and y’all can let us know if it works for you or if you do something smarter than us.
The safe way
If you don’t feel comfortable with pointy objects, then this is our suggestion.
- Boil some water, then put the water in a large bowl so that the water comes about two inches up the side
- Put your candle into the bowl. The warm water will start to melt the wax inside the jar slowly (and safely)
- Once the wax is warm, you can take a paper towel and start to scrape the leftover wax out.
- Once done, use a warm cloth to wipe out the excess wax and get the sticker off the bottom that held the candle wick in place
- Optional: once cleaned, we do suggest putting the jar in the dishwasher or letting it soak with some soap for a few hours to get any extra fragrances and wax eliminated. But of course don’t put a waxy jar in your dishwasher, that’s a mess/issue waiting to happen
The less safe way
Old Groundhog Co. is a fan of sharp, pointy objects. I think they’re called knives. So if you’re comfortable with using knives, then this is the way for you.
- When the candle is cold, take a small knife, like a paring knife, and edge it around the sides of the jar. This will help to loosen up the wax so you can pop it out.
- If the wax doesn’t loosen up as one whole piece, you can start to use the knife to cut towards the wick and wick clip. The wax should start to break up into little pieces or pizza slice shapes so you can just dump the pieces out onto a paper towel.
- Once you get all the wax out, proceed to clean the jar the same way you would in steps 4 & 5 above.
We hope this helps! You can use these techniques to get wax out of any jar, not just Old Groundhog Co. jars. Maybe this will help you reuse some really cool, unique containers!
See our post Make the most of your empty candle containers for ideas on how to reuse your jars in fun ways.
Be sure to go grab some candles, sprays or wax melts from our shop. And give us a follow on Instagram or Facebook. Cheers and be sure to tag us in your pictures.
